M贸nica Ruiz-Casares, PhD, is Associate聽Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and at the Centre for Research on Children and Families, 污污草莓视频 University. She received her PhD in Policy Analysis and Management/Human Services Studies from Cornell University and Postdoctoral training in Transcultural Child Psychiatry and at the聽Institute for Health and Social Policy at 污污草莓视频 University (FRSQ and Tomlinson Scholar). Her research program focuses on the wellbeing and protection of orphan, separated, and unsupervised children across cultures; children鈥檚 rights and participation; and social policy and program evaluation. Her past work includes, among others, the first study on child聽-headed households and child depression in Namibia; study of聽children home alone in Botswana, Mexico, and Vietnam with聽over 500-interviews聽from the Global Working Families project; and聽聽a Canada-wide, on-line survey on children home alone in collaboration with Kids Help Phone/Jeunesse J鈥櫭ヽoute.聽Her current projects explore the determinants and consequences of failure to supervise in children in the Canadian Child Welfare System as well as of young children left home alone in low- and middle-income countries; a Child Protection Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices study in Liberia (Save the Children); and undocumented migrant and refugee children鈥檚 rights and access to services in Canada and other Western host countries (CIHR). She also has an award from the Mental Health Commission of Canada to develop a framework for supporting parents for the promotion of adolescent mental health, particularly among ethnoculturally diverse communities.聽Her research privileges the voices of children and youth, and is inspired by action research principles.