About Dr. Julia Gutiérrez

Dr. Gutiérrez is a Chicago native, born and raised in the La Villita (Little Village) neighborhood on the city’s Southwest Side. As the daughter of Mexican immigrant parents, she became the first in her family to pursue higher education. Dr. Gutiérrez earned a bachelor's degree in Women’s Studies and Sociology from Northeastern Illinois University, an M.A. in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and a Ph.D. in Gender Studies from Arizona State University.

Her scholarship is deeply informed by her working-class background. For many years, she has been actively involved in research projects focused on poverty, particularly at the intersection of poverty and immigration in the United States. From 2019 to 2021, she served as a regional director and research manager for the American Voices Project—the largest poverty research initiative in the country—housed at the Stanford Center on Poverty & Inequality. Her previous work examined the lived experiences and perspectives of Mexican immigrant women in Chicago. Her current research explores how U.S. poverty measurements might be expanded to more accurately capture the depth and complexity of poverty.