July 15, 2019

Dear Associate Dean of Diversity and Inclusion Search Committee,

It is with great enthusiasm that I apply for the Associate Dean of Diversity and Inclusion position in the Office of Undergraduate Studies (UGS) at the University of (U). For more than 25 years I have worked within educational contexts as an educator, researcher, community activist, counselor, and advocate. My interdisciplinary doctoral training at the University of Wisconsin Madison in Education and my AERA/IES postdoctoral training have equipped me with theoretical and methodological tools to explore and critically examine access to higher education for historically underrepresented groups. The last eleven years I have worked as a professor in the Department of Education, Culture and Society. The integration of these roles and educational training are complementary and weave my research, teaching, service, and community engagement into solid qualifications for the position of Associate Dean of Diversity and Inclusion. I am an ideal fit for your search and describe below how my ongoing contributions can strengthen the commitments to equity and diversity in the Office of Undergraduate Studies.

My ongoing commitments to community, community-based participatory research and, in particular my experiences working collectively with communities are vital for the position of Associate Dean of Diversity and Inclusion. As noted, my professional experience, research trajectory and community engagements center on improving access to equitable educational opportunities for students of color and their families. Through these engagements I reveal my ability to build and sustain trusting relationships with students and families over time. At this political moment, it is vital that we, as a university consider the trepidation and hostility that some of our students experience on a daily basis simply for existing in this country. My relationships in the community as well as, at the are the webs I have been spinning for years to ensure that my efforts make a positive difference in the everyday lives of students and families. My endeavors may be invisible to most, but they are key to the ‘behind the scenes’ for resistant, yet transformative programming that have challenged the school to sweatshop pipeline (Cahill, Alvarez Gutiérrez & Quijada Cerecer, 2016). I have created meaningful and safe spaces for students, documented or not, to feel connected to the U, and to feel like they have someone who understands their struggles, is trustworthy and has institutional knowledge that can support their successes.

I bring to this position my experiences as a first generation Purépecha1 Chicana from a working poor immigrant household along the San Diego-Tijuana border that entered U.S. schools as a monolingual Spanish speaker similar to many of our current students. My life and educational experiences inform my work as an educator and community engaged scholar. I know what it is like to navigate and be schooled in underfunded segregated urban K-12 public schools, as well as how to negotiate elite institutions of higher education. These experiences have shaped my research agenda, and have established my commitments to teaching and service which are rooted in community wellbeing, educational and racial justice while centering student and family knowledge and strength and most importantly, enacting transformative change.

1 Purépecha/Tarascans are a group of indigenous people centered in the northwestern region of Michoacán, Mexico. Leticia Alvarez Gutiérrez Page 2 of 4

My scholarship engages issues of equity and inclusivity by focusing on Latinx education and immigration with three primary areas of interconnected inquiry: 1) Build capacity and navigational processes of Latinx immigrant students and families to U.S. educational school systems; 2) Family-school collaboration, and community-based participatory action partnerships and research; and 3) Culturally-sustaining education research and teacher education practice, specifically to support educators who will work with Latinx and other immigrant and refugee young people. My research draws from critical social theory, ecological systems theory, migration scholarship, Chicana feminist theory, ethnographic, and participatory action research (PAR). My research and praxis advocate that institutions of higher education reexamine the way(s) relationships are formed and aim for sustainable and reciprocal partnerships with historically marginalized students and communities of color, especially with the county westside communities, by integrating ideals of educación2, family, and community.

In addition to my praxis being informed by empirical research, I also bring strong leadership, unique strategic planning skills and energetic ideas to develop a more inclusive culture, practices and relationships that can support and advance understandings of the experiences that our minoritized student population confront on and off campus. My grassroots approach takes form in a variety of ways, such as, participatory work with youth and teachers and consistent involvement in supporting community-based participatory liberatory praxes while engaging students directly with community educational opportunities (e.g., Black Lives Matter, Comunidades Unidas, Family School Partnership, Mestizo Arts & Activism, Enriching Utah Coalition) that can enrich and support their experiences in higher education. This work has been integral to my career as a middle school teacher, counselor, and now as a scholar activist. These experiences have strengthened my teaching and commitment to working with and learning from students and elevating student success in P-20 systems while supporting their pathways to higher education. I have significant experiences in developing, implementing and promoting programs and strategies that impact policies and guide equity and inclusion for historically marginalized students while providing them with meaningful outcomes and opportunities for entering higher education.

One of the professional experiences I highlight includes being the founding director of the Family School Partnership (FSP), a community-based participatory research (CBPR) project I developed my first year at the University of Utah and implemented my second year. FSP focuses on building the capacity of schools to be responsive to while also building the capacity of families to engage in and support other families in participating effectively and collectively in secondary schools, as well as with the University of Utah. With support from University Neighborhood Partners (UNP), I worked closely with administrators, teachers, and students of color and families at East High School, Northwest Middle School and West High School. I spent countless hours building strong relationships with educators, students and their families in order to collaboratively develop critical participatory action research (CPAR) curriculum that was culturally relevant and addressed pertinent issues that students of color, immigrant and refugee students and their families wanted addressed in the school. Two of the CPAR projects at West high school included “Hear my Voice” and “Finding your voice, speaking your mind.” These

2 Educación offers a broader conceptual term that includes reciprocal familial relationships, whereby moral, social and personal responsibility serve as the foundation for all other learning. It refers to the competence in the social world, wherein being ‘bien educada/o’ is a process of having respectful relationships and ‘mal educado/a’ is being disrespectful towards others (Delgado Gaitan, 2004; Valdez, 1996; Valenzuela, 1999; Quiñones & Marquez Kiyama, 2014). Leticia Alvarez Gutiérrez Page 3 of 4

projects centered on literacy, art and understanding the sociocultural experiences of immigrant and refugee students and families. Students presented their e-testimonios to +250 families, teachers, and community members at West high school. FSP members have also presented our work at national conferences such as the Critical Race Studies in Education Association (CRSEA) conference. To honor multilingual audience members the presentations have also been translated and presented in Spanish and Swahili. Overall, the successes that I bring from directing FSP and working collaboratively with immigrant, children of immigrants and refugee students, families and teachers have prepared me to transition into the Associate Dean of Diversity and Inclusion in Undergraduate Studies (UGS) at the University of Utah.

