She began this position in 2012, after completing a Chancellor's Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California Berkeley. Dr. Bonam is also a research affiliate of San Francisco State University's Center for Sustainable Cities and Schools. Trained as a social psychologist, her research focuses on stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination; environmental justice; racial disparities in access to high quality physical space; as well as the experiences and perceptions of multiracial people. Courtney is a graduate of Stanford University. During her time there, she published research focusing on multiracial individuals' views of race as a social construct, as well as how this view can afford them resilience in potentially challenging social situations.