Postdoctoral Scholar, Northern Arizona University, College of Education
PhD., Urban Education Policy, University of Southern California
MA, Higher and Postsecondary Education, Teachers College, Columbia University
Theresa E. Hernandez is a former research assistant at the Pullias Center for Higher Education. She was also a Rossier Dean’s Fellow in the Urban Education Policy PhD program at USC Rossier School of Education. Currently, she works as a Postdoctoral Scholar with Dr. Jennifer Blaney at Northern Arizona University in the College of Education.
Hernandez was born in San Francisco and attended Mission High School before spending more than a decade in New York City. She completed her bachelor’s in comparative ethnic studies at Columbia University and earned her master’s in higher and postsecondary education from Teachers College, Columbia University.
Hernandez was advised by Julie Posselt. Her research interests include the institutional interventions and broader policies that structurally support or hinder first-generation students of color from low socioeconomic backgrounds getting into and succeeding in college. She is interested in using mixed methods to analyze how our institutions of higher education and educational policies can better support currently underserved students from admissions through graduation, as well as to learn from students who have successfully overcome barriers of systemic racism, classism and other structural disadvantages to gain access to college and degrees.
