Gabriel Piña is a research scientist in youth development at Child Trends. He works on quantitative analyses to research youth development and early childhood education issues. Gabriel is one of the primary analysts on the Social Genome Model, a microsimulation model that draws on available research and evaluation studies to forecast how early childhood interventions can affect critical adolescent and adult outcomes like level of education, income, unemployment, and poverty. Prior to joining Child Trends, Gabriel’s research focused on examining the impact of homeless prevention programs on child and youth residential instability, and conducting benefit-cost analyses of early childhood education programs in Minnesota.

Gabriel has extensive experience in quantitative analysis, particularly econometrics; quasi-experimental methods; and impact evaluation. He is passionate about effectively communicating research with data and used his expertise to create and teach a class about data visualization for several years. He earned his PhD in public affairs from Indiana University.