Lourdes Fernandez

Lourdes Fernandez is a bilingual survey researcher with extensive experience in qualitative methods, including interviews and focus groups for youth and adults, survey design, and textual and narrative analysis. Fernandez has experience using participatory and community-engaged approaches in her work and currently supports Mathematica’s efforts to incorporate equity strategies into surveys and data collection. She has experience leading research teams, from study design to publication. Fernandez has developed and implemented professional development initiatives in higher education settings.

At Mathematica, Fernandez has served as study lead in several Sexual Risk Avoidance Education studies. She leads a study focused on investigating curricular alignment to Title V legislative requirements, which includes reviewing commonly used curricula, interviewing program directors, and facilitating an interactive workshop. She served as the qualitative research task lead and writer in a study investigating how to improve LGBTQ+ inclusion in healthy marriage and relationship education programs as part of the Fatherhood, Relationships, and Marriage, Illuminating the Next Generation project. Fernandez leads a project focused on incorporating participatory approaches in the philanthropic context.

Before joining Mathematica in 2022, Fernandez worked as faculty and assistant director for the composition program at George Mason University, where she supported faculty development and taught composition, technical writing, and rhetoric courses. Fernandez is also a military spouse who spent more than a decade working in education centers and in family advocacy on military bases in the United States and Europe. She has a Ph.D. in writing and rhetoric from George Mason University.