Project MALES is excited to welcome our newest Faculty and Research Affiliates: Dr. Melissa Abeyta, Dr. Kaleb Briscoe, Dr. Jorge Burmicky, Dr. Lazaro Camacho, Dr. Hermen Díaz III, Dr. Crystal Garcia, and Dr. Soua Xiong.
Melissa Abeyta, Ed.D. is faculty in Sociology at The University of Texas, Rio Grande Valley. Dr. Abeyta’s research focuses on factors affecting the success of formerly incarcerated minoritized students in postsecondary education with attention to the community college context. Her commitment to research on community colleges stems from the fact that these institutions serve as the primary pathway into postsecondary education for formerly incarcerated students (as well as other traditionally underserved student populations). Dr. Abeyta’s research has centered on significant data of formerly incarcerated Latino students and how they have shed their carceral identities and transform them to educational identities, yet still, experience deleterious institutional stigmatization as they navigate new social norms.
Kaleb Briscoe, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at Mississippi State University. Her research problematizes oppressed and marginalized populations within higher education through critical theoretical frameworks and qualitative methodological approaches. Through her scholarship on campus racial climate, she seeks to disrupt whiteness and white supremacy on predominantly white campuses. Her research shapes administrators, specifically university presidents’ responses to race and racism, by challenging their use of anti-Blackness and non-performative rhetoric.
Jorge Burmicky, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Howard University. His research examines the leadership pipeline in higher education with an emphasis on racially minoritized leaders at Minority-Serving Institutions (MSI’s), community colleges, and regional universities. His work also explores policies and practices that support the educational outcomes of men of color, specifically the impact of men of color programs and initiatives on student success.
Lazaro Camacho, Ph.D. is a Faculty of Practice in the College Student Personnel program at the University of Rhode Island. His research centers on access and equity through a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach to student success. By using qualitative methodologies, Dr. Camacho critically explores issues of social justice, oppression, and privilege. His published scholarship includes the intersection of masculinity and the undergraduate experiences of Latino men, the performance of leadership amongst undergraduate Latino men, formal leadership development credential pathways for community college students, the relationship between network mentorship as a tool to support retention and completion among Black and Latino undergraduate men, and community college-based workforce development.
Hermen Díaz III, Ph.D. is an assistant professor in the Higher Education Administration Department at SUNY-Buffalo State College. His scholarly interest center on the experiences of students of color at institutions of higher education. Dr. Díaz’s research specifically focuses on the transactional relationship between the campus environment and Latinx/o men as it relates to equity, belonging, and liberation. With over a decade of experience as a scholar-practitioner in higher education administration, he focuses on creating a collaborative and co-constructed learning environment that empowers aspiring/current student affairs practitioners.
Crystal Garcia, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in Educational Administration at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Dr. Garcia’s research critically examines the experiences of minoritized college students in relation to their campus environments. Her current research project includes a critical analysis of anti-racist practice in sorority and fraternity life, an examination of the experiences of Queer People of Color in culturally-based fraternities and sororities, and an exploration of ways student affairs professionals articulate and enacts commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Soua Xiong, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Counselor Education and Rehabilitation and Coordinator of the Student Affairs and College Counseling program at California State University, Fresno. He has over 17 years of higher education experience as a student affairs practitioner, research, and faculty member. Dr. Xiong’s research focuses primarily on topics related to college student access. To date, his research has focused on Southeast Asian Americans, male students of color, and support services for underrepresented students. Dr. Xiong is currently using qualitative research methods to explore the factors that allowed Hmong students to access, thrive, and succeed in higher education.
For more information about our Faculty and Research Affiliates and our Research Institute please visit our web page.
