AAHHE Faculty Fellows Biographies

2024 Fellows

Sofia Bahena, EdD
Assistant Professor
Education Leadership and Policy Studies
University of Texas at San Antonio 

Sofía Bahena, Ed.D., is an assistant professor in the Department of Education Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). Her overarching research agenda is to address structural educational inequities by strengthening the connection between education research and policy. Specifically, she aims to promote greater access to, and success in, higher education of under-represented youth in the United States. Dr. Bahena has experience working at advocacy organizations focusing on federal and state level policies; collaborating with English/Spanish bilingual communities, parents, and families; and conducting both quantitative and qualitative analyses. Most recently, she completed a visiting fellowship at the Center for Educational Efficacy, Excellence, and Equity (E4 Center), a research-practice-provider partnership housed at Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy. She is also a past recipient of the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE)’s graduate student fellowship and outstanding dissertation award. Dr. Bahena holds a B.A. in business administration and sociology from Trinity University (San Antonio, TX) and an Ed.M. in human development and psychology and Ed.D. in cultures, communities, and education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

Jorge Burmicky, PhD
Assistant Professor
Educational Leadership and Policy Studies
Howard University

Jorge Burmicky, Ph.D. (he/him/él) is an assistant professor of higher education leadership and policy studies at Howard University. One of his research lines examines presidential leadership in higher education, with an emphasis on equity-minded and socially just leadership at minority-serving institutions, community colleges, and broadly accessible institutions. His research also explores promising practices that support the educational outcomes of men of color, specifically the impact of men of color programs in student success and Latino men in community colleges.

Dr. Burmicky received his Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to becoming a professor, Dr. Burmicky worked as a student affairs professional for 12 years. His research can be found in the Journal of College Student Development, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Community College Review, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Journal of Negro Education, Community College Journal of Research and Practice, and others.

Dr. Burmicky is a faculty affiliate with NC State’s Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research, UT Austin’s Project MALES, the Center for HBCU Research, Leadership and Policy, and the University of Michigan's National Center for Institutional Diversity. His research has been featured in USA Today, Higher Ed Dive, Hispanic Outlook on Education Magazine, and the NPR Education Symposium.

Lazaro Camacho, PhD
Assistant Professor
College Student Personnel
Feinstein College of Education
University of Rhode Island 

Dr. Lazaro Camacho, Jr. (he, him, él) is an Assistant Professor in the College Student Personnel program, Feinstein College of Education, at the University of Rhode Island. He believes that positive student success is driven by an intersectional and systemic approach to student-centered teaching, research, and service. Dr. Camacho’s scholarship centers the intersection of identity development and educational pathways through a focus on men and masculinities, men of color, intersectional socialization, leadership development, and mentorship.

Dr. Camacho earned his Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from Florida Atlantic University, and both his M.S. in College Student Personnel and B.S in Kinesiology from the University of Rhode Island. Before transitioning to the role of faculty, he spent 13 years working in student affairs, in areas such as housing and residence life, wellness, student development, and academic advising.

Dr. Camacho is a faculty affiliate with the University of Texas at Austin’s Project MALES. He serves as a member of the Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice (JSARP) Editorial Board, and he is the NASPA Region I Faculty Liaison. 

Juvenal Caporale, PhD
Assistant Professor
Ethnic Studies
California State University, Stanislaus 

Dr. Juvenal Caporale is an Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies (Chicano/a/x-Latino/a/x Studies) at California State University, Stanislaus. He completed his Ph.D. in Mexican American Studies at the University of Arizona, an MA in Ethnic Studies at the University of California, San Diego, and another MA in Political Science at California State University, Northridge. Dr. Caporale's research interests include healing, re-indigenization, and re-humanization, and his work centers on Chicanx, Latinx, and Indigenous men who participate in restorative justice and transformative justice practices. Dr. Caporale is a Ford, Fulbright, and Bilinski Fellow, and he has authored essays and chapters in Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies, Urban Education, Routledge, Springer, Sage Publishing, and the University of Arizona Press.

