Emilia Sotolongo is a senior technical analyst for Child Trends. In this capacity, she manages and organizes participant recruitment and data collection; conducts interviews with families, community stakeholders, and state-level programs; analyzes qualitative data; and contributes to written reports for clients. She also works with projects at Child Trends to provide equity-based technical assistance (TA) to community, state, and federal programs.

Emilia’s professional interests include community-based participatory research, the intersection of social poverty and community wellbeing, family engagement, refugee and immigrant youth adjustment, and the relationship between community and individual resiliency. Emilia has particular expertise in working with immigrant and refugee families in the context of refugee resettlement and K-12 public educational settings. Prior to joining Child Trends, Emilia worked as a senior research aide for Duke University in the Center for Child and Family Policy. During her time at Duke, she worked on several projects focused on English Language Learners, Parenting Across Cultures, and Child Maltreatment.

After finishing her graduate work, Emilia also taught English as a second language (ESL) in the Durham Public School system. There, she served as department chair and co-chair of the School Improvement Team, focusing on using Title 1 funding to increase home, community, and school collaboration with Latine families.

Emilia holds an MAEd from East Carolina University and a BA from Elon University.