Western's A Longoria Named to AAHHE Faculty Fellows Program

Western Washington University Assistant Professor of Secondary Education A Longoria has been selected as a member of the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) faculty fellows.

“I’m very honored to be selected as a member of the 2020 cohort of AAHHE faculty fellows.  When I look at previous winners, I am inspired and humbled by the company of brilliant Latinx faculty around the nation.  I look forward to the mentorship, scholarly engagement, and solidarity this opportunity will provide,” Longoria said.

Veronica Velez, associate professor of Secondary Education at Western, was a 2018 AAHHE faculty fellow.

As an AAHHE faculty fellow Longoria has been invited to attend the 15th Annual AAHHE National Conference – with the theme of – “¡Adelante! Honoring Latinx Courage and Conciencia.” The AAHHE Faculty Fellows Program is scheduled from March 4 through 8, 2020, in Costa Mesa, California. 

The American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) is an agent of change for improving education, thus enabling Hispanic students to fully participate in a diverse society. 

Longoria (they/them; Longoria) began as an assistant professor in the Secondary Education Department at Western this fall. They have been NTT faculty at WWU since 2015. They teach undergraduate and graduate courses in teacher education methods and foundations and have interests in field-based, community-partnership, and inquiry pedagogies. Longoria received a bachelor’s degree in English from San Francisco State University, a Master in Teaching in Secondary Education from Seattle University, and a doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction: Multicultural Education from the University of Washington, Seattle. A former classroom teacher, they have Washington Teaching Certificate endorsements in English/Language Arts, History, and Social Studies. 

They have delivered recent paper presentations at the American Educational Research Association annual meeting, Child and Youth Care in Action (with WWU student co-presenters), and have an upcoming paper presentation at the Modern Language Association annual convention. They frequently present at the Northwest Teaching for Social Justice conference and have a commitment to providing opportunities for students to serve as co-researchers and translating research and scholarship to practitioner conferences. 

In spring 2019, Longoria organized and moderated the panel “Schooling after Stonewall” as part of the WWU LGBTQ+ office’s programming to commemorate 50 years since the Stonewall riots. Longoria currently serves on the advisory board for the Education and Social Justice minor, is a member of the research collaborative Family and Community Engaged Teaching (FACET), and is advisor for the Future Woodring Scholars. In 2018, Longoria was a co-recipient for the Spratlen grant and co-organizer for the WWU conference “I am a teacher of color: Teachers speak back to the academy.”

Longoria’s research agenda centers on exploring broadly the concepts of identity, migrations across borders, and home. This trans- and inter-disciplinary research is situated at the intersections of teacher education, multicultural education, and Queer and Latinx issues in education. 

Originally from El Centro, California, Longoria is the grandchild of immigrants from the Pearl River Delta in China and the state of Zacatecas in Mexico. They enjoy cooking, gardening, learning languages, bel canto opera, and casual video gaming in their free time.