Dalal Katsiaficas Ph.D.

Dalal Katsiaficas, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology and the Director of the Development of Immigrant Youth in Action (DIYA) Lab at the University of Illinois at Chicago. As a cultural developmental psychologist, her research focuses on the positive social development of immigrant-origin youth as they emerge into adulthood. Specifically, her work examines the social responsibilities of immigrant-origin youth as well as the impact of undocumented immigration status on educational experiences. Her latest work focuses on the process of emerging into motherhood and the developmental and social implications of motherhood during the 30s and 40s.

Her academic career began at New York University where she found research could be a tool to impact social change. She began her graduate work there and ultimately completed her Ph.D. in human development and psychology at the Graduate School of Education and Information Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles.

She is a member of the Equity and Justice Committee for the Society for Research on Child Development and a member of the Governing Council for the Society for the Study of Emerging Adulthood. She serves as an Assistant Editor for the journal, Emerging Adulthood, and as a member of the editorial board for the Journal of Adolescent Research. Most recently her work was recognized with the Mellon Emerging Faculty Leaders Award from the Institute for Citizens and Scholars. Her research has been published in Child Development, American Psychologist, Qualitative Research in Psychology, Harvard Educational Review, Teachers College Record, Emerging Adulthood, and Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology and she has been quoted in press outlets such as the New York Times and The Atlantic. For more information visit www.DIYAlab.org.