Before entering my Ph.D. program at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), I obtained an M.A. in the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences – Ecuador and was involved in several research projects related to the rights of women and Indigenous peoples for organizations such as UNICEF, The Latin American and Caribbean Network of Fair Trade Small Producers and Workers, and the Confederation of the Kichwa Nationality of Ecuador.

I am currently working on a research project that centers on Indigenous and Latinx identification in the United States. This mixed-method project seeks to highlight the socioeconomic disadvantages that Indigenous Latinxs face in comparison to their non-Indigenous counterparts and to account for the recent increase in the population that identifies as both Latino and American Indian in the U.S. Census.  My academic publications have been featured in the SAGE Handbook on the Sociology of Education, the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Journal, and the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) – Ecuador Library.

At UCI, I have been involved in multiple initiatives to support underrepresented students, providing mentorship and engaging in equitable teaching practices. I am a pedagogical fellow in the Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation (DTEI), a center dedicated to creating equitable learning environments, and am one of the student representatives in my department for the Diverse Educational Community and Doctoral Experience (DECADE). 

As someone who grew up in Ecuador and the United States, I seek to create greater understandings between distinct racial ideologies that emerged in both North and South America and that inform how we think about racial categories and boundaries, and, thus, determine the allocation of resources and rights.