Marcela Cuellar joined the School of Education in July 2014 as an
assistant professor in higher education & leadership. She
received her doctorate in Higher Education and Organizational
Change at the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information
Studies. Her research examines access and equity in higher
education, Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) and emerging
HSIs, and Latinx student success. More specifically, Dr.
My work focuses on how communities and regions produce and
disrupt disparities in youth well-being, with emphasis on
disparities associated with race/ethnicity, immigration,
socio-economic status and geographic location. My interest in
youth well-being situates my activity at the intersection of
educational reform, public health, youth development and
community development. I ground my work conceptually at the nexus
of theories of development in social ecological contexts,
critical human geographers’ analyses of space and place as
socially produced, and critical race theory.
Cassandra Hart is an associate professor of education policy. She
evaluates the effects of school, state and national education
programs, policies, and practices on overall student achievement,
and on the equality of student outcomes. Hart’s work has focused
on school choice programs, school accountability
policies, and effects on students of exposure to
demographically similar teachers. She is also interested in the
effects of virtual schooling on student outcomes, both in K-12
and post-secondary settings.
Michal Kurlaender investigates students’ educational pathways, in
particular K-12 and postsecondary alignment, and access to and
success in postsecondary schooling. She has expertise on
alternative pathways to college and college readiness at both
community colleges and four-year colleges and universities. In
addition to working with national data, Kurlaender works closely
with administrative data from all three of California’s public
higher education sectors–the University of California, the
California State University and the California Community College
systems.
Francisco (Paco) Martorell joined the School as an assistant
professor in July 2014. Martorell completed his PhD in economics
at UC Berkeley. Prior to joining the School, he was an Economist
at the RAND Corporation and was a professor at the Pardee RAND
Graduate School since 2006. He has broad research interests in
both higher education and K-12 policy. Current projects cover
areas including developmental education in colleges, the effects
of grade retention, the returns to for-profit colleges, the
impacts of school facility investments, and community college
tuition subsidies.
Faculty ProfileEMPHASIS AREA: SOEP. Latina/o and Native American identity formations in P-20 systems; Transition to college for students of color in K-12, Access
Office hours: Fall Quarter 2017 — By Appointment Only
Gloria M. Rodriguez’s current research explores notions
of educational investment that reflect efforts to build
upon community strengths in order to address community
needs within and beyond educational settings. Dr. Rodriguez
also engages in research that focuses on the political
economic conditions and educational trajectories of
Chicana/o-Latina/o communities, other communities of color,
and low-income populations in the U.S.
