Boricua, from Caguas, Puerto Rico. I completed a BA in Political Science at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez. I moved to Madrid, Spain, to do an MA in Government and Public Administration at the Complutense University of Madrid. After that I conducted a PhD in Political Science at the same university with a fully-funded competitive PhD grant (FPU-MECD fellowship). 

Before joining Complutense University as an Assistant Professor, I was affiliated with the Institute of Public Goods and Policies (CSIC, Spain) as a Juan de la Cierva Research Fellow, the University of Agder (Norway) as a postdoctoral researcher, and the IE University (Spain) and Institute of the Americas, University College London (United Kingdom) as an adjunct professor. 

My work broadly speaking focuses on the development of welfare systems and social policy (health & social protection) in Latin America and the Caribbean and Spain. In addition, my research interests include multilevel governance in decentralized welfare states, health policy, welfare regimes, targeting versus universalism in social protection, and basic universal social pensions in low- and middle-income countries.

I am the author of several peer-reviewed articles in journals such as Social Indicators Research, Health Policy, Social Policy & Society, Swiss Political Science Review, Global Social Policy, Forum for Development Studies, International Studies Perspectives, Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy, Bulletin of Latin American Research, Poverty & Public Policy, Ageing International, among others. 

My first book, published in open access, is titled ‘Produciendo Bienestar: Una mirada desde las comunidades marginadas en Puerto Rico’ (Dykinson, 2017). My second book 'Welfare and Social Protection in Contemporary Latin America', was published in Routledge in 2019. My third and most recent book is titled 'Movilidad de pacientes en el Sistema Nacional de Salud: equilibrios políticos, institucionales y financieros' (INAP, 2022).

I have been a visiting researcher or fellow at the University of Oxford (United Kingdom), Federal University of Pernambuco (Brazil), Lund University (Sweden), Centre for Social Research (Puerto Rico), the Comparative Research Programme on Poverty at the University of Bergen (Norway), and the Institute of Latin American Studies at the University of London (United Kingdom). I am one of the Co-editors of Alternautas – an open access journal on Latin American critical development studies. I am also a member of the International Editorial Advisory Board of Social Policy & Society and part of the Editorial Board of Community and Interculturality in Dialogue. I am also the editorial management secretary of the journal Gestión y Análisis de Políticas Públicas (GAAP). Finally, I am the Co-Convenor of the ECPR Standing Group on Political Economy and Welfare State Politics.

*Accredited by ANECA as a 'Profesor Titular'

* One six-year period (2012-2017) of accredited research and one five-year period (2012-2022) of accredited teaching by ANECA