Leticia Alvarez

Leticia Alvarez is an Associate Professor at the University of Utah’s College of Education, specifically within the Education, Culture & Society department. A first-generation Purépecha Xicana scholar and educator, her work is deeply informed by her upbringing in a working-poor, mixed-status family along the San Diego-Tijuana border and her experiences navigating both underfunded K-12 schools and elite higher education institutions. Her research focuses on the educational experiences of BIPOC and Latinx communities, particularly those racially profiled, academically tracked, or undocumented.

• Education: Ph.D. in Educational Psychology (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Ed.M. in Human Development and Psychology (Harvard), BA in Liberal Arts with Spanish minor (CSU San Marcos)

Research strands include: (1) Latinx immigrant students’ navigational strategies in U.S. education; (2) family-school engagement through community-based research; and (3) culturally sustaining praxis for teachers. Theories employed include critical social theory, Chicana feminist theory, and participatory action research (PAR). Recent publications address COVID-19’s impact on Latinx education, resisting the school-to-sweatshop pipeline, and undocumented youth agency.

Awards include the Distinguished Faculty Service Award (2022), Social Justice & Transformation Award (2022), and multiple honors from the Mestizo Arts & Activism Collective (2016, 2019). She served on the Utah Board of Juvenile Justice and contributed to community engagement initiatives like the Afghan Refugee Leadership Training Series (2023).