Our Story
We are a network of researchers who share a deep belief in the transformative power of research and education. Yet, through our academic and professional journeys, we saw firsthand that access to research is often limited. Driven by a vision to make research more inclusive and widely accessible, ZSM Research and Education was founded.
About the Founder
Dr. Zayda Sorrell Medina has a PhD in Urban and Environmental Planning from the University of California Irvine and a Master's in Social Work from the University of Pittsburgh. She has 10+ years experience in nonprofit management, community engagement, and program development. Dr. Zayda has developed community interventions and programs in the United States
and abroad that addresses several social and community problems such as academic equity, community disengagement, environmental injustice, and violent conflict. She has advocated for many social groups including African Americans children and youth, refugees, international students, and more recently individuals with experiences of foster care, adoption, and youth homelessness.
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Dr. Zayda is presently a professor of social work where she engages in anti-oppressive pedagogical approaches to train master's level social work students on macro-level social work (e.g., policy, research, and community-based practice). As an interdisciplinary scholar, her work transcends the fields of nonprofits, immigration, citizenship, child welfare, and urban planning. Dr. Zayda's chief scientific objective is to advance knowledge on inclusion and exclusion. She is skilled at qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods, and is particularly interested in theory building and testing, surveys, scale development, measurement, and trends analysis.
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Importantly, as a first-generation college graduate and a member and advocate of the foster, adoption, and homeless youth community, Dr. Zayda’s commitment to advancing disenfranchised social groups remains steadfast and deeply interwoven into her personal and professional mission. ​To learn more about her background, visit her web page.