I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Associate Director of the Center for Mexican American Studies at the University of Houston. I earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from Columbia University where I previously earned a Master’s degree in public Administration and Public Policy from the School of International and Public Affairs. I have also served as a senior consultant to UNICEF, UN/DESA and the United Nations Global Migration Group. I specialize on immigration, political behavior, development, survey research, and quantitative methods. My work has been published by Cambridge University Press, Columbia University Press, and Princeton University Press as well as in scholarly and policy journals such as American Politics Review, Policy Studies Journal, Social Science Quarterly, Migration and Development and Foreign Affairs Latinoamérica (formerly Foreign Affairs en Español).