Garcia Coll recognized in Hispanic magazine

Cynthia Garcia Coll, professor of education, psychology and pediatrics, was named one of the 100 most influential Hispanics in the United States in the October issue of Hispanic Business magazine.

Garcia Coll, who was born in Puerto Rico, came to the mainland at age 22 to pursue a master's degree at the University of Florida, then earned a doctorate at Harvard University. She has been at Brown since 1982.

The honor came as a "complete surprise," she said.

"At Brown, I'm just a professor," Garcia Coll said. "But given my background, that's incredibly remarkable."

The magazine wrote that Garcia Coll was honored for her work on childhood development in at-risk and minority populations. Her name appeared alongside those of corporate, political, entertainment and educational figures, including an astronaut, a senator and America Ferrera, the star of television's "Ugly Betty."

There is no set criteria for making the list, said Michael Caplinger, research supervisor for Hispanic Business. But, he said, the magazine looks for Hispanic U.S. citizens with an impact at the local or national level. The magazine takes nominations over the course of the year from readers, writers, visitors to its Web site and others before the editors whittle it down to 100 names.

Garcia Coll was not the only educator to make the cut, with figures in education making up roughly one-tenth of the people on the list. That isn't unusual, Caplinger said, given that the list is the magazine's chance to move beyond business figures into other fields.

Garcia Coll said she is currently working on a book on children's ethnic identification and educational performance, for which she has just finished the manuscript. She is also studying the "immigrant paradox" that in some situations first-generation immigrants do better than their second- and later-generation descendants. She is currently seeking funding for a conference on the issue, which she hopes will be held in the spring of 2009.

"A lot of us come to this country hoping to make it," she said. "A lot of us do - some of us don't."