Saldaña is a research associate in the Youth Development, Criminal Justice, and Employment policy area, where she leads qualitative data collection and analysis for projects related to employment services, child support, and the criminal legal system. Her current projects include implementation evaluations of the IPS employment services model, NextGen child support-led employment services, and the North Carolina defender fees system.
Before joining MDRC in 2023, Saldaña conducted independent ethnographic research on youth aging out of foster care in Kentucky, with a focus on policy reform, mentorship, work and employment, and transportation and mobility. She holds a PhD in Anthropology from Princeton University and a BA in Ethnicity, Race, & Migration from Yale University.
