Emanuel Perez is a doctoral student in School Psychology working under Dr. Matthew Quirk. He received his B.A. in Psychology and an Applied Developmental Psychology minor from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). After UCLA, Emanuel was a teacher's aide for children with special needs, where he conducted assessments to gauge children's learning. Emanuel's research interests include early intervention practices that support children's socio-emotional and academic readiness. Emanuel is especially interested in the ways school psychologists can draw on the linguistic and cultural backgrounds of families to understand the influences on a child's socio-emotional and academic readiness.