Dr. Frances Contreras is an Associate Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and an Associate Professor in the Department of Education Studies. She most recently served as co-director of the joint doctoral program in Education Leadership at UC San Diego.
Dr. Contreras has over ten years of administrative leadership both at UCSD and the University of Washington College of Education, where she directed their higher education program. Her research focuses on issues of equity and access for underrepresented students in the education pipeline and the role of public policy in ensuring student equity across a P-20 continuum. Her work has been published in leading education journals and presses, including Harvard Educational Review, Educational Policy, Journal of Hispanics in Higher Education, Harvard University Press, and Teachers College Press. Contreras’ most recent books include: Achieving Equity for Latino Students, Expanding the Pathway to Higher Education through Public Policy and The Latino Education Crisis with P. Gandara. Her current book, Latinx Firsts: Creating Infrastructures for Latinx First Generation Students to Thrive in Universities Today, examines the navigational processes and promising infrastructures that result in academic success among Latinx college students.
She was honored as an “Emerging Scholar” and the “Top 25 to Watch” among academicians in the United States by Diverse Magazine. Dr. Contreras was the recipient of a lifetime achievement award by the Washington State Commission on Hispanic Affairs for her work to address Latino student equity. More recently, Dr. Contreras was a Dean’s Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Harvard University.
Frances has served on the Boards of the ACLU of Washington, Harvard Journal for Hispanic Policy, the Journal of Advanced Academics, The Preuss School and Latino Education Achievement Project, and was a Gubernatorial Appointee to the Achievement Gap Oversight and Accountability Committee in Washington. She currently serves on the PUENTE Board, the Board of The Lupe Contreras Scholarship Fund in California and the WestEd Board of Directors. Dr. Contreras earned her Bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley, Master’s degree from Harvard University and Ph.D. in Administration and Education Policy from Stanford University.