Marialexia Zaragoza

Marialexia Zaragoza joins the School of Education as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Center for Postsecondary Research. She holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education from the University of Pittsburgh, where her dissertation examined students’ liberatory outcomes from participating in high-impact practices at a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), and a B.A. in Sociology with a minor in Chicana and Chicano Studies from California State University, Fullerton. Zaragoza’s research focuses on HSIs, servingness, high-impact practices, and the experiences of racially minoritized and Latinx students in higher education. She has published in journals including the Journal of Higher Education and the Association of Mexican American Educators Journal and has presented her work at national conferences such as the American Educational Research Association and the Association for the Study of Higher Education. Most recently, Zaragoza has served as a Hispanic Serving Institution Project Analyst and Program Coordinator at UCLA, and she remains an active member of the Hispanic Serving Institution Research Colectiva. She has also held numerous service roles supporting Latinx students, including as an application reviewer for the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education Graduate Student Fellowship Program. Zaragoza is committed to advancing equity and liberatory practices for Latinx communities in higher education.