Belinda Reyes, Ph.D.

Dr. Reyes is the Director of the César E. Chávez Institute and Assistant Professor of Raza Studies, College of Ethnic Studies, at San Francisco State University. She is also Co-Director of The Wealth Research Organization. Formerly, she was a founding Faculty member at the University of California, Merced, and a Research Fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California. Her publications explore different dimensions of immigration, adaptation, political representation, and the social and economic progress of racial and ethnic groups in the United States and California. Her research focuses on the policy issues confronting people of color and the foreign born in the United States. Dr. Reyes has extensive experience in quantitative and qualitative research methodologies, conducting research in the United State and abroad.  She has briefed various federal, state, and local governmental bodies and addressed numerous civic organizations. She has been a senior program associate at PolicyLink; lecturer at the University of California, Berkeley; a research fellow at the University of Michigan; and a visiting scholar at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. She holds a B.S. in economics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Elias Lopez, Ph.D.

Dr. Lopez is a trained economist and has over 15 years of experience conducting evaluations and economic impact studies.  Currently, he is the Director of Analysis and Information Services at the University of California, Davis, and has been the director of research at three separate education institutions (University of California, community college, and preschool).  He also worked for the California Research Bureau of the State Library conducting non-partisan research for the office of the governor and the state legislature.  His areas of expertise are demographic trends, economic trends, and scholastic performance.  His skills include econometric modeling, computer programming, and geographic information systems (GIS).  He is well versed with decennial census and economic census data.