We would like to welcome our newest Project MALES Faculty Affiliates Dr. Claudia Garcia-Louis and Dr. Juan Rios Vega. Dr. García-Louis, is a visiting assistant professor at the University of Texas San Antonio, a Project MALES faculty & research affiliate, and an AfroLatin@ forum research affiliate. She received a BA in Psychology and a BS in Anthropology with a focus in Archaeology from Oregon State University, a MA in Student Development Administration from Seattle University, and a doctorate in Higher Education Leadership from the University of Texas at Austin. Her research seeks to disrupt deficit thinking about communities of color, disadvantaged populations and underrepresented students. Her goals are to expand the definitions of Latinidad and Blackness in higher education, to make a critical contribution to a newly formed line of inquiry that explores the educational experiences of AfroLatinxs, and to conduct research that highlights Latinx heterogeneity. Prior to attending graduate school, García-Louis worked at Linfield College as Director of Multicultural Programs where her outreach program, Ayudando Podemos, received national recognition from Excelencia in Education for its remarkable three-fold increase in Latina/o student enrollment. García-Louis draws from over six years of student affairs experience in order to bridge theory to practice and back again. Her core values as an educator are to uphold social justice, equity, and respect at all times with an emphasis on the mastery of knowledge.To view Dr. Garcia-Louis’ CV click here.
Dr. Rios Vega, is an Assistant Professor in the School of Teacher Education, Department of Education and Health at Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois. Dr. Rios was born and raised in Panama where he obtained a BA’s in English (1995) and Education (1998) at the University of Panama. Dr. Rios taught English as a foreign language in the public and private school systems in Panama before moving to North Carolina in 1999 to work as an English as a Second Language (ESL) in the public school system. He earned a Master’s of education in Curriculum and Teaching with Emphasis in ESL from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (2006); received National Board Certification in English as a New Language/Early Adolescence through Young Adulthood in 2009; received his doctorate in Philosophy in Educational Studies, Cultural Studies Concentration from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (2014), Women’s and Gender Studies Certificate and North Carolina Principal License (2014). Received the 2013-2014 Graduate Research Scholar Award for his outstanding graduate research and scholarship (2014) and the Daniel Solórzano Mentorship Award (2014). His areas of interest include: English Language Acquisition, Multicultural Education, Critical Race Theory, Latino/a Critical Theory, and Social Justice in Education. Dr. Ríos Vega has taught Latino/a Education in the U.S. at Davidson College, ESL at the Guilford Technical Community College (GTCC) in North Carolina. In 2015, he published his first book Counterstorytelling Narratives of Latino Teenage Boys: From Vergüenza to Échale Ganas. You can view Dr. Rios Vega CV here.
To learn more about our Project MALES Affiliates click here.
