Angela Valenzuela – Director
Dr. Angela Valenzuela is a professor in both the Cultural Studies in Education Program within the Department of Curriculum & Instruction and the Educational Policy and Planning Program within the Department of Education Leadership and Policy at the University of Texas at Austin where she also serves as the director of the Texas Center for Education Policy. She runs an external blog titled, Educational Equity, Politics & Policy in Texas. She is the author of the award-winning Subtractive Schooling (1999), and also has an edited volume based on her work in NLERAPP titled, Growing Critically Conscious Teachers for Latino/a Youth: A Social Justice Approach (2016).
Maria del Carmen Unda – Fellow
Maria Del Carmen Unda is a first-generation Mexican-American/Xicanx student from Weedpatch, California. She is currently a doctoral student in the Education Policy and Planning program at the University of Texas at Austin and is a Gates Millennium Scholar.
Currently, she works as a graduate research assistant with the National Latino Education Research and Policy Project (NLERAPP) under the tutelage of Dr. Angela Valenzuela and is an education policy analyst in the office of State Representative Mary Gonzalez. Maria’s research explores research focused on educational access, persistence, and graduation of students of color. Before beginning her doctoral program, she earned an M.Ed. in the Education Policy and Planning program at the University of Texas at Austin, and earned a B.A. at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in Chicana/o Studies with a minor in Educational Studies.