Since 2001, the Cambio Center has led the University of Missouri in facilitating research on and outreach to Latinos/Latinas and changing communities. A team of 73 Faculty Fellows at three of the University of Missouri campuses collaborates to understand these communities and help with the transition and integration of newcomers and immigrants to Missouri and the Midwest. The center’s work seeks to bridge the fields of research and practice in changing communities.

In addition to research, the center also provides services and focuses on outreach. These services include the Language Services Program, which offers translation, transcription and interpretation aid between English and Spanish. The center also has English/Spanish translation training and additional training resources in Intercultural Communication. 

Each year the center hosts the Cambio de Colores Conference, a multistate conference providing researchers, policymakers and others working with Latin and immigrant communities an opportunity to share their research findings and best practices.

The Cambio Center is led by Director Lisa Dorner, PhD, with the support of Coordinator Laura Gutiérrez Pérez and Assistant Coordinator Andrés Felipe Mesa Valencia.