Core Faculty

Rubén Parra-Cardona

Institute Director, Professor, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Steve Hicks School of Social Works, Latino Research Institute, The University of Texas at Austin

Rubén Parra-Cardona, Ph.D, comes to the Steve Hicks School of Social Work from Michigan State University, where he was an associate professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies, College of Social Science; and the associate director of the MSU Research Consortium on Gender-Based Violence. He was funded by NIMH to investigate the treatment efficacy and relevance of two versions of an evidence-based parenting intervention culturally adapted for Latino families with young children. He is currently funded by NIDA to extend this line of research to Latino families with adolescent children. He is the recipient of the 2013 American Family Therapy Academy Early Career Award for his innovative work on cultural adaptation research. He has a wealth of experience on research collaborations across the U.S.-Mexico border, and is currently vice-president of the Family Process Institute, a member of the board of directors of the Centro de Investigación Familiar (a leading family therapy institute in Mexico and in Latin America), and a clinical faculty member and researcher in the Instituto Regional de Estudios de la Familia (a leading family therapy institute in northern Mexico).

Rachel V. González-Martin

Assistant Professor, Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies, The University of Texas at Austin

Dr. González-Martin holds a Ph.D. in Folklore & Ethnomusicology from Indiana University. Her research focuses on the verbal and material traditions of communities coming-of-age in the American Latino Diaspora. Her work looks at personal-experience-narratives, body art, materiality and self-portraiture with regard to gender, sexual identities, race, and socioeconomic status. Her teaching interests include courses on Latino expressive culture across the U.S., engaged ethnographic fieldwork, and Critical Latino Folkloristics.  She is currently working on a book manuscript that explores the intersection of consumer citizenship and Latino identity in the 21st century titled, Coming Out Latina: Quinceañera Style and Latina/o Consumer Identities.

Danielle Pilar Clealand

Associate Professor; Graduate Advisor, Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies, Department of African and African Diaspora Studies, The University of Texas at Austin

Dr. Danielle Pilar Clealand received her Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Political Science.  She also holds an M.A. degree in Latin American and Caribbean Studies from New York University and a B.A. in International Relations from Tufts University. Her research examines Black politics, group consciousness, Black public opinion and racial inequality with a focus on the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and the United States using a mixed method, interdisciplinary approach.

Dr. Clealand is currently working on two projects focusing on Blackness within Latino communities.  The first, Black Migration Into a “White” City (co-authored with Devyn Spence Benson), is an oral and political history of Black Cubans in the United States. The project uncovers the Black experience to fill gaps in the existing literature about Cubans and Cuban-Americans in the United States where stories of political and economic success dominate the scholarship and dilute stories of Black exclusion. Through the use of oral history, the project analyzes housing discrimination, residential segregation, educational opportunities, intra-Latino racism, community building, and voting behavior, particularly in Miami. The second project examines political attitudes, experiences with racism and identity among Afro-Latinos in the United States using original survey data from the first Afro-Latino sample of the 2020 Collaborative Multi-Racial Post Election Survey.  Dr. Clealand’s work can be found in journals such as, the Annual Review of Political Science, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Politics, Groups and Identities, Journal of Latin American Studies, and SOULS.  She serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies and the National Review of Black Politics.

Richard Reddick

Associate Dean for Equity, Community Engagement, and Outreach, College of Education; Assistant Director, Plan II Honors Program, The University of Texas at Austin

Dr. Reddick earned master’s and doctoral degrees from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1998 and 2007, respectively. While a graduate student, Dr. Reddick worked closely with the School Leadership Program, helping to train teacher leaders, principals, and school developers, and also served as a School Director with Teach For America, training corps members. Additionally, Dr. Reddick edited the Harvard Educational Review and was a co-founder of the Alumni of Color Conference (AOCC), a convening of scholars and practitioners focused on the educational experiences of scholars and students of color, now in its fifteenth year. Dr. Reddick was selected as Class Marshal of the Graduate School of Education at the 372nd Harvard University Commencement.

Dr. Reddick served as the 2013 co-chair of the Faculty, Curriculum, and Teaching section for the Division J (Postsecondary Education) Program Committee for the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Dr. Reddick conducts ethnographic research on the experiences of faculty of color in predominantly White university settings, mentoring relationships in higher education, Black families in American society, and work-family balance in junior faculty fathers. Dr. Reddick’s research has been highlighted on NPR, the Associated Press, PBS, the BBC, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and he regularly presents his research at the annual meetings of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE). Dr. Reddick has published articles in the top journals in education, and is the co-author and co-editor of four books. In addition to these scholarly activities, Dr. Reddick is a Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! champion, husband to Sherry, and most importantly, dad to a 12- and 10-year old. Dr. Reddick is the board chair of Montessori For All, the first public Montessori school in East Austin, and serves on the Austin Regional Board for IDEA Public Schools. He is a proud graduate of Department of Defense Dependent Schools and the former Johnston High School in East Austin.