Veronica Valencia Gonzalez is the eldest of six children born to immigrant agricultural laborers and raised in the Central Coast of California. In 2017, Veronica graduated from the University of California – Irvine (UCI) with a B.A. in Psychology & Social Behavior and a B.A. in Criminology, Law & Society. As an undergraduate student, Veronica was involved in community-based research in partnership with the Orange County Family Justice Foundation (OCFJC) an organization that assists survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV). The experience motivated them to pursue a doctoral degree at UCI.  Veronica is currently a  PhD candidate in the Social Ecology PhD program, after transferring from the Department of Criminology, Law & Society after two years (2017-2019).

Veronica’s research focuses on violence within the Latine community. Veronica’s  work exploring the help-seeking behavior of Latine undocumented survivors of IPV in the current tumultuous anti-immigrant political climate won awards from the Western Society of Criminology and the American Society of Criminology. In 2019, Veronica received the National Science Foundations’ Graduate Research Fellowship in order to support her research involving IPV within Latine and other marginalized communities.

As an undergraduate they assisted in designing a culturally sensitive parenting program for Latine survivors of IPV. In the summer of 2017, Veronica participated in USC’s Latino Mental Health Research Program and they traveled to Mexico City to conduct research with Dr. Mora Rios at the National Institute of Psychiatry Ramon de la Fuente. The research focused on mental illness stigma among mental health professionals. Veronica’s second year project explored the help-seeking behavior of undocumented IPV survivors with the help from a grant from UCI’s Initiative to End Family Violence. Additionally, they were a Graduate Research Assistant coordinating the data collection process of in predominantly Latine neighborhoods of Santa Ana, CA.  During the summer of 2019, Veronica conducted preliminary work in Morelia, Michoacán for what they hope to be their dissertation in Mexico exploring IPV in rural communities of Mexico.

In the summer of 2020, Veronica participated in RAND’s Summer Associate program leading a project focused on comparing current sexual assault case handling practices to sexual assault evidence-based best practices. In the summer of 2022, Veronica interned at Mexico’s Institute Nacional de las Mujeres (INMUJERES). And in the summer of 2023, Veronica was a research fellow with Esperanza United where she investigated the victimization experiences of Latina Women employed in domestic and agricultural work in the United States. As part of the internship with Esperanza United, they were invited to speak with the White House Gender Policy Council. However, Veronica’s proudest achievements have involved mentoring first-generation undergraduate students through the UCI’s DECADE Plus Mentorship Program.