Christina Padilla is a research scientist II in Early Childhood at Child Trends and is dedicated to improving the lives and outcomes of young children and families through research that centers equity and family voice. Christina’s research focuses on two-generation approaches to supporting children and their families during early childhood, including Head Start, home visiting, and economic supports. She has extensive experience applying advanced quantitative methodology to her work and employing largescale existing datasets to answer her research questions. She also has experience working in DC state government on early childhood programs and policies, including the Preschool Development Grant Birth through Five, the District’s Quality Rating and Improvement System, and Early Head Start. She has published in several child development, developmental psychology, and pediatric journals, and has co-authored multiple book chapters on child development and public policy. Before coming to Child Trends Christina completed three research fellowships, including a postdoctoral state policy fellowship with the Society for Research in Child Development and predoctoral fellowships with the Doris Duke Fellowship for the Promotion of Child Well-Being and the National Research Center on Hispanic Children and Families. Christina earned her PhD in Developmental Psychology and her Master’s in Public Policy at Georgetown University.