Victor B. Sáenz, PhD

Professor & Chair, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy
Executive Director, Project MALES
The University of Texas at Austin

Victor B. Sáenz, PhD is Chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Texas at Austin where he has been on faculty since 2007. He is a Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy and is a Faculty Fellow in the Sid W. Richardson Regents Chair in Community College Leadership. Dr. Sáenz also holds courtesy appointments with the UT Center for Mexican American Studies, the UT Department of Mexican American and Latino Studies, the Irma Rangel Public Policy Institute, the Institute for Urban Policy Research & Analysis, and the UCLA Higher Education Research Institute.

In 2010 Dr. Sáenz co-founded an award-winning initiative called Project MALES (Mentoring to Achieve Latino Educational Success), a multi-pronged effort focused on serving male students of color through research, mentoring, and a statewide collaborative. In 2013 he co-launched the Texas Education Consortium for Male Students of Color as a cross-sector statewide network of over 40 school districts and higher education institutions focused on advancing equitable educational outcomes for male students of color at the local, state, and national level. To date, the efforts of Project MALES and the Consortium have served thousands of male youth across the state of Texas, both in the PK-12 and higher education sectors.

Dr. Sáenz's current research is focused on best practices and policy solutions that improve educational outcomes for underserved students in postsecondary education, with a special emphasis on young men of color. Over the years, he has been quoted and cited in numerous news stories, policy reports, and scholarly publications, and his research work on Latino males has received national coverage in various media outlets. He has spoken about his research at the White House, the National Press Club, on Capitol Hill, and at conferences across the country. Dr. Sáenz earned his Ph.D. in Higher Education and Organizational Change from UCLA in 2005. He also earned a Master's degree in Public Affairs (1999) and a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics (1996) from UT-Austin.