Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership, Northern Arizona University
Ph.D. Urban Education Policy, University of Southern California
B.A. Anthropology & English, Texas Tech University
M.Ed. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, The University of Texas at San Antonio
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Research Interests
Racial equity in higher education | Organizational culture and change | College administration and faculty | Hispanic-serving institutions | Educational experiences of latinx students in higher education
Cynthia D. Villarreal is an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership at Northern Arizona University. Previously, she was a visiting Assistant Professor at University of California, Riverside. Villarreal was a postdoctoral research associate in the Pullias Center for Higher Education at the Rossier School of Education.
She is an interdisciplinary scholar who challenges issues of equity in higher education by examining and interrogating organizational processes, policies, structures, and culture through a race-conscious and feminist lens. She considers herself a qualitative researcher and storyteller in/on the borderlands who prioritizes counternarratives to critique and transform higher education. Her latest Pullias research explores how a Latinx/a/o serving consciousness is embedded, embodied, and enacted at Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs). At Pullias, she worked with Adrianna Kezar on Refining Resources in Leadership Teams for Institutional Transformation funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Villarreal earned a Ph.D. in Urban Education Policy from the Rossier School of Education. She has a master’s of education in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies from the University of Texas at San Antonio and a dual bachelor’s in English and Anthropology from Texas Tech University. She previously taught 6th grade English Language Arts in San Antonio, Texas.