Yixuan "Coda" Shi

Master of Public Affairs · Providence, RI

Econometrics, probability, data analysis and visualisation, public policy, corporate finance, public administration.

International Business / Trade / Commerce (non-degree) · Cambridge, MA

Cross-registration during the Brown MPA.

Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy · Irvine, CA

Dean's List for all eight quarters. Philosophy of mind, ethics, symbolic logic, general psychology, advanced statistical methods.

Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science

Research Assistant, Center for Cultural Psychology · Beijing

• Supports the Center's daily research operations: project management, document organisation, meeting and academic-event coordination, and external communications.
• Contributes to interdisciplinary projects spanning cultural-psychology theory, culturally grounded psychological interventions, depression neuroimaging and multimodal intervention, and applications of artificial intelligence to mental health.
• Assists with literature review, study-design documentation, ethics materials, participant recruitment, and collection of questionnaire, behavioural, neuroimaging, physiological, and wearable-device data.
• Supports MRI scanning, TMS intervention, behavioural assessment, data quality control, and preliminary analysis after required training; contributes figures and manuscript material under team supervision.
• Principal investigator: Prof. Chao-Gan Yan.

Department of Psychology

Independent Research — Lead Analyst · Dallas, TX

• Leads Phase I on the full analytic sample (N = 10,080) and Phase II on a ~1,500 subsample testing Sex × Age invariance: measurement invariance of the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 in a Shanghai tertiary-hospital psychiatric outpatient sample, addressing a gap where Chinese invariance studies typically sit below N = 1,000.
• Built a reproducible R pipeline in tidyverse, psych, lavaan, semTools, and flextable, following Putnick & Bornstein (2016) and Fischer & Karl (2019) reporting standards; Phase II adds ordinal multi-group CFA with the WLSMV estimator and an MNFA extension.
• Completed end-to-end data cleaning, sample accounting, Table 1 demographics, and a missingness audit confirming complete PHQ-9/GAD-7 item data; produced pairwise cross-tabulations with Cramér's V and a three-tier data-quality flagging system supporting primary and sensitivity analyses.
• Manuscript in preparation with Dr. Quanfa He; targeting an APS / APA / SRP poster and a clinical-methodological journal, Fall 2026.

Delta Adult Attachment & Personality Development Lab

Research Assistant · Dallas, TX

• Co-piloted two Sonar studies, coded 500 entries for an ongoing friendship research project, and cleaned 1,500 raw questionnaire entries for a longitudinal volitional personality-change study using SPSS syntax.

Brown University Watson Institute

Policy in Action Project Researcher · Providence, RI

• Conducted comparative inclusionary-zoning research across East Palo Alto, Fairfax County, and further U.S. cases; used HUD and local housing data to produce choropleth and dot-density maps, and contributed to the final difference-in-differences analysis.
• Co-authored a policy brief on zoning and sustainable parking policy with actionable recommendations, and presented findings to Providence City Council officials.

Management Analyst, then Director of Operations & Compliance · Denton, TX

• Held full-cycle HR, compliance, facility, and operating authority for a $6M office and paper-plate conversion plant spanning five departments, 30 employees, and two production lines; directed capacity alignment, Kaizen and 6S initiatives, and ERP/EDI data accuracy.
• Designed and enforced company policies, order-to-fulfilment workflows, safety and supervisor protocols, SOPs, preventive-maintenance and lockout/tagout procedures, and production reporting and crisis-handling systems.
• Acquired and developed one large retail account through tradeshow cold outreach, contributing to a 15% revenue increase during the tenure.
• Supported cross-department teams through a $4M factory setup and audit phase, aligning compliance, equipment, HR, and operational documentation for a smooth launch.
• Led internal investigations into alleged vendor and contractor misconduct, resulting in termination and legal escalation involving two senior employees; implemented cross-check controls reducing an estimated $500K exposure.

Chinese Academy of Sciences

Strategic Analyst Intern, Department of Strategic Planning · Ningbo

• Authored a 17-page comparative report on novel polymer materials and international regulation; its section on Japan's bottom-up plastic regulation was incorporated into the institute's annual report.
• Processed 3,000+ policy and market data entries in Excel, built a market-data pivot table for Ningbo's new-materials sector, and produced Power BI visualisations supporting two market-research presentations.
• Organised a conference with ten CAS researchers and Ningbo industry entrepreneurs, drafted interview protocols, and conducted follow-up interviews that refined a materials-application product project.

Research Intern · Remote

• Used SQL and public datasets to analyse semiconductor IC manufacturing at market and company level, visualised growth trends in Tableau, and authored a weekly five-page industry report.
• Assessed policy and supply-demand drivers behind semiconductor shortages, mapped the global IC raw-material supply chain, and produced two six-page reports and two presentation decks.
• Screened niche-sector startups by financing round, lead investor, and business profile, producing four detailed target briefs.

Project Assistant · Irving, TX

• Supported Dallas-area market entry and factory and office site selection through competitive research in the North American food-grade paper-products industry; the subsidiary later reached $700K in 2023 sales, 8% of group revenue.
• Defined profiles and salary bands for seven roles, built LinkedIn and Indeed talent pools, and recruited a Regional General Manager, avoiding approximately $24,000 in headhunter fees.

Co-Founder & Creative Director · Remote

• Co-founded a remote independent game studio and manages all eight team members across creative and production functions.
• Conceived DEAR SUSPECT, an AI-native deduction game, and leads its creative vision, aesthetic direction, narrative and gameplay design, planning, and design-system development.
• Wrote approximately 100,000 Chinese characters of game script and owns the project's production, publishing, financing, and business-development workstreams.

Vice President & Co-Founder · Irvine, CA

• Co-founded and led a cultural collective of 100 students and artists, developed six student bands and their operating teams, and helped grow it into one of the five largest music-focused student associations on campus within six months, with event attendance exceeding comparable events by 100%.
• Orchestrated two large on-campus concerts and one off-campus bar concert, personally managing sponsorship acquisition, event design, promotion, and venue logistics; raised approximately $6,000 and attracted a combined audience of 5,000+.
• Negotiated long-term sponsorships with six companies, partnered with two student associations on two events, and generated 5,000 social-media views.

Certified Volunteer Crisis Counselor · Remote

Completed 30+ hours of evidence-based crisis-counselling training and certification in February 2026, and logged 50+ hours of text-based crisis support on academic stress, relational distress, depression, and self-harm risk.

Mental Health Hotline Operator · Ningbo

Managed EHR records and front-desk operations for a 12-clinician practice, de-escalated waiting-room conflicts, and received six unsolicited patient commendations; after reflective-listening training, supported crisis-hotline rotations through active listening and de-escalation.

Animal Rescuer · Ningbo

Rescued stray cats, provided weekend feline care and animal first aid, followed up with adopters, and coordinated with charities, independent rescuers, and shelters.