I received my Ph.D. in Social Welfare Policy from Columbia University, a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard University and a B.A in Economics and Sociology from Northwestern University. I was a postdoctoral fellow at the Columbia Population Research Center and at Cornell University’s Department of Policy Analysis and Management. Before getting my MPP I worked as a political pollster in California. I also worked as a policy analyst evaluating various social policy programs at a research think tank before getting my Ph.D. Although I study U.S. social policy, my perspective is informed by my background. I am half-Spanish and I have had the privilege of living in many different countries - England, Switzerland, Germany, Belgium and Italy.

My research has been funded by the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, American Education Research Association, the Institute for Research on Poverty, the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation, Poverty Solutions, and the Russell Sage Foundation. My work has been published in an interdisciplinary set of journals such as Demography, Developmental Psychology, Journal of Labor Economics, the Journal of Marriage and Family, and the American Journal of Public Health.

My full CV is available here.