Faculty Directory
Carola Suárez-Orozco
Senior Fellow
Carola Suárez-Orozco
Ph.D.
Contact
Telephone: 617-552-3471
Email: suarezoc@bc.edu
ORCID 0000-0002-9111-6484
Education
- Ph.D., California School of Professional Psychology
- M.A., John F. Kennedy University
- A.B., University of California, Berkeley
Courses
Immigrant Children & Youth
Research Interests
Immigration and child development; risk and resilience in immigrant-origin youth; adolescent identity and social belonging; legal status and undocumented youth; family separation and reunification; youth participatory action research.
Expertise
- Bilingualism & Immigration
- Equity and Social Justice
- Social & Emotional Development
Department
Profile
Carola Suárez-Orozco is a Senior Fellow at Boston College’s Lynch School of Education and Human Development and the Director of the Immigrant Flourishing and Belonging Initiative. Her research focuses on elucidating the child and youth experience of immigration—how their development is shaped by immigration and how they are changed by the process. A focus on school settings has been an enduring theme in this work as schools are a first contact point between the immigrant children, their families, and the new society.
Her books include: Children of Immigration, Learning a New Land, Transitions: The Development of the Children of Immigrants, Education: Our Global Compact in a Time of Crisis, among others. She has been awarded an American Psychological Association Presidential Citation for her contributions to the understanding of cultural psychology of immigration. She is also the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and is a member of both the National Academy of Education and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Select Publications
Suárez-Orozco, M., & Suárez-Orozco, C. (2001). Children of immigrants. Harvard University Press.
Suárez-Orozco, C., Suárez-Orozco, M., & Todorova, I. (2008). Learning a new land: Immigrant students in American society. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
Suárez-Orozco, C., & Suárez-Orozco, M. (1995). Transformations: Immigration, family life and achievement motivation among Latino adolescents. Stanford University Press.
Suárez-Orozco, C., Abo-Zena, M., & Kerivan-Marks, A. (Eds.). (2015). Transitions: The development of the children of immigrants. New York University Press.
Suárez-Orozco, M., & Suárez-Orozco, C. (2022). Education: A global compact in a time of crisis. Columbia University Press.
Levitt, H. M., Bamberg, M., Creswell, J. W., Frost, D., Josselson, R., & Suárez-Orozco, C. "Reporting standards for qualitative research in psychology: The APA Publications and Communications Board Task Force Report." American Psychologist 73, no. 1 (January 2018): 26–46. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000151
Suárez-Orozco, C., Yoshikawa, H., Teranishi, R., & Suárez-Orozco, M. "Growing up in the shadows: The developmental implications of unauthorized status." Harvard Educational Review 81, no. 3 (September 2011): 438–473. https://doi.org/10.17763/HAER.81.3.G23X203763783M75
Yoshikawa, H., Suárez-Orozco, C., & Gonzales, R. G. (2017). "Unauthorized status and youth development in the United States: Consensus statement of the Society for Research on Adolescence." Journal of Research on Adolescence 27, no. 1 (January 2017): 4–19. https://doi.org/10.1111/jora.12272
Suárez-Orozco, C., Motti-Stefanidi, F., Marks, A., & Katsiaficas, D. "An integrative risk and resilience model for understanding the adaptation of immigrant-origin children and youth." American Psychologist 73, no. 6 (September 2018): 781–796. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000265
Suárez-Orozco, C., Casanova, S., Martin, M., Katsiaficas, D., Cuellar, V., Dias, S., & Smith, N. "Toxic rain in the classroom: Classroom interpersonal microaggressions." Educational Researcher 44, no. 3 (April 2015): 151–160. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X15580314
Honors and Awards
Member National Academy of Arts and Sciences (2025)
Guggenheim Fellow (2024)
