Louie Rodriguez

Louie F. Rodriguez is the Vice Provost and Dean of the Division of Undergraduate Education at the University of California Riverside.  He is also a Professor and Bank of America Endowed Chair in Education Leadership, Policy, and Practice in the School of Education. He is also the Founding Director of the Center for Educational Transformation at UCR. He served as Interim Dean of the UCR School of Education from 2019-2022 and was responsible for hiring 30% of the School’s faculty making the UCR School of Education the most diverse faculty across all UC Schools of Education, raised $3 million during the pandemic for emergency and endowed scholarships, and built several teacher pipeline programs. His research examines issues in Latina/o/x education, Participatory Action Research, and educational equity.  He recently led an initiative focused on understanding Latinx students’ sources of excellence at home, school, and the community.  Dr. Rodriguez earned an A.A. from San Bernardino Valley College, a B.A. from CSU, San Bernardino, and two master’s degrees and a doctorate from Harvard.  He is the author of nearly 50 publications and 4 books, including Intentional Excellence:  The Pedagogy, Power, and Politics of Excellence in Latina/o Schools & Communities and The Time is Now:  Understanding and Responding to the Black and Latina/o Dropout Crisis in the U.S.  He has received numerous honors including the American Education Research Association (AERA) Hispanic Research Issues SIG Award for Research in Elementary, Secondary, and Postsecondary Education in 2019, recognition by the Harvard Latino Alumni Alliance in 2019, Outstanding Latino Faculty by the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) in 2015, and was designated as an “Emerging Leader” in 2014 by Phi Delta Kappa International in Washington, DC in 2014.