Prof. Abel Valenzuela is the chair of the University of California, Los Angeles César E. Chávez Department for Chicana/Chicano Studies and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Urban Planning. His areas of research are in the fields of urban poverty, immigration, community and economic development, employment and wage inequality, employment and training programs and urban and regional economies. Dr. Valenzuela has a BA in Social Sciences from University of California, Berkeley, as well as a Masters of City Planning and Ph.D. in Urban and Regional Studies from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.