Dr. Jessica Miguel is a Senior Research Scientist at UNM's Cradle to Career Policy Institute. Her research broadly focuses on Spanish-speaking, Latine children, families, and communities employing critical and sociocultural frameworks to examine how dis/abilities, culture, and language impact access to education and educational spaces with a focus on early childhood settings. 

Jessica received her Ph.D. in Education from the University of California San Diego; her dissertation examined the parental engagement practices and beliefs of Mexican-heritage families raising autistic children. Most recently, she was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Erikson Institute, supporting home-based child care research and focusing on Spanish-speaking communities engaging in Family, Friend, and Neighbor (FFN) and Non-Traditional hour child care. 

She received her B.A. in International Development from UCLA in 2010 and M.A. in Education, Option in Multilingual and Multicultural Education from CSU Fresno in 2015. While also brings to her research agenda over 10 years of experience in the classroom as a teacher and paraeducator, in K-12 classrooms, international settings, parent education and university courses. Dr. Miguel is also a proud first-generation college student raised by Mexican-immigrant parents.