R. Gabriela Barajas, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in the Institute for Prevention Science at the Child Study Center at NYU School of Medicine. Her research focuses on the development, evaluation and dissemination of preventive interventions for children and families living in poverty. Dr. Barajas is particularly interested in the influence of poverty and social stressors on family functioning and child well-being, as well as the prevention of mental health problems and the promotion of academic achievement and health in children from immigrant and ethnic minority populations. Dr. Barajas is part of ParentCorps, a population-level family-centered, school-based intervention that aims to attenuate the adverse effects of poverty on child development. She also works on the Latinos in Context Project (LINCs), an NIH funded research project focusing on the family and school contexts of Mexican and Dominican children as they enter school.

In 2012, Dr. Barajas received a health disparities research loan repayment program award from the National Institute of Health.

Dr. Barajas earned a BA in Human Biology from Stanford University and a PhD in Developmental Psychology from Columbia University.

Prior to working at the Child Study Center, Dr. Barajas was a graduate research fellow at the National Center for Children and Families where she worked on various studies related to child and family policy including the Yonkers Housing Mobility follow-up study,  the Early Head Start Quality Assurance Project, and the Fragile Families study.

Dr. Barajas has published in numerous journals including Pediatrics, American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, Journal of Prevention & Intervention in the Community and Behavioral Sleep Medicine. She is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Society for Prevention Research, the Society for Research in Child Development, and the National Latino Psychological Association.