Carmen Huerta-Bapat holds a PhD in sociology from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, an MA in sociology from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, and an MA in political science from Rice University. She proudly ‘sampled’ multiple PhD programs before settling on sociology, which gives her a multi-faceted understanding of how knowledge is generated, as well as various methodological techniques. Her current research takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding how institutions work to incorporate underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, with a particular focus on immigrant communities. Specifically, her work examines how schools, universities, and police agencies react to the arrival of new migrant communities. She is currently pursuing projects that examine police behavior toward Latino immigrants in North Carolina, the social and health impacts associated with persecutory immigration policies, the negative impacts of microaggressions on first-generation college students, and parental involvement of Latino families in public education. Dr. Huerta-Bapat is currently drawing on her social science training and lived experience as a Latina immigrant in a project with the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Her work aims to design health interventions with marginalized communities to ensure that these actions are grounded in mutual understanding and respect.