Our Team

Lina Guzman, Ph.D., is a nationally recognized expert on Latino children and families. Her research focuses on strengthening the policies and programs that impact them. As principal investigator of the National Research Center on Hispanic Children and Families (the Hispanic Center), Dr. Guzman oversees a research agenda that cuts across various areas of family well-being, including poverty and economic self-sufficiency, fatherhood and healthy marriage, and early care and education. She also directs communication efforts and builds strategic partnerships within the research, policy, and practice communities to ensure that the Center’s research reaches key and diverse audiences, and oversees an emerging scholars program aimed at training and increasing the number of young scholars who focus on Hispanic families. Relatedly, since joining Child Trends, Dr. Guzman has hired, trained, and mentored more than a dozen researchers whose work is focused on Latino families. Learn more about Dr. Guzman and her research. Contact Dr. Guzman. Twitter: @linapguzman

María A. Ramos-Olazagasti, Ph.D., is the deputy director and co-principal investigator for the Center, where she leads its Building Capacity initiatives. She is deeply committed to fostering the next generation of scholars, playing a pivotal role in developing tools, resources, and opportunities that strengthen the research field and expand the pipeline of emerging researchers. A community and developmental psychologist, Dr. Ramos-Olazagasti’s research centers on the mental health and well-being of Latino youth and families, with a focus on how social contexts and adverse childhood experiences shape Latino children's emotional and behavioral health. Twitter: @MariaRamosOla

Natasha Cabrera, Ph.D., is a co-principal investigator of the Center. Dr. Cabrera’s extensively published research focuses on the role of fathers and mothers in low-income families and the links between parenting behaviors and children’s social and cognitive development. She also has conducted research on fathers including the theoretical aspects of fatherhood research, methodology, the nature and frequency of father involvement, and the relationship between fathers’ activities and children’s outcomes. Dr. Cabrera’s research with the Center includes studies of the early environments of children as they relate to children's development and the types of early mothering and fathering behaviors in low-income families that promote children's wellbeing. Dr. Cabrera is a Professor of Human Development at the University of Maryland, College Park. Learn more about Dr. Cabrera and her research. Contact Dr. Cabrera. Twitter: @natashajcabrera.

Danielle A. Crosby, Ph.D., is a co-principal investigator of the Center and co-leads the Early Care and Education area. Dr. Crosby’s research seeks to identify the social, economic, and policy factors that promote optimal development for children in low-income, ethnic minority, and immigrant families. She has investigated how welfare, income, employment policies, parents’ work conditions, and ECE supply characteristics shape children’s access to high-quality early care and education experiences. Her research with the Center focuses on the policy, community, and household factors that shape ECE access and utilization for low-income Hispanic families. Dr. Crosby is an Associate Professor in Human Development and Family Studies at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Learn more about Dr. Crosby and her research. Contact Dr. Crosby.

Lisa A. Gennetian, Ph.D. is a co-investigator of the Center and leads the Poverty Reduction and Self-Sufficiency area. Dr. Gennetian is an applied economist whose research straddles a variety of areas concerning child poverty from income security and stability to early care and education with a particular lens toward identifying the causal impacts of child poverty on children’s development. Dr. Gennetian is the Pritzker Professor of Early Learning Policy Studies at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. Learn more about Dr. Gennetian and her research. Contact Dr. Gennetian. Twitter: @Gen_Pov or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-gennetian-b8b583322/

Julia Mendez, Ph.D., is a co-principal investigator of the Center and co-leads the Early Care and Education area. As a community psychologist and a licensed clinical psychologist, she has expertise in understanding the mental health and well-being of young children as well as on parent engagement in preschool and elementary school settings. Her research with the Center focuses on early care and education opportunities for Hispanics in the U.S., including how ECE programs and child care policies support child development and learning opportunities in the family, school and community settings. Dr. Mendez is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Contact Dr. Mendez.