Dr. Stephanie Alvarez
At-Large Representative
Dr. Stephanie Alvarez is Professor of Mexican American Studies and Director of Puentes—A Cultural Wealth Model for Student Success, a U.S. Department of Education Title V grant. She served as the founding Director of the Center for Mexican American Studies at University of Texas Río Grande Valley. Alvarez has been recognized by the Carnegie Foundation for Teaching as the U.S. Professor of the Year, the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education as the Outstanding Latino/a Faculty in Higher Ed award, and the University of Texas System Board of Regents with the Outstanding Teaching Award. As a professor she has been instrumental in the implementation of testimonio as a signature pedagogy in the program, creating service-learning courses for students to engage with the community which has resulted in oral history collections, murals in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institute in the city of San Juan, Texas and multiple collaborations with Pharr San Juan Alamo ISD including a Día de los Muertos Altar Competition now in its 7th year. She has assisted over a dozen Chicanx/Latinx students in reaching their goal of gaining entrance to a PhD program. She is the co-editor of the book, The AmeRícan Poet: Essays on the work of Tato Laviera, and author of numerous essays on the intersections of education, race, gender, language, identity, and culture.