Marissa Vasquez, EdD

Associate Professor
San Diego State University

Associate Professor of Postsecondary Educational Leadership in the Department of Administration, Rehabilitation, and Postsecondary Education at San Diego State University, Marissa Vasquez also serves as the director of the MA in Postsecondary Educational Leadership and Student Affairs Program and is the first elected Latina Vice Chair of the University Senate.

As a community college scholar, Vasquez uses an anti-deficit lens to understand and interrogate the pre/post transitional experiences of community college and transfer students, particularly first-generation and racially minoritized communities. As the associate director of the Community College Equity Assessment Lab (CCEAL), she leads efforts to assist community colleges in identifying challenges to equity-centered institutional effectiveness and developing problem-solving strategies and solutions. Vasquez also leads the SEMILLAS Research Team, which seeks to not only further scholarship on community college students, but also engage them in research. She serves as co-Editor of the Journal of Applied Research in the Community College and is on the editorial board for the Journal of Hispanics in Higher Education.

A native of the San Diego, Vasquez earned her AA from Southwestern College, BA in English from UC Berkeley, MA in counseling from the University of San Diego, and her EdD in Community College Leadership from San Diego State University.