Mónica Gutiérrez was born near the US-México border and is the daughter of immigrants raised in the California Central Coast. She is a first-generation doctoral student in the School of Social Work at Arizona State University (ASU). She is also a Doctoral Fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Research Scholar Program.Her research focuses on structural and institutional racism and how this affects the inequitable distribution of power, land, and other resources for racial and ethnic minorities. Her research experience is grounded in collaborating with various stakeholders utilizing community voices to ask and answer questions of interest. Mónica’s current research project utilizes qualitative methodologies to explore the politics of placemaking for Latinas/os in South Phoenix, Arizona.