Catalina Herrera-Almanza is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). She is a development economist who studies policy-relevant questions at the intersection of demographic, health, and education economics. Her research focuses on how fertility decisions and human capital investments shape women’s economic empowerment and children’s well-being in low- and middle-income countries. She received her Ph.D. in Applied Economics and Management from Cornell University and holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in Economics from Universidad de los Andes (Bogotá, Colombia). Prior to joining UIUC, she was an Assistant Professor of Economics and International Affairs at Northeastern University. She has worked for the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank in Washington, D.C., and the Public Policy Evaluation Directorate of Colombia’s National Planning Department. She is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA@LISER).