Richard Duran

Richard Duran is a Professor at the Gevirtz Graduate School of Education, University of California Santa Barbara. He obtained his PhD is Psychology from UC Berkeley in 1977 and before joining UCSB in 1984 worked as a Research Scientist at Educational Testing Service.

His specialty research areas include assessment and education policy, and education interventions serving English language learners, and Latino students and families. He currently serves as the Director of the UCSB component of the California Enlace Project and its family and community school engagement strand.

Regarding his current interests and mentoring responsibilities, he comments: "Our research universities have entered a new era wherein we are achieving critical masses of graduate and undergraduate students from underrepresented that can give back to their communities by assuming postgraduate professional roles serving educational advancement of these communities. As part of their training, under the right circumstances, these students learn the value and challenges of complex collaborations and teamwork involving K-12 schools and colleges, community groups and families, and policy groups operating at regional, state, and national levels. These new emerging professionals have the capability of altering traditional the traditional mission of higher education institutions so that they more directly address the development of human potential of Latino and other groups currently underrepresented in higher education."