Jose Del Real Viramontes, PhD
Assistant Professor
Higher Education Administration and Policy
School of Education
University of California, Riverside 

José Del Real Viramontes is an Assistant Professor in the Higher Education Administration and Policy Program in the School of Education at the University of California, Riverside. He holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction, specializing in Cultural Studies in Education, from the University of Texas at Austin.

As a former community college transfer student, his research explores three areas of the Latina/o/x transfer experience. First, his work examines the transfer policies, practices, and programming four-year colleges and universities apply to limit or eliminate institutional and structural barriers Latinx students face during the transfer process. Second, his work highlights how Latina/o/x community college students develop their agency and use aspects of their cultural and social capitals to navigate and negotiate the ideological, material, and structural conditions within the community college to the four-year college or university transfer process. Third, his work explores the campus culture for Latina/o/x community college transfer students once they transfer to a four-year college or university by looking at the relationship between race and space and the intersectional identities with which Latina/o/x community college transfer students identify.

Leandra Hernandez, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication
University of Utah 

Dr. Leandra H. Hernández (she/her/ella) is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Utah. She uses critical, qualitative, and Chicana feminist approaches to study topics at the intersections of journalism ethics, health communication, and gender and ethnic studies, such as gender violence, reproductive injustice, and feminist activism. She has published one monograph and five co-edited books on these topics, and her current book project explores the impacts of transnational feminist news framing and activism, particularly with an eye to the ways in which news discourses frame gender violence and feminicide in the US and Latin America. This year, she is the recipient of the UWHEN Emerging Professional Award, the NCA Activism & Social Justice Community Engagement Award, the NCA LGBTQ+ Caucus Lambda Award, and the OSCLG Feminist-Teacher Mentor Award. Her recent article entitled “Construyendo conexiones para los niños: Environmental justice, reproductive feminicidio, and coalitional possibility in the borderlands,” published in the journal Health Communication, is the recipient of the 2023 OSCLG Anita Taylor Outstanding Journal Article Award. She is the current chair of the NCA Health Communication Division and the co-founder of the NCA La Raza Caucus Mentorship Initiative.

Pablo Montes, PhD
Assistant Professor
Curriculum Studies
Texas Christian University 

Dr. Pablo Montes (any pronouns) is a descendant of the Chichimeca Guamares and P’urépecha people from the valley of Huatzindeo (Salvatierra, Guanajuato, MX), specifically from a small rancho called La Luz at the foot of the Culiacán mountain. They are an Assistant Professor of Curriculum Studies at Texas Christian University and received their Ph.D. in Cultural Studies in Education from the University of Texas at Austin (with an emphasis on Native American and Indigenous Studies and Mexican American and Latine Studies). Their main research interests are at the intersection of queer settler colonialism, Latinx Indigeneities, and Land education. Their current project emphasizes the transformational learning spaces that Two-Spirit, Queer, and Trans Indigenous educators create alongside their Indigenous community, Land, and other Queer Indigenous people. Dr. Montes is also a community-based scholar, serving as the Native Youth Director for the Indigenous Cultures Institute based in San Marcos, TX from 2017-2021. In this role, they developed Indigenous-based curriculum for a summer encounter dedicated to serving Indigenous and Latinx youth in the San Marcos area. They are also an active Danzante (Mexica Dancer) with Danza Ollinyollotl and Kalpulli Mitotiliztli Yaoyollohtli.

Guillermo Ortega, PhD
Assistant Professor
Higher Education
Idaho State University 

Guillermo Ortega is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education at Idaho State University. His research uses critical qualitative and quantitative methods to examine how colleges/universities and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) are reproducing systemic and racial inequalities that influence academic and athletic opportunities for Latina/o/e/x students. His current research projects have also aimed at understanding how racialized structures operate at Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) and post-doctoral fellowship positions.

Dr. Ortega serves as a policy fellow at the Center for Athletes’ Rights and Equity (CARE), where he addresses structural inequalities in sport and to create better, more equitable experiences and outcomes for amateur, collegiate, and professional athletes. Additionally, he serves as a faculty affiliate for Project MALES and The Center for Higher Education Linguistics and Translation (CHELT) where he focuses on policy and practice for improving Latina/o/e/x retention and graduation rates.

