Dr. Rosa Maria Acevedo (she/her/hers/ella/suyas) is an assistant professor of practice in the Department of Educational Foundations, Organizations, and Policy, where she teaches master’s and doctoral-level courses in higher education and student affairs and coordinates the Higher Education EdD Major.
As a practitioner, Dr. Acevedo has 20 years of leadership and project management experience in providing marginalized students access and opportunities in their pursuit of postsecondary education. She previously served as Associate Dean of Students, Director of Horizons Student Support Services, and Interim Director of the Latino Cultural Center at Purdue University, West Lafayette. During this time she created, led, and instructed a global leadership study abroad curriculum in Morocco, South Africa, Costa Rica, Greece, Spain, and Cuba.
Additionally, she has previously served as the Lead for the Gilman International Scholarship through the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and administered through the Institute of International Education. Rosa has also directed a college access nonprofit for low income youth 5-16 in Phoenix, Arizona, and previously worked in the office of undergraduate admissions specializing in Latino and Indigenous student recruitment at the University of Michigan Ann Arbor.
Dr. Acevedo is a critical scholar who seeks to understand the study of mobility experiences of vulnerable populations, particularly low-income ethnoracially minoritized students abroad. Rosa graduated with her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, in the Department of Organizational Leadership and Policy Development. She received her BA in Political Science from Bowling Green State University and her Master’s in Public Administration from the University of Michigan.
Dr. Acevedo is part of the Department of Educational Foundations, Organizations, and Policy, and is positioned within the Higher Education Program, although some of her work crosses multiple boundaries.
Her teaching interests include liberatory, equity-focused qualitative research and assessment methods, and policy development and politics in education.
Driven by her various personal and professional experiences including her background as a first-generation college student, low-income, and as a diasporic Puerto Rican woman, Dr. Acevedo’s scholarly research investigates how intersectionally marginalized students in higher education navigate international experiences and seeks to understand the drivers and consequences of mobility and immobility across social groups.
Other research interests include how higher education institutions can reduce barriers that marginalized students face in their quest for education by influencing equitable policy design and implementation of free college programs.
Acevedo, R.M. (2024). Institutional and agentic mechanisms of educational mobility justice in study abroad. The Journal of Higher Education, 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2024.2390807
Gándara, D., Acevedo, R.M., Cervantes, D. et al. (2024). Learning About Tuition-Free College: Evaluating the Availability and Digital Accessibility of Information on Promise Program Websites. Innovative Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-024-09721-9
Tottenham, D. E., Gonzáles, J. C., Acevedo, R. M., Lund, J. A., Reddick, R. J., & Sáenz, V. B. (2024). Navigating ambiguity, inspiring career pivots, and engaging in critical action: Leveraging critical consciousness with education abroad alumni. Texas Education Review, 12(2), 187- 202. https://doi.org/10.26153/tsw/51987
Acevedo, R.M. (2024).Narratives of self: Identity formation among marginalized groups studying abroad. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2024.2318286
Acevedo, R.M. (2023). Market-based, universalist, and emancipatory logics of study abroad. Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad. 35(3), 151-174, https://doi.org/10.36366/frontiers.v35i3.674
Acevedo, R.M. (2023). Ideational obstructions to mobility justice in U.S. study abroad. Mobilities, 18(6), 872–887. https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2022.2156807
Gándara, D., Acevedo, R.M., Cervantes, D., & Quiroz, M.A. (2023). Advancing a framework of racialized administrative burdens in higher education policy. The Journal of Higher Education, https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2023.2251866
- Gail P. Kelly Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award, Comparative and International Education Society, 2022
- Postdoctoral Fellowship, The University of Texas at Austin, 2022-2024
- Burkhardt Endowed Fellowship, The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2020
- Seashore Fellowship, The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 2020
Some of her upcoming conference presentations include:
- Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), Minneapolis, MN November 2024
Session Title: “Hopefully This Thing Is Legit:” Student Experiences of Administrative Burden with a Promise Program - Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), Minneapolis, MN November 2024
Council on International Higher Education (CIHE) Pre-Conference
Session Title: Temporal awakenings and the subversive effects of study abroad
Some of her recent conference presentations include:
- Comparative and International Education Society, Miami, FL March 2024
Session Title: Institutional and Agentic Mechanisms of Educational Mobility Justice - Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), Minneapolis, MN November 2023
Session Title: Learning about free college: Evaluating the availability and accessibility of information on Promise program websites - Invited Distinguished Speaker at the College Promise Career Institute, Knoxville, TN November 2023
Session Title: Funding Sustainable Promise Programs
Rosa is a certified Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) Administrator and has debriefed over 500 individuals through their personal intercultural journeys. Additionally, Rosa has developed an evaluation framework to critically incorporate pre-and post-testing of the IDI to measure the intercultural development of those who study abroad. She also serves as a peer reviewer for the Journal of Higher Education, Innovative Higher Education, and Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad.