SMU Tower Center & Latino CLD award nine new research grants to help Latino communities, inspire policy change

DALLAS (SMU) – The Latino Center for Leadership Development (Latino CLD) and SMU’s John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies have awarded nine grants to 13 scholars tapped to provide meaningful research geared to promoting a stronger understanding of the Latino community and creating a dialogue about key societal issues.

As the Tower Center–Latino CLD partnership’s first class of grant recipients, each research team will provide final reports that include a white paper with context, analysis and policy recommendations.

Awards were chosen by research grant advisory board members Miguel Solis, Latino CLD president; James Hollifield, SMU Tower Center academic director; and Alicia Reyes-Barriéntez and Aileen Cardona-Arroyo, SMU Tower Center postdoctoral fellows.

“Issuing these grants marks the beginning of a new approach to policy and research related to the Latino community,” Solis says. 

“The research will not only find its way into academic journals and classrooms, but also will inform the decisions of emerging policy makers,” he adds. “The Latino CLD is serious about ensuring future leaders are armed with substantive policy ideas rooted in research, so the allocation of these grants will help ensure our vision becomes a reality.”

Grantees include faculty, post-doctoral fellows and graduate students from U.S. schools including SMU, Vanderbilt, UT-Austin and UCLA. Their research projects will focus such topics as education policy, public opinion/surveys, transnational students, African American-Latino coalitions, deportation’s effect on children, border enforcement and human rights, access to legalization as well as non-profit organizations’ services and resources.

The grantees’ first round of research findings will be presented at a public forum April 1 at the Hall of State at Fair Park in Dallas. Additional research will be discussed at a fall forum that also will be free and open to the public.

For more details about the research grants, contact Melissa Alfaro at malfaro@latinocld.com or 619-249-9055.

Southern Methodist University is a nationally ranked private university in Dallas founded 100 years ago. Today, SMU enrolls approximately 11,000 students who benefit from the academic opportunities and international reach of seven degree-granting schools.

In the spirit of John Tower’s commitment to educate and inspire a new generation of thoughtful leaders, the Tower Center in SMU's Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences seeks to bridge the gap between the world of ideas, scholarship and teaching, as well as the practice of politics. The primary mission of the Tower Center is to promote the study of politics and international affairs and to stimulate an interest in ethical public service among undergraduates. The Tower Center is an academic center in which all parties and views are heard in a marketplace of ideas, and the Center pursues its mission in a non-partisan manner.

The Latino Center for Leadership Development was created to bring light to Latino thought about today's state of affairs and to develop innovative solutions to the issues Latinos and the broader community face. Under the leadership of its president, Miguel Solis, the Center strives to develop the next generation of leaders driven by thoughts, values and experiences that will improve the Latino community.

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