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cimels@ucu.edu.uy

Bio

Cindy Mels started her research career at the Ghent University’s Department of Orthopedagogics, working on social support in unaccompanied asylum seeking minors residing in Belgium. Throughout her PhD study on the psychosocial wellbeing of war-affected Eastern Congolese adolescents she specialized in the cross-cultural adaptation and validation of psychological screening instruments, the mental health consequences of violence and poverty, and community-based participatory research. Currently living in Montevideo, Uruguay, she is professor at the Universidad Católica de Uruguay, where she is studying the impact of community violence in low-income adolescents’ emotional and behavioral development and academic outcomes. She also is project director at the National Institute of Educational Evaluation (INEEd, Uruguay), where she coordinates the evaluation of social-emotional and citizenship skills among Uruguayan primary and secondary school students nationwide.

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