Sangeetha Madhavan is Chair and Professor in the Department of African American Studies and Professor in Sociology at the University of Maryland. She received her PHD in demography and sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. As a family sociologist and demographer, her research examines family structure, kinship, parenting, and children’s well-being in sub-Saharan Africa. She is currently the principal investigator of the JAMO project funded by the National Institutes of Health. This project, set in two low-income communities in Nairobi, Kenya will follow 1203 women and their young children over 6 waves of data collection and collect data on marriage, kinship and child outcomes. She has published widely in demography, sociology and African studies journals.