Verónica N. Vélez, Ph.D.

she/her/ella, Woodring College Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Secondary Education and Education and Social Justice

About

Dr. Verónica N. Vélez is Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor of Secondary Education and Education & Social Justice for Woodring College at Western Washington University. Dr. Vélez completed her undergraduate studies at Stanford University, where she obtained a BA in Psychology, and her graduate studies at UCLA, completing an MA and PhD in Social Science and Comparative Education with a specialization in Race and Ethnic Studies. Before joining WWU, Dr. Vélez was a Post-Doctorate Research Fellow and Director of Public Programming at the Center for Latino Policy Research (CLPR) at UC Berkeley. At CLPR, she developed research partnerships with P-16 institutions, non-profit organizations, and grassroots groups connected to CLPR’s research priorities in the areas of education, immigration, and civic engagement. 

Her research broadly analyzes racial inequities in education, the causes of those inequities, and how they impact the educational trajectories and experiences of students of color, their families, and their communities. Her most recent work aims to advance conceptual and methodological approaches that deepen a spatial consciousness and expand the use of geographic information systems (GIS) in critical educational scholarship, including Critical Race Spatial Analysis (CRSA), which she introduced and developed with Dr. Daniel Solorzano at UCLA. As a result of this work, Dr. Vélez was featured in ESRI’s Women in GIS as one of 30 women internationally recognized for leading innovations in the field of geo-spatial science. She also recently co-edited and contributed to a special issue in Race, Ethnicity, and Education that introduced “QuantCrit,” a methodological subfield of Critical Race Theory (CRT) that troubles the decontextualized and race-evasive nature of quantitative research in education. These developments in her work have advanced a series of recent grants, including a PI role in a 1.1M NSF-funded grant that focuses on spatial justice in physics teaching and learning (2022 - present) and a $75,000 Spencer Foundation Vision Grant that innovates advanced statistical approaches using QuantCrit (2023 - present). She has published in numerous academic journals including Educational Forum, Harvard Educational Review, The High School Journal, Educational Foundations, Association of Mexican American Educators Journal, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Equity and Excellence in Education, Physical Review Physics Education Research, Science Education, Contemporary Justice Review, and Race, Ethnicity, and Education, (among others) and has contributed several chapters to edited anthologies. She also co-edited The Handbook of Race and Refusal in Higher Education (Edward Elgar, 2024) and QuantCrit: Examining Race and Racism through Quantitative Approaches (Routledge, 2023) and has a forthcoming co-authored book (with Drs. Nichole Garcia and Lindsay Perez Huber), Story(ing) Statistical Strategies Using Critical Race and Chicana Feminist Theories (Routledge). Dr. Vélez is also a National Academies Ford Foundation Fellow and a Faculty Fellow with the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE), and previously a Spencer Foundation Research Training Grant Fellow.

In addition to her scholarly work, Dr. Vélez serves as a consultant and professional development facilitator for several grassroots, non-profit, and educational organizations, building upon her 15-year tenure as a community organizer with migrant families in California on campaigns for school reform. In 2017, she was one of six faculty across Washington State awarded The Ormsby Award for Faculty Citizenship to recognize exemplary service in the public interest for her efforts to create systems through which institutionally underrepresented and underserved students can access higher education. In 2020, she was awarded Western Washington University’s Excellence in Teaching Award and in 2022 was awarded the Community Partner of the Year Award by Bellingham Public Schools for her collaborative work to develop Ethnic Studies at the high school level. Dr. Vélez is the proud daughter of a Mexican im/migrant mother and a Panamanian im/migrant father, whose journey to provide her with a quality education fundamentally inspires her work for social and racial justice.

Degrees

  • Ph.D., Social Science and Comparative Education, specialization in Race and Ethnic Studies, UCLA
  • M.A., Social Science and Comparative Education, specialization in Race and Ethnic Studies, UCLA
  • B.A., Psychology, Stanford University

Research Interests

  • Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Latinx Critical Theory (LatCrit)
  • Radical and tactical cartography
  • Chicana/Latina Feminisms
  • Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
  • Quantitative and computational methodologies
  • Family engagement in schools
  • Participatory action and community engaged models of research
  • Critical pedagogy and popular education
  • Ethnic studies in teacher education
  • STEM teacher preparation, particularly in physics
  • Grow-Your-Own teacher pathways 

Edited Books 

Perez Huber, L., Watson, K., Vélez, V., Cisneros, N. (2024). Like a Path in Tall Grass: Handbook of Race and Refusal in Higher Education. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. 

