Schedule

Student Research, Scholarship & Creative Activities Conference

Keynote Speaker: Audrey Paredes

Audrey D. Paredes, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of educational leadership and administration in the School of Education at California State University, San Marcos (CSUSM). Her role as a teacher-scholar is informed by her positionality as the daughter of Guatemalan immigrants, first-generation college student, and a former college student affairs practitioner. As an interdisciplinary scholar, Dr. Paredes’ broader research agenda utilizes critical approaches to understand and conceptualize the ways in which institutions of higher education, specifically Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs), can be sites of transformation so that systemically marginalized communities can thrive. Currently, her research focuses on responding to the heterogeneity of the Latina/o/x college student population within the context of federally designated Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) by way of examining the lived experiences of Central American undergraduates. Dr. Paredes’ has expertise in anti-racist and decolonial theories such as Critical Race Theory and Chicana/Latina Feminist Theories as well as, Chicana/Latina Feminista qualitative methodologies. Prior to joining CSUSM, she was a post-doctoral scholar at UCLA, the lead project manager for the University of California’s Hispanic Serving Institutions (UC-HSI) Initiative, and a consultant for the UC Asian American Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISI) working group. Dr. Paredes earned her Ph.D. in education with a specialization in race and ethnic studies at the UCLA, MA in education at UCLA, and BA in Gender, Ethnicity, and Multicultural Studies (concentration in Chicana/o Studies) from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.