Julia Mendez Smith, Ph.D.

Julia Mendez Smith, Ph.D.

Julia Mendez Smith, Ph.D., is Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a licensed psychologist, earning her Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. For more than two decades, she has studied children's school readiness, mental health, and family engagement with low‐income and culturally diverse populations in partnership with Head Start programs and families. She directs early care and education for the National Hispanic Research Center on Children and Families, conducting research on how low‐income Latino children and families benefit from early education, and how policies may facilitate or constrain uptake of these protective experiences.