Blair is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at the University of Hong Kong, supported by the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship and the HKU Presidential PhD Scholarship. She was trained at the University of Chicago and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. At UChicago, she co-authored cmedR, an R package for causal mediation analysis, and served as a research assistant on the Governance and Collective Action in Eastern Congo project. Her research applies quantitative methods to questions about gender, family, and inequality.
Master of Public Policy,
University of Chicago
Specializations: Computational Social Science; Gender PolicyBA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE),
University of Michigan, Ann ArborGender and Family; Social Stratification and Inequality; Causal Inference and Quantitative Methods
Blair's current research applies causal mediation analysis to questions about gender, marriage, and the returns to education. She is the coauthor of cmedR, an R package for causal mediation analysis, and is writing a paper introducing the package with Prof. Geoffrey T. Wodtke (University of Chicago).
Hong Kong PhD Fellowship (HKPFS), 2026
HKU Presidential PhD Scholarship, 2026
Harris Honor Student (Class of 2025), University of Chicago
James B. Angell Scholar, University of Michigan
University Honors, University of Michigan
Yao, X., & Wodtke, G. T. cmedR: A Comprehensive R Package for Analyzing Causal Mediation. Manuscript in preparation.
Wodtke, G. T., Zhou, X., Shivji, A., Zhou, J., Wang, W., & Yao, X. (2025). cmedR: An R Package for Analyzing Causal Mediation. https://github.com/causalMedAnalysis/cmedR
Yao, X. (2025). Intergenerational Support and Parental Mental Health: Evaluating the Impact of Grandparental Childcare in Contemporary China. Presented at the 2025 Interdisciplinary MA Conference, University of Chicago.