I’m a Political Science Ph.D. and Statistics M.S. student at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). I hold a B.A. in Economics and a B.A. in Political Science from Universidad de los Andes in Colombia.
My research centers on peace studies, armed conflict, political violence, and research ethics, alongside interests in early childhood education, migration, state capacity, and the inequalities faced by rural women. My dissertation asks why exposure to violence leaves contradictory political legacies: why survivors of the same conflict can emerge more supportive of peace, more punitive, or seemingly unchanged. Drawing on developmental psychology, I examine how the developmental stage at exposure and the nature of that exposure shape adults’ attitudes toward peace and the reintegration of ex-combatants, and I design interventions to foster empathy and peace-building among children and adolescents affected by conflict. Throughout, I’m especially interested in how we can study sensitive and high-risk topics rigorously while protecting the safety and dignity of participants and field staff.
Much of my work is grounded in years of field experience designing and leading both quantitative and qualitative data collection across Colombia and Latin America, from large-scale survey experiments on political violence to program evaluations in education and migration. I currently contribute as a co-author on the Asking About Violence project, a multi-country study on the ethics and methodology of measuring exposure to violence.
Before starting my PhD, I spent several years at Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) in Colombia, where I planned and supervised in-person and remote data collection, designed WhatsApp and SurveyCTO instruments for hard-to-reach populations, and managed research projects on migration, early childhood education, and youth development.
Affiliations
- California Center for Population Research - Student Affiliate