Patricia Gándara

Patricia Gándara is a research professor in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies and co-director of the Civil Rights Project at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is also chair of the Working Group on Education for the University of California–Mexico Initiative. Gándara has also been been a professor of education in the University of California system; commissioner for postsecondary education for the State of California; associate director of the Linguistic Minority Research Institute; and codirector of Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE). She is a fellow of the American Educational Research Association, the National Academy of Education, the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center in Italy, the French–American Association at Sciences Po Graduate Institute (Paris), and ETS (Princeton, NJ). She was appointed to President Obama’s Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics, and received the distinguished career award from the Scholars of Color Committee of the American Educational Research Association. Gándara received her PhD in educational psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles.

updated 2025