Garcia, N., Lopez, N. Vélez, V. (2023). QuantCrit: Examining Race and Racism through Quantitative Approaches. New York, NY: Routledge. 

Recent Refereed Publications 

Robertson, A., Vélez, V., Huynh, T., & Tali Hairston, W. (forthcoming). Physics Expertise as White Property: Entanglements between Whiteness and Physics. Science Education.

Vélez, V. & Longoria, A. (in press). Cultivating Community Educators through Relational Networks in U.S. Teacher Education. In R. Milner and J. Bennett (Eds.), Encyclopedia of Social Justice in Education – Teaching and Teacher Education. New York, NY: Bloomsbury. 

Vélez, V. (2025). Critical Race Spatial Analysis: Implications for the Use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Qualitative Educational Research. In Pasque, P. A. (Ed), Critical Qualitative Research and Social Justice: Key Concepts in Qualitative Methods. New York, NY: Routledge.

Bell, N., Vélez, V., Ford, D., Collier, Z., Zubaca, N., Salim, S., Slusarz, E., Park, S., & Sukumar, J. (2025). QuantCrit Principles of Practice for Disrupting Racialized Injustices in Special Education. Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines, 34(1).

Robertson, A., Vélez, V., Huynh, T., & Tali Hairston, W. (2025). Exposing and Challenging “Grit” in Physics Education. Science Education.

Bell, N. S., Collier, Z., Vélez, V., & Ford, D. Y. (2024). CritSEM: Advancing QuantCrit to Examine Racialized Resegregation in Special Education. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 1-33.

Puente, M., & Vélez, V. (2024). Ground-truthing as Critical Race Feminista Methodology: Toward an Embodied and Community-Centered GIS in Educational Inquiry. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 37(5), 1287-1306.

Perez Huber, L., Vélez, V., & Malagón, M. C. (2024). Charting Methodological Imaginaries: Critical Race Feminista Methodologies in Educational Research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 37(5), 1263-1271.

Solórzano, D. G., Delgado Bernal, D., Pérez Huber, L., Malagón, M. C., & Vélez, V. (2024). Methodological Origins, Ruptures, and Futures: An Intergenerational Epilogue on Critical Race Feminist Methodologies. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 37(5), 1364-1375.

Chu, M., Vélez, V., Padilla, D. (2023). Grow-Your-Own Latinx Educator Pathways: The Challenges and Possibilities for Early Childhood Teacher Education, Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 44(4), 1045–1066.

Vélez, V. & Garcia, N. (2023). Advancing QuantCrit in Critical Race Spatial Research: Exploring Methodological Possibilities by Mapping Chicanx Baccalaureate Attainment. In S. Diem & M. Young (Eds.), Handbook of Critical Education Research: Qualitative, Quantitative and Emerging Approaches. New York, NY: Routledge.

Robertson, A., Vélez, V., Hairston, W.T., Bonilla-Silva, E. (2023). Race-evasive Frames in Physics and Physics Education: Results from an Interview Study. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 19(1).

Puente, M. & Vélez, V. (2023). Platicando y Mapeando. A Chicana/Latina feminist GIS methodology in Educational Research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 1-16. Special issue entitled, “Chicana Latina Feminist Pláticas.” [Awarded Division J (AERA) Outstanding Publication Award at AERA 2024]

Spira, T., McMillan, K., Stapleton, M., Vélez, V. (2022). ACAB Means Abolishing the Cop in our Heads, Hearts, and Homes: An Intergenerational Demand for Family Abolition. In A. Bierria, J. Caruthers, and B. Lober (Eds.), Abolition Feminisms (Vol. 2): Feminist Ruptures Against the Carceral State. Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books.

Vélez, V. (2022). Advancing Critical Race Spatial Analysis: Implications for the Use of GIS in Educational Research. In P. Pasque and E. Alexander (Eds.), Advancing Culturally Responsive Research and Researchers: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods (pp. 217-236). New York, NY: Routledge.

