Background

Kevin Ferreira van Leer, PhD, is an assistant professor in Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Connecticut whose research focuses on the social and cultural contexts that promote positive development for Latinx immigrants and their families . Ferreira van Leer studies how schools and their policies and procedures support the children of immigrant families and their needs, from preschool all the way up to higher education. The majority of his work involves community-engaged research, working directly with immigrant communities and organizations that work with these communities, and involving them in the planning. Ferreira van Leer’s main goal in his research is to improve the lives of Latinx immigrant families or help to improve the policies that may impact their lives.

As an undergraduate, Ferreira van Leer attended Wagner College, an institution that was very focused on community engagement, where he was able to partner with a nearby neighborhood in New York City made up of mainly immigrant families through the college’s Port Richmond Partnership. Ferreira van Leer realized how much of an impact he could have on the lives of these individuals and families and their well-being, and grew interested in conducting research into how to support immigrant communities as a career. He also had a personal interest. “I come from an immigrant family myself and was the first in my family born in the United States, so working to help these immigrant families is very important” says Ferreira van Leer. “Thinking about my own background makes me think about the research being done on immigrant communities and how I can help to better support them.”

Early on in his career, Ferreira van Leer worked as a community organizer with El Centro del Inmigrante, an organization working with the New York Immigrant Coalition, serving the same immigrant community that he partnered with as an undergraduate. Ferreira van Leer worked with this organization to promote a campaign around access to schools. For example, in the past individuals were required to provide ID to the school safety division officers in order to be allowed onto the premises. This process could sometimes cause anxiety for immigrants of different statuses, since they might not have had the necessary ID type. Ferreira van Leer worked with other advocates and immigrant community members to change this policy in order to allow immigrant families the same access as non-immigrant families to the school their children attended. He pushed for allowing the use of alternate ID types, such as a consular ID from their home country or a library card with a photo. During this campaign, research from psychologists on the role that parents’ immigration status may have on children’s development proved to be key to working with policymakers. These experiences led him to pursue a Ph.D. in Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology at Boston College with the aim of collaborating with immigrant communities to use research to address their concerns.

Ferreira van Leer is currently wrapping up a project called Elevating Equity | Applied Research on Children (ARC) Lab, where he serves as a co-PI alongside Dr. Catlin Lombardi. This project addresses inequities for immigrant families and promotes child and parent well-being, which involves social policies and social services such as Medicaid, WIC, or TANF.

Ferreira van Leer is also working on Using Our Voices to Transform HSIs Collaborative | Research Project, which is aimed towards higher education, more specifically Hispanic Serving Institutions and how to better support students of Latinx origin in their education.

Involvement with CSCH

Ferreira van Leer was introduced to the Collaboratory by a mentor, but he was especially drawn to join as an affiliate because of the “amazing networking and opportunities to collaborate with other professionals who are interested in similar research relating to early childhood education and access for immigrant families,” he says.

Ferreira van Leer appreciates how the Collaboratory not only looks at the child while in school settings, but also their families and life at home. Additionally, he very much appreciates CSCH’s commitment to anti-racist work, as he feels the need for systems change around racism in school settings.

He has previously published two Collaboratory briefs with colleagues on racial and ethnic match between children and providers in Early Head Start and on relationships between Early Head Start providers and families.

You can learn more about Ferreira van Leer on his UConn Faculty Page, Instagram and Bluesky pages.

Fun Facts

Dr. Ferreira van Leer and his husband are fathers to an almost two -year-old, who loves go to the park where he enjoys pointing out the different birds and mushrooms.

Undergraduate Researcher Elena Roberts interviewed Kevin Ferreira van Leer and wrote this profile.