Another significant experience I bring to this position is serving as the faculty advisor for Mestizo Arts & Activism (MAA) Collective [https://maacollective.org/] since 2015. This has been a very rewarding role for me given my close collaboration with the founders: Drs. Caitlin Cahill, Matt Bradley (deceased) and David Quijada. MAA is an intergenerational social justice think tank that engages young people as catalysts for change in their communities through CPAR and the arts. Each year together with a group of MAA graduates who are current university students at the University of Utah or Salt Lake Community College (SLCC), we co-facilitate CPAR projects with a diverse intergenerational collective of youth researchers, activists and artists who come together to address urgent educational and social issues impacting westside students and residents. Some of the topics that MAA students have researched include academic tracking, homelessness, immigrant rights, racism, reproductive justice, and LGBTQI rights to name a few. In 2016, the MAA Collective was recognized with three outstanding awards: 1) Beacon of Excellence Award-granted by the University of Utah, 2) The Community Engagement Award granted by Utah Valley University (UVU) and 3) The Cesar Chavez Peace & Justice Award granted by the Utah Coalition of La Raza (UCLR). These awards highlight the commitment that former MAA students, who are now undergraduates at University of Utah, have demonstrated to advance the educational opportunities for students of color. As a resident of the westside and scholar activist these projects reveal my commitment to improving the lives of young people of color, their families, their schools, and their opportunities to attend the University of Utah or other institutions of higher education. See my cv for several publications that highlight my work with MAA.

I take my role as an educator extremely seriously and I continuously seek opportunities to train future educators and in-service teachers. Using critical approaches in education, I facilitate a learning process that relies upon the assets of community, engaging funds of knowledge that students and family bring to educational settings. With the support of the Bennion Center, I developed a community-engaged learning (CEL) course (ECS 5709/6709: Family School Partnership for Youth Success), a requirement for all secondary education students in the Urban Institute of Teacher Education (UITE). This course provides University of Utah students with opportunities to link theory to practice and work collaboratively with linguistically and culturally diverse communities beyond the walls of the schools (i.e., community based project learning). In recognition of all the above work I was awarded the College of Education, Faculty Teaching Award in 2015. This award is given to an exceptional teacher as evidenced by effective instruction, teaching methods, and contributions to the College of Education and to the larger University through activities that advance instructional effectiveness and/or enrich the learning experiences as well as, motivates, stimulates and shows concern for students. Leticia Alvarez Gutiérrez Page 4 of 4

In addition to collaborating with educators, immigrants, and refugee communities on the westside, I also advocate for disrupting the school-to-prison pipeline. Currently, I serve as an Advisory Board member of the Disproportionate Minority Committee (DMC) and a committee member of the Racial and Ethnic Disparities (RED) – Community Education Working Group with the Utah Board of Juvenile Justice (UBJJ). I am also on the Advisory Board for the Tanner Center for Human Rights. As a result of these state service roles and my research agenda I designed a graduate level course [ECS 6820/7820: Juvenile (IN)Justice & Education that addresses the school-to-prison pipeline in the College of Education. To my knowledge it is the only course in the College of Education that addresses this topic. I have also partnered with various school districts to provide professional development to educators on culturally sustaining pedagogies, restorative justice practices, and immigration awareness to enhance school climate for marginalized student and families. I am honored to have been recognized for my community engagement work with the College of Education Service Award in 2018. As highlighted, I bring an array of intellectual and practical skills to this position and thus, prepared to support programming that strengthens the experiences of our students, faculty, and staff across campus, including the Beacon Scholars Program and the Dream Center.

As described above, I have extensive experiences as an educator, researcher, community activist, counselor, advocate, and facilitator that will support my successes in the role of Associate Dean of Diversity and Inclusion in the Office of Undergraduate Studies (UGS) at the University of Utah. I bring abundant community relationships and skills that can help strengthen the office of UGS’s programming and development to empower undergraduate students. My relationships in the community as well as, at the University of Utah are the braids I have been braiding for years to ensure that my engagement makes a difference in the everyday lives of students and families. I would be honored and elated at that possibility of working with and learning from an equity minded team that prioritizes the experiences of undergraduate students and collaborates with faculty, college staff, and leadership across the University of Utah to build exceptional, equitable, and inclusive educational experiences for all students. I look forward to the opportunity to share more details about my experiences and the contributions I can bring to the Associate Dean of Diversity and Inclusion in the Office Undergraduate Studies at the University of Utah. Please let me know if I can answer any questions. My email is: [email protected] Respectfully, Leticia Alvarez Gutiérrez

Leticia Alvarez Gutiérrez, Ph.D. (Pronouns: she/her/hers/ella) Associate Professor Director of Graduate Studies Department of Education, Culture and Society Faculty Advisor, Mestizo Arts & Activism (MAA) Advisory Board Member, Tanner Center for Human Rights