Hayes, N., Calderón, D., Vélez, V. (2022). Fugitivity within the University as First Feneration Black-Pinay, Indigenous, and Chicanx Faculty: Cultivating an Undercommons. In T. Buenavista, D. Jain, and M. Ledesma (Eds.), First-Generation Faculty of Color: Reflection on Research, Teaching, and Service (pp. 162-174). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Garcia, N., Vélez, V., Perez Huber, L. (2022). Can Numbers be Gender and Race Conscious? Advocating for a Critical Race Feminista Quantitative Praxis in Education. Equity & Excellence in Education, 1-16. 

Vélez, V., Padilla, D., Jaramillo, D. (2021). Trenzudas, Truchas, y Traviesas: Toward a Chicana Feminist Cartography. In N. Garcia, C. Salinas, and J. Cisneros (Eds.), Trenzas of Possibilities: Concepts, Theory, and Methodologies of Latinx/a/o Students in Higher Education (pp. 106-120). New York, NY: Routledge.  

Malagón, M., Perez Huber, L., Vélez, V. (2021). Advancing Relationships among Critical Race Feministas: Maintaining Ethical Ambitions within the Coloniality of Academia. Journal of Women and Gender in Higher Education, 14(1), 79-99. Special issue entitled, “Pathways to Healing BodyMindSpirit for Latina-Identified College Students, Administrators, and Faculty in Higher Education.”

Lees, A., Vélez, V., Laman, T. (2021). Recognition and Resistance of Settler Colonialism in Early Childhood Education: Perspectives and Implications for Black, Indigenous, and Teachers of Color. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 1-18.

Cervantes Gutierrez, A., Seares, B., Natachu, T., Spira, T., West, M., Vélez, V. (2020). The Demands: Pasts, Presents, and Futures of Black, Indigenous, and Queer of Color Feminisms. In G. Caliskan (Eds.), Gendering Globalization, Globalizing Gender: Post-Colonial Perspective (pp. 305-324). Oxford University Press.  

Lees, A. & Vélez, V. (2019). Fugitive Teacher Education: Nurturing Pedagogical Possibilities in Early Childhood Education. Educational Forum, 83(3), 309-324. Special issue entitled, “Emerging from Standardization: Learning to Teach for Cultural, Cognitive, and Community Relevance.” 

Vélez, V. & Lees, A. (2019). M(other)work as Radical Resurgence: Nurturing Survivance for Women of Color Faculty. In P. Pérez (Eds.), In Our Own Words: Chicana and Latina Faculty Resisting and Persisting in the Academy (pp. 73-89). New York, NY: Routledge.

Vélez, V. (2019). Madres en Lucha: Forging Motherhood as Political Movement Building across Borders. In C. Cabellero, Y. Martínez-Vu, J. Pérez-Torres, M. Téllez, C. Vega, & A. Castillo (Eds.), The Chicana M(other)work Anthology: Porque Sin Madres No Hay Revolución (pp. 171-191). Tucson, AZ: The Feminist Wire Book Series, University of Arizona Press.

Vélez, V. & Solorzano, D. (2018). Critical Race Cartographies: Exploring Map-Making as Anti-Racist Praxis. In J. DeCuir-Gunby, T. Chapman, & P. Schutz (Eds.), Understanding Critical Race Research Methods and Methodologies: Lessons from the Field (pp. 150-165). New York, NY: Routledge.

Garcia, N., Lopez, N., Vélez, V. (2018). QuantCrit: Rectifying Quantitative Methods through Critical Race Theory. Race, Ethnicity, and Education, 21(2), 149-157. Special issue entitled, “QuantCrit: Critical Race Quantitative Methodologies.”

Covarrubias A., Nava, P., Lara, A., Burciaga, R., Vélez, V., Solorzano, D. (2018). Critical Race Quantitative Intersections: A Testimonio Analysis. Race, Ethnicity, and Education. 21(2), 253-273. Special issue entitled, “QuantCrit: Critical Race Quantitative Methodologies.”

Perez Huber, L., Vélez, V., Solorzano, D. (2018). More than “Papelitos:” A QuantCrit Counterstory to Critique Latina/o Degree Value and Occupational Prestige. Race, Ethnicity, and Education, 21(2), 208-230. Special issue entitled, “QuantCrit: Critical Race Quantitative Methodologies.”