Lara Morcillo is a social worker and has a master’s degree in Social Policy, Work and Welfare from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). She is currently doing a PhD in the Education programme on youth participation at the Faculty of Education and Psychology of the University of Girona, in the framework of the HEBE-3 Project (Ref PRE2021-098381, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by the ESF+), of which she is a research technician. Her areas of interest and study are youth empowerment and participation, community development and social and educational policies and practices that reduce social inequalities. In 2024 she completed an international stay at the School of Education at the University of Glasgow, specifically in the People, Place and Social Change (PPSC) research group and under the supervision of Dr. Louise Sheridan. She is a member of Liberi: "Grup de recerca en Infància, Joventut i Comunitat' (GRHCS110) of the UdG, and of the group "Infància i Joventut: Acció socioeducativa i comunitària (IJASC)", research group SGR-Cat 2021 of the Generalitat de Catalunya and of the SPACE programme (Supporting Professionals and Academics for Community Engagement in Higher Education). She has also participated in the creation and design of the new Local Plan for the prevention of school absenteeism with community perspective of the municipality of El Prat de Llobregat. Previously, she has worked as a social worker in socio-academic spaces and in juvenile justice educational centre’s, as well as an auxiliary technician in the Research Group: Education for Efficient and Healthy Voice (EVES) of the UAB.