Esmeralda A. Hernandez-Hamed, Ph.D., is an Associate Director of Equity Institutes at the USC Race and Equity Center. She has led professional development and participatory action research focused on closing racial equity gaps in transfer, faculty hiring, and course completion with hundreds of practitioners at two and four-year colleges across the U.S.
Hernandez-Hamed holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education from the University of Michigan and a B.A. in Political Science with a Minor in Education from the University of California—Irvine. Her expertise includes racism in higher education, equity-mindedness, inquiry, and understanding how higher education institutions change (or do not change) to align with equity and social justice.
