Christine Ong is a Research Scientist at UCLA CRESST. She currently directs the Social Media and the Spread of Hate or SMASH study. Funded by UCLA’s Initiative to Study Hate, SMASH involves researchers and community partners. The project explores how young people use social media and their encounters with hateful content. She also leads CRESST evaluation efforts for the Researching Equity and Access in Learning CS (REAL CS) project, funded by the National Science Foundation. Prior to her work at CRESST, Dr. Ong worked as a research analyst at First 5 LA and participated in the planning and dissemination of several large-scale evaluation studies, including the Los Angeles Universal Preschool Child Outcome Study (UPCOS) and the LA County Healthy Kids Insurance evaluation. She began her career as an early childhood teacher and museum educator.