Josefina Flores Morales

Josefina Flores Morales was born in Colima, Mexico and grew up in Southern California (in the San Fernando Valley). Josefina earned her Bachelor’s in psychology with a public health minor from the University of California, Los Angeles. She is currently a fourth-year sociology doctoral student at UCLA. Josefina is a part of the inaugural cohort of the Health Policy Research Scholars program, supported by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Josefina’s research interests include social demography, immigration, health, aging and inequality. Her dissertation research is about how immigration status influences immigrant health at different stages of the life course.

During her undergraduate coursework, Josefina worked closely with IDEAS at UCLA, the nationally recognized undocumented support and advocacy organization, where she coordinated and presented workshops on how to access college as an undocumented student. She is currently working on several research projects that aim to better understand the factors associated with the mental health of undocumented college students.

Josefina is committed to seeing racial minority and undocumented students thrive and is excited to continue to learn how to make educational institutions more inclusive spaces.

University of California, Los Angeles

Your role in one sentence: I support the research team at the Campaign.
When I am not at work helping students get into and succeed in college I am… dancing (mainly salsa, bachata, and kizomba), working out, playing sudoku, reading poetry, and learning about Minecraft from my 11-year-old brother.
If not higher education then what cause? Addressing health inequalities.