Gloria Itzel Montiel

Gloria Itzel Montiel, PhD, serves as an instructor in the Allies of Dreamers Certificate program within the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University. An alumna of CGU, she was among the first DACA recipients to obtain a PhD in the United States. She combines her lived experience as an undocumented student with professional expertise in health equity and educational program design.

Dr. Montiel earned her PhD in Education from Claremont Graduate University, an EdM in Learning & Teaching from Harvard, and a BA in English & American Literature & Language from Harvard. Her academic journey as an undocumented student was featured in the 2011 documentary Almost American.

Montiel's research focuses on the undocumented student experience in selective private colleges, institutional capacity to serve undocumented students, and social determinants of health at the intersection of race and immigration. Her work bridges educational access and health equity, examining how immigration status affects academic trajectories and health outcomes. She structures her courses to develop concrete strategies for supporting undocumented students and mixed-status families throughout the PK-20 pipeline.

Her scholarly output reveals consistent thematic focus across disciplines, connecting immigration status with educational access, health outcomes, and community resilience. Her work increasingly incorporates community-based participatory research approaches and examines pandemic impacts on vulnerable populations, particularly Latinx communities. Montiel's research demonstrates how civic engagement serves as a critical social determinant of health and educational equity.

As an experienced health equity and educational program design leader, Montiel has secured more than $18 million in grants and contracts for high-impact programming. She currently serves as the founding director of community engaged research at the AltaMed Institute for Health Equity and as consulting director of strategy & sustainability at Latino Health Access in Orange County, California.

Montiel has presented her work at major academic conferences including the American Educational Research Association, National Association of Student Affairs Professionals, and American Public Health Association. Her community leadership was instrumental in developing Orange County's initial $3 million investment for the COVID-19 health equity response at the zip code level in 2020.