Pilar Stoeppelwerth is a senior research assistant in the early childhood development program area at Child Trends. Born in Argentina and a New Jersey native, she graduated from the University of Colorado Boulder with a bachelor’s degree in international affairs. Prior to joining Child Trends, she worked at a market research firm conducting market evaluations for clients in the industrial, healthcare, and education industries. She then joined the Peace Corps in Ecuador as a volunteer teaching English as a second language. She was supposed to serve for two years but unfortunately her time was cut short due to COVID-19 and she was evacuated. After the Peace Corps, Pilar worked for a non-profit that serves the immigrant community. She worked on the workforce development and case management teams serving undocumented immigrant families and first-generation students applying for college in the northern Virginia area. Pilar has experience working with young children and a particular interest in social-emotional learning, mindfulness, inequality, and poverty research.