COLLEGE PARK, MD (January, 2015) The American Educational Research Association (AERA) has chosen Assistant Professor Michelle M. Espino of the Department of Counseling, Higher Education and Special Education to receive the 2015 Hispanic Research Issues Special Interest Group (SIG) Early Career Scholar Award, in recognition of her outstanding scholarly contributions to research on Hispanic and Latina/o issues in education and her service to the education community. Dr. Espino will receive the award in April at the AERA Annual Meeting in Chicago.
Dr. Espino studies access and retention in higher education, and her special contribution to the student affairs field is an investigation of how institutional cultures, policies, and practices as well as community contexts affect and inform educational achievement, outcomes, and experiences for racial and ethnic minorities. Her research seeks to establish more inclusive environments that support and enhance students educational attainment along the P-20 pipeline, focusing particularly on Latina/o educational pathways.
Despite being the largest minority population in the United States, Latinas/os continue to face the lowest educational attainment rates of any minority group. Analyzing the academic experiences and career trajectories of these students, administrators, and faculty is essential to crafting inclusive institutional environments for their support.
Dr. Espino uses emerging and innovative qualitative methodologies and frameworks that incorporate personal and community narratives. Drawing on cultural assets, traditions, and personal elements of resiliency at the individual, familial, community, and institutional levels, her research illustrates mechanisms in the educational system that can lead to success.
Dr. Espino has published articles in the American Educational Research Journal, Review of Higher Education, Teachers College Record, Equity & Excellence in Education, Qualitative Inquiry, and the American Journal of Education. She serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education.
This SIG Early Career Award is designed to honor national and international scholars in the first decade of their careers, after taking a doctoral degree, for their research contributions related to Hispanic and Latina/o issues in education.
Dr. Michelle M. Espino is an assistant professor within the Student Affairs concentration in the Department of Counseling, Higher Education and Special Education. She holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education from the University of Arizona.
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