Guillermo is a first-generation college graduate and proud son of Mexican immigrants. He earned his PhD in Higher Education Leadership and Policy Studies from the University of Houston and holds an MEd in Higher Education and BAs in History/Sociology from the University of California, Riverside.

Brianna Posadas, PhD
Assistant Professor
School of Plant and Environmental Sciences
Virginia Tech

Dr. Brianna B. Posadas is an Assistant Professor at Virginia Tech's School of Plant and Environmental Sciences, specializing in the intersection of agriculture, technology, and user-centered design. She collaborates on projects such as aiding disabled growers through AgrAbility Virginia and researching precision agricultural technology adoption with the Department of Sociology in an NSF Future of Work project. Prior to her current role, she was a Computing Research Association (CRA) Computing Innovation Fellow in the Department of Agricultural, Leadership, and Community Education at VT. She earned her PhD from the University of Florida, becoming the first Latina to do so in the Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering. Dr. Posadas is also a leader in the Hispanics in Computing group and has advised undergraduates in the Data Science for Public Good summer research program at Virginia Tech. Dr. Posadas is originally from Murrieta, California and holds a Master of Science in Agricultural and Biological Engineering from UF and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Harvey Mudd College.

Alyssa Provencio, PhD
Assistant Professor
Political Science/Public Administration
University of Central Oklahoma

Dr. Alyssa L. Provencio is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science’s Master of Public Administration program at the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO). Her academic interests center gender, race/ethnicity, and place-based vulnerability in emergency and disaster management. Her scholarship and service has also focused on mentorship and inclusive pedagogy. Her goal is to ensure that the benefits of knowledge are accessible to all and empower individuals and communities to actively participate in their own resilience. Dr. Provencio attributes the passion for her discipline to the time she spent in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.

At UCO, she serves as the Academic Affairs Equity Advocate, directs the leadership minor for the College of Liberal Arts, coordinates the Disaster Management Certificate in the MPA program, and has led the Faculty Senate as President since May 2022. She is an unwavering advocate for Latino students, staff, and faculty, having contributed to UCO’s Hispanic Success Initiative, Primeros Pasos program, and Dreamer Fund Gala. She is also the co-creator of the Dreamer Ally Training and was President of the Latino Faculty and Staff Association for two years.

Originally from Derby, Kansas, she holds degrees from Oklahoma State University (PhD), the University of Arkansas Clinton School of Public Service (MPS), and Kansas State University (BS). Beyond academia, she’s currently training for her first triathlon, recently became a PADI divemaster, and loves to bake. She resides in rural Oklahoma with her partner, Tom, and their rescue pets, Lou and Biggs.

Erica Redner-Vera, PhD
Assistant Professor
Criminal Justice
School of Public Affairs
San Diego State University 

Erica Redner-Vera is an Assistant Professor of Criminal Justice in the School of Public Affairs at San Diego State University. Prior to joining SDSU, Dr. Redner-Vera was a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Sociology Department at the University of Montana, and a Faculty Associate in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Arizona State University. Dr. Redner-Vera’s research interests include race, ethnicity, crime, and justice, especially issues concerning American Indians. She is a 2021 Fellow of the RDCJN, and a 2015 Graduate Research Fellow of BJS, where her dissertation examined the treatment of American Indian defendants in United States Federal Courts. Her research investigates how American Indian defendants are treated across multiple decision points, the cumulative disadvantage they endure, increased disparities over time, and whether social context affects how they are treated. She also explores discrimination, historical trauma, delinquency, and resiliency among American Indian youth in Southern California. Dr. Redner-Vera received her M.S. and Ph.D. in Criminology and Criminal Justice from ASU in 2011 and 2019, respectively, and her B.A. in Criminal Justice from the University of Nevada, Reno in 2008. Her research has been published in Justice Quarterly, Crime & Delinquency, and Journal of Ethnicity in Criminal Justice.

