Introduction
I have served as an Associate Professor (with tenure) in the School of Education and Human Development at the University of Colorado Denver since 2013. Beginning in 2024, my academic home has been in the Educational Foundations area where I currently serve as program lead. Prior to this (2013-2024), I was based in the Special Education Program where I also served as program leader two times for periods of up to three years each term. Through this research statement, I provide a record of my research and scholarship which reflects a programmatic, sustained, and justice-centered body of work.
My journey as an educator and scholar is fundamentally shaped by my identity as a Boricua with Indigenous Taino roots, African heritage, and as a first-generation college student. These identities position me not as an outside observer of educational inequity, but as someone who has navigated and resisted the very systems my research seeks to transform. Having personally experienced the intersecting impacts of racism, classism, and sexism, I bring to my scholarship both rigorous academic training and what Patricia Hill Collins[ describes as the specialized knowledge created by those who live at the intersections of multiple oppressions. From my earliest days as a paraprofessional working with diverse learners to my current role as Associate Professor and Program Lead in Educational Foundations, I have witnessed, and personally lived, the persistent inequities embedded within our educational systems. My experiences of navigating and resisting oppression are woven into my methodology, my theoretical frameworks, and my deep conviction that education must serve as a catalyst for collective liberation.
Through my sustained record of scholarship, leadership, and innovation, I have established a national and international reputation and demonstrated leadership in the fields of teacher education, gifted education, and educational policy, particularly in advancing the recruitment, preparation, and retention of a diverse educator workforce.
At the center of my research is Pathways2Teaching®, a high school Grow Your Own (GYO) program I founded in 2010. Because of the program’s innovation for encouraging high school students of color to consider entering the teacher workforce, Pathways2Teaching is a national model for innovation. The program is currently implemented across multiple school districts in Colorado and nationwide.
Pathways2Teaching® was intentionally designed to address the persistent lack of teacher diversity and national teacher shortage by disrupting traditional, inequitable teacher pipelines. The program engages high school students of color, multilingual youth, and first-generation students in exploring teaching as a form of resistance and community restoration.
This commitment has generated a purposeful and sustained body of scholarship organized around two interconnected strands: building a more just and representative educator workforce and advancing equity and access for underrepresented gifted learners. Together, these strands form a coherent, programmatic approach to dismantling systemic educational inequities, one that identifies structural barriers while advancing innovative, community-centered solutions that elevate the voices and experiences of those most often excluded from educational opportunity,
Since receiving tenure, my research has contributed to the national conversation on how to reimagine who enters the teaching profession and how teacher identity is cultivated as activists and responsive to the needs of their communities.
I have published over 52 manuscripts and presented my work more than 141 times, 62 of which were keynote talks and invited presentations at international, national, and state conferences. Post tenure, I have published 16 peer-reviewed journal articles, 7 peer-reviewed book chapters, and 2 technical reports and policy papers, many of which are co-authored with doctoral students and early career scholars of color. I co-edited the recruitment section in the Handbook of Research on Teachers of Color and Indigenous Teachers (AERA, 2022) and co-founded the Grow Your Own Collective. Additionally, I have 4 papers accepted or in press for publication and 2 under review with two 2025 book contracts underway and one currently under review. My research trajectory has been steady and impactful marked by ongoing productivity and demonstrable impact on policy and practice.
In summary, my scholarly identity, research agenda, and professional commitments are shaped by my lived experiences, cultural heritage, and dedication to educational equity and justice. The intersection of my personal journey and academic work has allowed me to cultivate a research program that is both intellectually rigorous and responsive to the needs of historically marginalized communities.