Julio Fernando Salas is a Chancellor’s Fellow and second-year PhD student in the department. Centering immigrant families, his research interests lie at the nexus of immigration, emotion, race & ethnicity, social stratification, and health.

Before coming to Berkeley, Julio was a researcher at the Income and Benefits Policy Center housed at the Urban Institute. At Urban, his research—highlighted in popular media outlets like NPR, Associated Press, The Hill, and The Counter—focused on the social safety net, immigration, and food insecurity. Prior to Urban, Julio was a Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute Public Policy Fellow at the House of Representatives and a research aide and assistant for the Figueroa Interdisciplinary Group and the Affect and Cognition Lab at Cornell University. Julio received an associate’s degree in health sciences from Queensborough Community College and a bachelor’s degree in human development from Cornell University.

Personally, I’m the son and grandson of Mexican and Colombian immigrants who immigrated to New York City in the mid to late 1980s from Puebla, Mexico and Bogota, Colombia. My three younger siblings and I were all born in Elmhurst Hospital and raised in Corona, Queens, New York, and I could have never imagined entering the spaces and accomplishing the feats I have. I am forever indebted to those who played and continue to play a role in me getting to where I am, and I try really hard to repay them with how I live and conduct my life and work.