Susana Hernandez

Susana Hernández is Assistant Professor in the Higher Education, Administration and Leadership pathway in the Department of Educational Leadership at California State University, Fresno, which is an AANAPISI and HSI. Hernández’s research examines educational opportunity in discourse and policy. Her work disrupts traditional and conventional policy analyses and raises imperative understandings of how educational opportunity is constructed. She has examined state resident tuition policies that affect undocumented students, as well as how federal policy discursively shapes Latino educational opportunity and equity. She is currently conducting research on Hispanic Serving Community Colleges in California’s Central Valley and the role student affairs plays in advancing Latino student success.

Prior to becoming a professor, Hernández held several student affairs positions, including at California State University, Long Beach, and UC Irvine. As the daughter of Mexican immigrants, her longstanding commitment to educational equity is demonstrated in the meaningful ways she incorporates her family’s history into her daily practice as a scholar and educator.