Faculty and student honored at Latino Excellence and Achievement Awards Dinner
By Carol Jean Tomoguchi-Perez
May 9, 2024
Ph.D. candidate Alysia Cruz and Assistant Professor Adriana Villavicencio were recognized at the seventh annual Latino Excellence and Achievement Awards Dinner (LEAD) on April 4. Cruz received the Graduate Student Excellence Award and Villavicencio was named the Outstanding Emerging Faculty Mentorship Award recipient.
May 9, 2024
Ph.D. candidate Alysia Cruz and Assistant Professor Adriana Villavicencio were recognized at the seventh annual Latino Excellence and Achievement Awards Dinner (LEAD) on April 4. Cruz received the Graduate Student Excellence Award and Villavicencio was named the Outstanding Emerging Faculty Mentorship Award recipient.
Alysia Cruz
First-generation college student Cruz focuses her research on how caregivers, families, and cultural values shape the social, emotional, and moral development of U.S. Latine children and adolescents, with the goal of understanding prosocial and moral development in ethnic-racial minoritized youth in order to address existing social disparities and injustices faced by these youth. To date, Cruz has published six research publications, book chapters, and has 17 professional, domestic and international conference presentations. Her dissertation centers on developing and evaluating a new measure of bien educado, a core Latine cultural value, to deepen our understanding of its influence on youth development.
Cruz has dedicated herself to leadership, mentorship, inclusive excellence, and sustainability efforts at UCI, participating in the UCI Zot Exchange, the Palo Verde Residents Council, UAW2865 School of Education Department Steward, Competitive Edge, The Peoples Coalition, as a Diverse Educational Community and Doctoral Experience (DECADE) campus-wide representative, and the DECADE Inclusive Excellence committee.
Cruz has dedicated herself to leadership, mentorship, inclusive excellence, and sustainability efforts at UCI, participating in the UCI Zot Exchange, the Palo Verde Residents Council, UAW2865 School of Education Department Steward, Competitive Edge, The Peoples Coalition, as a Diverse Educational Community and Doctoral Experience (DECADE) campus-wide representative, and the DECADE Inclusive Excellence committee.
Adriana Villavicencio
Villavicencio performs research on K-12 educational policy and practice that deepen or disrupt inequities for students who are marginalized because of race, ethnicity, and immigration status. She is the author of Am I My Brother’s Keeper: Educational Opportunities and Outcomes for Black and Brown Boys (Harvard Education Press), which examines how policymakers, leaders, and teachers can apply a racial equity lens to transform educational systems. Villavicencio has received more than $12 million in grants from several different funding sources, including the National Science Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, and the William T. Grant Foundation. Her work has appeared in a number of peer-reviewed journals, including Educational Policy, Harvard Educational Review, and Teachers College Record.
Prior to becoming a researcher, Villavicencio taught middle and high school English in Brooklyn, New York and Oakland, California. She earned her Ph.D. in Education Leadership and Policy from the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. She also holds an M.A. in English Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a B.A. in English from Columbia University.
LEAD honors key leaders, graduate students, staff and faculty who support and champion student success and research excellence in the Hispanic/Latinx community at UCI and in Orange County. The Latino Excellence and Achievement Awards was the inspiration of School of Education alumna Verónica Ahumada Newhart Ph.D. '18, who believed the time had arrived to celebrate the accomplishments of UCI’s Latinx community.
Prior to becoming a researcher, Villavicencio taught middle and high school English in Brooklyn, New York and Oakland, California. She earned her Ph.D. in Education Leadership and Policy from the NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. She also holds an M.A. in English Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a B.A. in English from Columbia University.
LEAD honors key leaders, graduate students, staff and faculty who support and champion student success and research excellence in the Hispanic/Latinx community at UCI and in Orange County. The Latino Excellence and Achievement Awards was the inspiration of School of Education alumna Verónica Ahumada Newhart Ph.D. '18, who believed the time had arrived to celebrate the accomplishments of UCI’s Latinx community.