Joan Roque Peña, PhD
Assistant Professor
Chemistry
Universidad de Puerto Rico en Cayey 

Joan E. Roque Peña, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Puerto Rico at Cayey. She earned her BS and PhD in chemistry and an MEd in adult education, leading her to develop an interdisciplinary research laboratory. In her research, she integrates inorganic chemistry and education to develop curricular materials that are student-centered. Because she is interested in making education more accessible to Hispanics and lowering attrition rates, she is exploring student engagement and language practices in the classroom. She is dedicated to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) so that she can create engaging classroom environments where students feel like they belong. Due to her efforts, she received the Unsung Hero Award in 2021 at Westminster College and the POGIL Peach Award in 2023. In 2023, she was a recipient of the NSF LEAPS Award which will fund her efforts to expand her inorganic and chemistry education research laboratory where her Hispanic undergraduate students can have a place to participate in research and enhance their laboratory skills. Other research areas include organometallic chemistry and catalysis.

Natalia Villanueva-Nieves, PhD
Assistant Professor
Chicano and Latino Studies
Sonoma State University 

Dr. Natalia Villanueva-Nieves is an Assistant Professor of Chicano and Latino Studies at Sonoma State University. Her area of study is Latinx literature and expressive cultures, specializing in Latina storytelling, Latina emotional geographies, transnational feminisms, and relational race studies.

Her research explores how storytelling outlines complex understandings of space as an intersection of affect, domestic spaces, migratory routes, imaginary nations, and the geopolitical relationships between the U.S. and Latin America. Dr. Villanueva-Nieves is currently working on her first academic book, tentatively titled The True Colors of Feeling Brown: Reading Affect and Hegemony in Latina Narratives,which examines Latina narratives from the 1990s and 2000s as cartographies that map emotional landscapes as they are differently experienced by Mestiza, white, and Black Latinas in different historical periods.

Dr. Villanueva-Nieves holds a Ph.D. in Chicana and Chicano Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, an M.A. in Literary Studies from Utrecht University, and a B.A. in Literature from the Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana. Her scholarship has been published in journals and edited volumes in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America. She was a recipient of the UC Mexus-Conacyt fellowship, the UCSB Chicano Institute Dissertation Award, and the Huygens Scholarship Program.

Cynthia Villarreal, PhD
Assistant Professor
Educational Leadership
Northern Arizona University

Cynthia D. Villarreal is an Assistant Professor at Northern Arizona University in Educational Leadership. She holds a Ph.D. in Urban Education Policy from the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California. She is a fronteriza from El Paso, Texas studying the borderlands of higher education, Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs), organizational culture, equity in decision-making, and Chicana feminisms in higher education. As a qualitative researcher and creative non-fiction writer, Dr. Villarreal believes in the importance of sharing countertestimonios to critique and transform higher education. She uses interdisciplinary theories and research to inform her approach to the study of HSIs and how they serve their Latine students by interrogating the policies, structures, and culture within colleges and universities. She is also a Racial Equity Coach for the University of Southern California Race and Equity Center providing support to community colleges navigating racial equity change projects on campus. She is a mamischolar living in the Sonoran Desert (Phoenix, Arizona) with her two children and husband. She was a 2020 AAHHE Graduate Student Fellow. 

Ruben Zecena, PhD
Assistant Professor
Department of English
University of California, Davis 

Ruben Zecena is an interdisciplinary scholar specializing in contemporary Latinx Literature and Culture, which he engages through the lens of Queer of Color Critique, Border Studies, Affect Theory, and Transnational American Studies. He received his PhD in Gender & Women's Studies, with a minor in Social, Cultural, and Critical Theory, from the University of Arizona (2021). His work is animated by his experiences as a formerly undocumented queer migrant from El Salvador.

He is completing his first monograph, Impossible Possibilities: The Unruly Imaginaries of Queer and Trans Migrants. The book explores the cultural productions of LGBTQ migrants as a blueprint from which to question, critique, and re-imagine the contours of national belonging. It is under advance contract with University of Texas Press. His scholarship appears in WSQ: Women's Studies Quarterly, Prose Studies, Díalogo, Studies in Spanish & Latin American Cinemas, among others.