Research Trainee Spotlight: Erika Garcia Mora, PhD

For Erika Garcia Mora, PhD, a realization about her childhood inspired her current research focus. “As a PhD student at Louisiana State University and pursuing a degree in kinesiology, I came across an upsetting depiction of my ethnic background in my reading material,” she says. “It suggested that my ethnicity and the limited resources available during my childhood should have prevented my current academic success.”

Growing up in a Spanish-speaking family in Anaheim, California, Dr. Mora hadn’t learned English until she was in kindergarten. Early literacy tests showed that she was slightly behind her classmates, but she could easily communicate with everyone. Fortunately, her third-grade teacher identified that she just needed a bit more time on assignments since English was a new language for her, and from there, her educational progress flourished.

Years later, Dr. Mora realized that many students are not so lucky – practitioners often make inaccurate assumptions about students’ cognitive abilities from out of date and biased assessments, leading to a domino effect that can hold them back in life. “With this premise and my interest in motor skills, I decided to research the trajectories of motor skills in infants from low socioeconomic and diverse backgrounds and explore how they influence later cognitive skills,” Dr. Mora explains.

Now at CHLA, Dr. Mora works as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Infant Neuromotor Control Laboratory led by Beth A Smith, DPT, PhD. Her research project investigates the relationships between various external factors and motor skill development in infants. “My objective is to utilize this knowledge to improve health care for marginalized families,” she explains.

In her free time, Dr. Mora enjoys pampering her dog, attending concerts and visiting Disneyland with her partner.