Dr. Julia Mendez Smith is part of a team of researchers awarded a grant by the DHHS Administration on Children and Families to fund a National Research Center on Hispanic Children and Families. This project grew out of a research group that was supported by the UNCG Child and Family Research Network.  Over the next five years, the Center will examine three areas of research impacting Hispanic families including poverty and self-sufficiency, healthy marriage and fatherhood, and early care and education.