Dr. Zambrana Awarded Major Grant to Study Latina Entrepreneurs in the United States

Principal Investigator Dr. Ruth E. Zambrana, director of the Consortium on Race, Gender, and Ethnicity and a faculty affiliate of the Department of African American Studies, recently received a $476,473 three-year grant in partnership with The New Economics for Women and its founding director, Bea Stotzer, to plan and coordinate a national mixed methods study on the growth in Latina entrepreneurs in the United States.

The goal of the study is to examine the economic drivers of entrepreneurial activity in major urban areas of Latino concentration. This examination will lead to increased understanding of how these processes of entrepreneurship contribute to economic stability, social mobility and family well-being across the life course. Data will be collected in six states— California, New Mexico, Texas, Illinois, Florida and New York—to capture the heterogeneity of Hispanic subgroup entrepreneurial activity.

“The achievement of these aims will provide a solid base of evidence of how families engage in entrepreneurial strategies in geographic communities of high Latino concentration that can inform how financial institutional resources can be leveraged to help low-income/striving middle-class families access the economic opportunity structure,” Dr. Zambrana said. 

The study will be executed in three stages: 

1. research in the form of data collection;
2. practice in the form of development of financial literacy products for Latino families and communities; and
3. policy in the form of tax policy incentives to promote and stimulate small business activity in Latino neighborhoods. 

This effort is an interdisciplinary, collaborative study that will convene three expert thought leaders meetings at each stage to include representatives from national entrepreneurial organizations, banking industry, corporate, legislators, philanthropy, survey methodologists, sociologists, technology experts and small business owners. The long-range goals are to create partnerships with leaders in national organization to create a National Latina Wealth Index to monitor the growth of entrepreneurial activity and the financial well-being of Latino communities.

The College of Behavioral and Social Sciences and its Department of African American Studies congratulate Dr. Zambrana and her colleagues in this effort to Be the Solution to the world's great challenges.

Published on Fri, Oct 2, 2015 - 1:14PM