Population Council Research that makes a difference

Claudia Diaz, Ph.D.

Associate II & Country Director

Claudia Díaz Olavarrieta is director of the Population Council's Mexico office. Díaz Olavarrieta has been associated with the Council since 1998, serving as an expert consultant on reproductive health–related research across Mexico.

As country director, Díaz Olavarrieta supervises and participates in a wide portfolio of studies, ranging from measuring the prevalence of and exploring the sources and consequences of intimate partner violence involving pregnant women in Ciudad Juarez, to exploring the prevalence and characteristics of child marriage in Central America and Mexico. In addition, under her leadership, the Mexico office is engaged in a sustained effort to build evidence that supports women's rights to safe and legal abortion services in Mexico through participation in the National Pro-Choice Alliance. Other research areas include measuring abortion stigma; post-abortion contraceptive uptake and continuation among women in Mexico City; and Mexican men's views on abortion and their influence on the reproductive health choices of women.

Díaz Olavarrieta has a master’s in clinical psychology and a Ph.D. in health sciences and public health from Mexico’s National Autonomous University (UNAM), and has extensive experience researching violence among women and children, abortion in Mexico, and maternal syphilis in Bolivia. Before joining the Council, she was a senior researcher at the National Institute of Public Health of Mexico (INSP).