“I HAVE COME to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood” (Lorde, 2007, p. 40). I write from the core of who I am: joto, Latinx, feminist, hijo de a first-generation Madre, and Mexican Immigrant Padre, Jotería scholar, and activist. As a scholar-activist, I focus on co-creating counternarratives of Queer and Trans Latinx/a/o individuals within higher education.

Currently, I am an assistant professor of higher education in the Department of Educational Foundations, Organizations, and Policy in the School of Education at the University of Pittsburgh. I received my Ph.D. in Higher Education & Student Affairs from Claremont Graduate University (CGU). Additionally, I earned an M.A. in Applied Gender Studies from CGU, an M.Ed. in Postsecondary Administration and Student Affairs from the University of Southern California (USC), and a B.A. in Communication Studies from Manhattanville College. My transdisciplinary research is informed by Women of Color Feminisms, specifically Black and Queer feminist ideologies, Chicana/Latina feminisms, and Jotería Studies within higher education scholarship. My scholarship and leadership have been honored across different spaces, including the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) through awards such as the Gender and Sexuality Knowledge Community Intersectional Inclusion Award and the Latinx/a/o Knowledge Community Mena/Valdez Latinx Inclusion Award. Recently, I published the co-edited book "Queering Higher Education: The QTPOC Experience (1st Ed)" through Cognella Academic Publishing.