Professor Tienda’s research interrogates how ascribed attributes acquire their social and economic significance by investigating racial, ethnic and gender variations in social inequality. She is co-author of The Hispanic Population of the United States (1987), the first national comparison of the major nationality groups, and co-editor of two volumes about Hispanics and the Future of America published by the National Academies of Science (2006). She also has written extensively about equity and access to higher education and lectured about consequences of underinvestment in public education. Professor Tienda held appointments at the University of Chicago, where she served as chair of the Department of Sociology and editor of the American Journal of Sociology, and the University of Wisconsin at Madison. She is past president of the Population Association of America, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, and the American Academy of Education. She also serves on several philanthropic organizations.