Ximena Franco-Jenkins, PhD, is a senior research scientist at the UNC Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute (FPG), co-director of FPG's National Implementation Research Network (NIRN), and the early childhood portfolio lead at NIRN. She has more than 17 years of experience in applied research, primarily with ethnically diverse children and families, dual language learners, and multilingual learners within school and community settings. Her work integrates children's socio-emotional development and educational and family environments and aims to develop culturally robust assessments and support the implementation of evidence-based practices.

Franco-Jenkins currently co-leads an IES-funded study examining associations between the language of instruction and academic outcomes in Spanish-English dual-language academic settings. Within NIRN, Franco-Jenkins leads a study focused on evaluating the effective implementation of seven high-quality middle-year math curricula across 19 school districts in the U.S. targeting Latino/a and Black students living in poverty, students designated as English learners, and students with disabilities, and is also PI of the Meck Pre-K evaluation study.

Franco-Jenkins served as co-PI on the randomized controlled trial of the Nuestros Niños School Readiness Program funded by the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development to test the efficacy of a professional development intervention for teachers of dual language learners in preschool programs in three states.

Franco-Jenkins’s work also involves policies and practices related to state quality rating and improvement systems for early childhood. She served as PI on the North Carolina Statewide Birth-5 Needs Assessment project and co-PI on evaluating North Carolina's Quality Rating Improvement System.

Franco-Jenkins currently serves as a Governing Council Member-at-Large (now through 2031) of the Society for Research in Child Development.