My name is Ana Magaly Ojeda, and I am a Ph.D. student in the department of Sociology at UC Riverside. I am one of the new qualitative graduate student researchers for the Center for Social Innovation. 

I grew up in north county San Diego where I did all my schooling before entering the Ph.D. program at UC Riverside. I attended Palomar College after high school and transferred to the California State University of San Marcos, where I graduated in 2016 with my BA in Criminology and Justice Studies and a minor in Sociology. My research interests are on mixed immigration status families, the carceral system, youth, and mental health. My experiences as a member of a mixed-status family and as system impacted directly relate to my research interests. 

My master’s thesis research centers on the experiences and mental health effects of mixed-status youth encounter while navigating the juvenile carceral system. Based on my master’s thesis research, I found that the effects of the carceral system on mixed-status youth are not a linear effect on youth but a multiple bi-directional effect on the entire family. Based on the project findings, I was intrigued to have a holistic understanding of the lives of family units that experience the carceral state through immigration and incarceration. The hope is that my dissertation project helps us grasp more in-depth the lives and mental health effects of mixed-status parents who have a currently or formerly incarcerated child. It is my goal to one day conduct a qualitative research project with system-impacted mixed-status families in a focus group setting alongside the foto novela (picture stories) qualitative approach that I already use in my work. 

Aside from my passion for research, I have other passions and hobbies. My hobbies right now include camping, plants, and spending time with my puppy. I have a boxer puppy that goes by Taz. He currently takes up a large portion of my day, but I am excited to watch him grow and be part of my life and my partners.