American Psychological Association APA Division 1 Arthur W. Staats Prize Lecture for Unifying Psychology (2020)
UCLA Undergraduate Mentoring Award (2019)
Society for Research on Adolescence Social Policy Award for Best Article (2018)
Society for Research on Adolescence Social Policy Award for Best Edited Book (2016)
Member National Academy of Education (2016)
Chair, American Psychological Association Presidential Task Force on Immigration (2010-2012)
Institute for Advanced Study Fellowship (2009 2010)
Virginia & Warren Stone Award — Harvard University Press: Outstanding Book on Education and Society (2007)
American Psychological Association Presidential Citation (2006)
Inducted into the New York Academy of Sciences (2006)
Society for Research on Adolescence Roberta Grodberg Simmons Prize Lecture (2002)
Society for Research on Adolescence Social Policy Best Book Award (1996)
Grants & Fellowships
NoVo Foundation (PI Carola Suárez-Orozco) Reimagining Migration (2019–2022)
Ford Foundation (PI Carola Suárez-Orozco; co-PIs Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, Robert Teranishi) Bridging the Compassion Gap: Addressing Social Inclusion for Immigrant Origin Children & Youth (2018–2019)
Ford Foundation (PI Carola Suárez-Orozco; co-PIs Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, Robert Teranishi) Bridging the Compassion Gap: Addressing Social Inclusion for Immigrant Origin Children & Youth (2017–2018)
Spencer Foundation, Making the Invisible Visible: Systematically Examining Teacher Enactments of Bias in Classrooms (2017)
Spencer Foundation-Lyle Spencer Grant, Making the Invisible Visible: Systematically Examining Teacher Enactments of Bias in Classrooms (2016–2019)
Ford Foundation (jointly with Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, Robert Teranishi) Bridging the Empathy Gap: Networked Communities to Address Social Inclusion for Immigrant Children and Youth (2016–2017)
Ford Foundation (jointly with Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, Robert Teranishi) Towards an Agenda of Social Justice and Inclusion for Children of Immigrants (2015–2016)
Ford Foundation (Co-PIs Carola Suárez-Orozco, Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, Robert Teranishi) Undocumented College Students (2014–2015)
W.T. Grant Foundation (jointly with Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, Robert Teranishi) The Role of Settings on Relational and Academic Engagement for Community College Students (supplemental for survey administration) (2010–2012)
Ford Foundation (jointly with Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, Robert Teranishi) Research on Immigrants in College Project (2011–2013)
Carnegie Corporation of New York (jointly with Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, Howard Gardener) Civic Trust and Civic Engagement among Immigrant Young Adults: A Pilot Study (2011–2012)
W.T. Grant Foundation (jointly with Marcelo Suárez-Orozco) for The Role of Settings on Relational and Academic Engagement for Latino Community College Students (2010–2012) jointly with Western Union Foundation for Pathways to Opportunity for the Children of Immigrants in North America & Europe (2008–2009)
National Science Foundation (Co-PIs Carola Suárez-Orozco, Richard Alba, Jennifer Holdaway, Mary Waters, Margaret Gibson) Partnership for International Research and Education grant—Children of Immigrants in Schools: Promising Schooling Practices for Children of Immigrants Students (2006–2009)
W.T. Grant Foundation (jointly with Marcelo Suárez-Orozco) Immigrant Adaptation (2004)
W.T. Grant Foundation (jointly with Marcelo Suárez-Orozco) Immigrant Adaptation (2001–2002)
Spencer Foundation (jointly with Marcelo Suárez-Orozco) Longitudinal Immigrant Student Adaptation Study (2001–2002)
Spencer Foundation (jointly with Marcelo Suárez-Orozco) Longitudinal Immigrant Student Adaptation Study (1998–2002)
W.T. Grant Foundation (jointly with Marcelo Suárez-Orozco) Immigrant Adaptation (1999)
National Science Foundation (jointly with Marcelo Suárez-Orozco) Longitudinal Factors in Immigrant Adaptation (1997–2002)