Lea Gimenez is an Economist in the Poverty, Gender and Equity Group (LCSPP) in the Latin America and Caribbean Region (LCR) of the World Bank. She has also worked in the South Asia region at the Bank on poverty assessments for Afghanistan and Bangladesh. Previously, she worked as an Adjunct Professor at Lehigh University's College of Business and Economics. Her research has focused on the effect of family structure and shocks on well-being and long term outcomes. She received her Ph.D. in economics from Lehigh University.