AAHHE Webinar
AAHHE Latina/o/x Heritage and Indigenous People's Day Panel
Justicia and Reconciliation: Enhancing Racial Solidarity in
Higher Education

Moderator:
Cristóbal Rodríguez, PhD, Arizona State University  

Panelists include:              
Soribel Genao, PhD, Queens College
Angela Valenzuela, PhD, The University of Texas at Austin
Sweeney Windchief, EdD, Montana State University

Moderator ~ Cristóbal Rodríguez, PhD, Arizona State University

Dr. Cristóbal Rodríguez is the Associate Dean of Equity, Inclusion and Community Engagement at the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College of Arizona State University, a newly declared Hispanic Serving Institution. Prior to his recent appointment, Dr. Rodríguez spent 5 years as an Assistant Professor at New Mexico State University, a Hispanic Serving Institution, and his undergraduate and master’s degree alma mater; with an additional 7 blessed years thereafter at Howard University in Washington, DC, a top Historically Black College/University, as an Associate Professor and as the Director of Graduate Studies of the School of Education.

Panelists include:

Soribel Genao, PhD, Queens College ~ Dr. Soribel Genao, an immigrant daughter of parents from Haiti and the Dominican Republic is an associate professor of Educational Leadership in the Department of Educational and Community Programs at Queens College, City University of New York. Dr Genao is currently a Queens College Provost Diversity Fellow where she serves as lead to establish a diversity, equity, and inclusion lens in all institutional sectors of the college including social responsibility, finance, admissions, hiring, recruitment, evaluation, advancement, and strategic visioning. Most recently and noteworthy, Dr. Genao published “Recasting Solidarity: A Call for Radical Engagement and Academic Unification” in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education.

Angela Valenzuela, PhD, The University of Texas at Austin ~ Dr. Angela Valenzuela is a Professor in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction and the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Texas at Austin. She is Director of the Texas Center for Education Policy. Dr. Valenzuela was recently inducted into the 2021 cohort of the National Academy of Education for her continuous academic contributions and leadership to our communities. Dr. Valenzuela co-founded Academia Cuauhtli, a cultural revitalization program of instruction in Spanish for fourth and fifth graders from five, East Austin ISD schools, which she will highlight herein “The Role of Indigeneity in Revitalizing Immigrant Students’ Identities.” 

Sweeney Windchief, EdD, Montana State University ~ Dr. Sweeney Windchief, a member of the Fort Peck Tribes (Assiniboine) in Montana, serves as an associate professor of Adult and Higher Education at Montana State University. His research interests include higher education specifically under the umbrella of Indigenous intellectualism. His teaching privileges include critical race theory, Indigenous methodologies in research, law and policy in higher education and institutional research. He and his wife Sara have two sons who help keep things in perspective.