Mario S. Torres, Jr. is the Sydney & JL Huffines ’44 Endowed Chair and Professor in Educational Administration and Head of the Educational Administration and Human Resource Development Department at Texas A&M University, College Station.
Dr. Torres earned his Ph.D. in Educational Administration from Penn State University, University Park in 2003. His research interests include school law, policy, ethics, and organizational inclusion. He has published nearly 50 pieces and has presented at nearly 50 conferences – a large part of this work addressing elementary and secondary students’ First and Fourth Amendment rights. Dr. Torres has published in the field’s premier journals including the Educational Administration Quarterly, Journal of Educational Administration, the Journal of School Leadership, Peabody Journal of Education, and Education and Urban Society and co-authored a book with John Hoyle entitled Six Steps to Preparing Exemplary Principals and Superintendents: Leadership at its Best through Rowman and Littlefield Education Press. He has also co-edited two books – The Principal's Legal Handbook through the Education Law Association and Legal Frontiers in Education: Complex Issues for Leaders, Policymaker and Policy Implementers through Emerald Press.
He has also participated extensively in funded research totaling more than $17 million dollars, which has come largely through the U.S. Department of Education and W.K. Kellogg Foundation. Currently, Dr. Torres is member of a team investigating leadership development programming for schools serving significant English Language Learner students – a federally funded investigation.
He is a past research fellow with the Mexican American and U.S. Latino Research Center and a former faculty member of the Teachers College Summer Principals Academy, Columbia University.