Fernando Hernandez-Lepe is a research associate in the Center on Labor, Human Services, and Population at the Urban Institute. His work includes building evidence to support decisionmaking around child welfare and evaluating programs to assess their effects on family and child well-being.

Hernandez-Lepe is interested in the intersections of the safety net, structural racism, and the experiences of immigrant and undocumented communities in the United States in the context of child welfare, food insecurity, and public charge. He received an MA in economics from Georgetown University and a MPP in advanced policy analysis from American University. He is experienced in mixed-methods research and implementing randomized controlled trials.