Yiyu Chen is a research scientist in the reproductive health and family formation program area and the Child Trends Hispanic Institute. Through her research focusing on racial and ethnic disparities in family formation and economics, she aims to inform policy to reduce poverty and increase the wellbeing of children. Prior to joining Child Trends, she was a researcher at the California Department of Social Services, overseeing evaluations of prevention programs and conducting research related to child neglect. As a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Research on Poverty, she evaluated the impacts of the School Breakfast Program on educational outcomes in Wisconsin. In these positions, she analyzed large administrative and survey data using advanced statistical methods. She has published articles about child support, child custody, and nonmarital childbearing in Social Service Review and Children and Youth Services Review. She received her PhD in Social Welfare and Master of Social Work from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2016.