Although Dr. Gina Ann Garcia is an advocate for equity and diversity, she didn’t always know that she wanted to build a career in higher education. But during her time in college, Garcia decided that she wanted to give people the same “transformative” experience that she had as a student.
“The longer I did it (work in the higher education field) and the more that I wanted to make a change, the more I realized that faculty in higher education have a little bit more power, I think,” says Garcia. She is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Administrative and Policy Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, where she teaches master’s and doctoral students pursuing degrees in higher education and administration and student affairs.
“I thought that it was a good idea to go the faculty route because I thought I could make a bigger change and have a bigger impact if I was faculty and if I did research that people recognize as important and that could lead to bigger change,” she says.
Garcia is a rising star within the academy and has been praised for her teaching and research skills. Her average master’s course consists of 20-30 students, and her average doctoral course consists of eight students. As an organizational theorist — someone who thinks about entire educational systems — her research focuses on Hispanic serving institutions and understanding how they have historically come to serve underrepresented students.
“I think about how an entire organization functions and the kind of research I do is focused on not just functioning but coming to believe in the value, the enrollment and the education of minority populations, like Latinos, low-income, first-generation students, immigrant students, undocumented students, (and) students who have been marginalized in education systems,”
Garcia says. “I’ve been thinking about how they actually value those folks and adjust to make sure they’re meeting the needs of those students.”
Garcia has written and co-written several publications about the experiences of students at HSIs, including their civic engagement and identity development. For example, her latest journal article titled “Defined by outcomes or culture? Constructing an organizational identity for Hispanic-Serving Institutions” highlights Garcia’s research and findings centered on the question of ‘What does it mean for postsecondary institutions to be Latinx serving?’ Additionally, she writes about race and racism, racial micro-aggressions and the experiences people have within institutions of higher education.
