Associate Professor
Department of Educational Foundations, Organizations, and Policy
Dr. Gina Ann Garcia is an associate professor in the department of Educational Foundations, Organizations, and Policy at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research centers on issues of equity and justice in higher education with an emphasis on understanding how Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) embrace and enact an organizational identity for serving minoritized populations. She also seeks to understand the experiences of administrators, faculty and staff within HSIs and the outcomes and experiences of students attending these institutions. Finally, her research looks at the ways that race and racism have shaped the experiences of minoritized groups in higher education.
Dr. Garcia has made numerous presentations at national conferences and co-authored multiple publications in top journals. She was awarded a Ford Foundation postdoctoral fellowship in 2016 and a National Academy of Education/Spencer postdoctoral fellowship in 2017. She is the author of Becoming Hispanic-Serving Institutions: Opportunities for Colleges & Universities, published by Johns Hopkins University Press, for which she won the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education Book of the Year Award in 2020. She recently edited the book Hispanic-Serving Institutions in Practice: Defining “Servingness” at HSIs, published by Information Age Publishing.
Dr. Garcia graduated from California State University, Northridge with a bachelor’s degree in marketing, the University of Maryland, College Park with a master’s degree in college student personnel, and the University of California, Los Angeles with a Ph.D. in higher education and organizational change. She is the scholar mother of two boys, Jovan (age 11) and Jaren (age 8).
Instructional Interests
- ADMPS 2131 Higher Education Administration
- ADMPS 2089 Social Justice in Higher Education
- ADMPS 2307 Politics and History of Higher Education
- ADMPS 3151 Theoretical Frameworks in Higher Education
- ADMPS 3134: Contemporary Latinx Issues in U.S. Higher Education
Scholarly Interests
- Hispanic Serving Institutions
- Latinxs in Higher Education
- Critical organizational theory
- Critical theoretical frameworks: Critical Race Theory, Chicana Feminist Theory, Decolonial Theory
- Race and Racism in Higher Education
- Social Justice in Higher Education
Selected Grants
- Spencer Foundation, Research Grants on Education: Small, “Dominican University: Making Sense of a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) Organizational Identity” $50,000
- University of Pittsburgh, Central Research Development, “Faculty Development at one Hispanic-Serving Community College: Exploring Relationships Between Student Outcomes and Faculty Knowledge, Skills, and Behaviors” $16,000
Featured Publications
- Garcia, G. A. (2019). Becoming Hispanic-Serving Institutions: Opportunities for Colleges and Universities. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Garcia, G. A. (2020). Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) in Practice: Defining “Servingness” at HSIs. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
- Garcia, G. A., Núñez, A.-M., Sansone, V. A. (2019). Toward a multidimensional conceptual framework for understanding “servingness” in Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs): A synthesis of the research. Review of Educational Research, 89(5), 745-784. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654319864591
- Garcia, G. A. (2018). Decolonizing Hispanic-Serving Institutions: A framework for organizing. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 17(2), 132-147. https://doi.org/10.1177/1538192717734289
- Garcia, G. A., Koren, E. R., & Cuellar, M. (2020). Assessing color-neutral racial attitudes of faculty at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs). AERA Open. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858420944906
Awards and Honors
- American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education Book of the Year Award (2020)
- ASHE CEP Mildred García Award for Exemplary Scholarship (Junior) (2018)
- Early Career Scholar Award, AERA Hispanic Research Issues SIG (2018)
- National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow (2017)
- Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow (2016)
Engagement, Partnerships, and Professional Service
- Advisor, Latino Student Association, University of Pittsburgh (2018-present)
- Chair, Hispanic Heritage Month, University of Pittsburgh (2018-present )
- Member At Large, ASHE Board of Directors (2019-2021)
- Chair, AERA Hispanic Research Issues SIG (2018-2021)