Ximena Franco-Jenkins, Ph.D.

Ximena Franco-Jenkins, PhD, is a senior research scientist at the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG), co-director of FPG’s National Implementation Research Network (NIRN), and the early childhood portfolio lead at NIRN. She has more than 20 years of experience in applied research, primarily with ethnically diverse children and families, dual language learners, and multilingual learners within school and community settings. Her work integrates children’s socio-emotional development and educational and family environments and aims to develop culturally robust assessments and support the implementation of evidence-based practices. Franco-Jenkins’s work also involves policies and practices related to state quality rating and improvement systems for early childhood. She served as PI on the North Carolina Statewide Birth-5 Needs Assessment project and co-PI on evaluating North Carolina’s Quality Rating Improvement System. Franco-Jenkins currently serves as a Governing Council Member-at-Large (now through 2031) of the Society for Research in Child Development