Verónica N. Vélez, Ph.D.

she/her/ella, Professor of Secondary Education, Education & Social Justice

About

Dr. Verónica N. Vélez is a nationally recognized scholar whose work advances new theories and methods for understanding and transforming how race, space, and power shape educational opportunity. She is the proud daughter of a Mexican immigrant mother and a Panamanian immigrant father, whose journeys and sacrifices continue to animate her lifelong commitment to educational justice. For more than fifteen years, she organized alongside migrant families in California to expand educational access, uphold dignity, and build community power. Those experiences continue to shape her scholarship, teaching, and leadership.

She is Professor of Secondary Education and Education & Social Justice in the Woodring College of Education at Western Washington University (WWU). Her scholarship braids together Critical Race Theory, Chicana Feminisms, Critical Race Spatial Analysis (CRSA), QuantCrit, and community-based participatory methodologies. She engages these frameworks across her work to develop innovative approaches for investigating how educational systems reproduce racialized inequities through educational redlining and exclusionary policies, with recent scholarship extending these questions into anti-racist STEM education and the reimagining of special education.

Dr. Vélez is the author of more than 50 peer-reviewed publications appearing in leading journals including Harvard Educational Review, Race Ethnicity and Education, and Science Education. She serves as co-editor of the Routledge QuantCrit Book Series and is co-editor of The Handbook of Race and Refusal in Higher Education (Edward Elgar, 2024) and the forthcoming books, Dreaming Liberatory Futures for STEM Education (Routledge, 2027) and Researching Disability, Equity, and Inclusion: Actively Diversifying the Field of Special Education (Routledge, 2027). She is also co-author of Story(ing) Statistical Strategies Using Critical Race and Chicana Feminist Theories (Routledge, 2026). In addition to her scholarship, her leadership and teaching have been recognized with numerous honors, including the Ormsby Award (2017) for exemplary public service, WWU’s Excellence in Teaching Award (2020), and Bellingham Public Schools’ Community Partner of the Year Award (2022) for her leadership in developing high school Ethnic Studies courses. 

Grounded in long-standing partnerships with educators, youth, families, and communities, Dr. Vélez's scholarship seeks not only to understand educational inequity but to develop new theories, methods, and tools capable of transforming it.

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 Areas

  • Critical Race Spatial Analysis (CRSA)
  • QuantCrit and Justice-Oriented Quantitative Methods
  • Educational Redlining and Spatial Justice
  • Critical Race Theory and Latinx Critical Theory (LatCrit)
  • Chicana Feminisms
  • Community-Based Participatory Research and Participatory Mapping
  • Anti-Racist STEM Education
  • Special Education and Disability Justice
  • Ethnic Studies Teacher Education

Selected Honors & Recognition

  • Great Teacher Award, Whatcom Coalition for Anti-Racist Education (C.A.R.E.) (2023)
  • Community Partner of the Year, Bellingham Public Schools (2022)
  • Excellence in Teaching Award, Western Washington University (2020)
  • Featured Scholar, Women in GIS, ESRI Press (2020)
  • Representative Timm Ormsby Citizenship Award, Washington Council of Faculty Representatives (2017)

Selected Fellowships

  • Faculty Fellow, Institute in Critical Quantitative, Computational, and Mixed Methodologies (ICQCM) (2020)
  • Faculty Fellow, American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (2018)
  • Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Latino Policy Research, University of California, Berkeley (2012)
  • Dissertation Fellow, Ford Foundation  (2009)
  • Research Training Grant Fellow, Spencer Foundation (2004)

Recent Funded Research

  • Quant Equity Initiative Collaboration Grant ($15,000), Spencer Foundation (2025)
  • Racial Equity Grant ($75,000), Spencer Foundation (2024)
  • Division of Undergraduate Education (DUE) ($1.1 million), National Science Foundation (2022)

Books

Garcia, N., Vélez, V., Perez Huber, L. (2026). Story(ing) Statistical Strategies Using a Critical Race Feminista Quantitative Praxis. New York, NY: Routledge.

Edited Books

Conner, D., Bell, N., Vélez, V., Scott, L. (forthcoming, 2027). Transforming Disability Research: Expanding Methodologies Towards Equity and Inclusion in Education. New York, NY: Routledge.

Robertson, A., Vélez, V., Huynh, T., Rosa, K. (in press, 2026). Dreaming Liberatory Futures for STEM Education. New York, NY: Routledge.

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. 

Selected Refereed Publications (Last 5 Years)

Garcia, N., Vélez, V., Lopez, N., Irizarry, Y. (in press, 2026). From metrics to meaning: Advancing QuantCrit as an anti-racist intersectional praxis in educational research. Review of Educational Research.

Bell, N.S., Vélez, V., & Collier, Z. (in press, 2026). Advancing anti-racist research in special education: A QuantCrit case study. Sage Research Methods.

Bell, N.S., Vélez, V., Ford, D.Y., Collier, Z., Slusarz, E., & Martin, M. (in press, 2026). Delaware study of resegregation patterns for behavioral disabilities: The urgency for anti-racist special education practices and policies. Behavioral Disorders.

Vélez, V., Robertson, A., Huynh, T. (in press, 2026). What if physics were not afraid to die?: Crip time, abolition, and the possibility of liberatory physics. In A. Robertson, T. Huynh, K. Rosa, & V. Vélez (Eds.) Dreaming Liberatory Futures for STEM Education. New York, NY: Routledge.

Bell, N. S., Ford, D. Y., Carey, R. L., Collier, Z., Eisenman, L., Scott, L., & Vélez, V. (2026). Critical investigation of resegregation patterns in special education: Toward an anti-racist special education model. Exceptional Children, 92(2), 182-204.

Robertson, A. D., Vélez, V., Hairston, W. T., & Huỳnh, T. (2025). Physics expertise as white property: Entanglements between whiteness and physics. Science Education, 109(6), 1760-1778.

Vélez, V. (2025). Critical race spatial analysis: Implications for the use of geographic information systems (GIS) in qualitative educational research. In P. A. Pasque (Eds.), Critical Qualitative Research and Social Justice: Key Concepts in Qualitative Methods (pp. 177–184). 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), 242-273.

Bell, N. S., Collier, Z., Vélez, V., & Ford, D. Y. (2025). CritSEM: Advancing QuantCrit to examine racialized resegregation in special education. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 18(2), 390-422.

Robertson, A., Vélez, V., Huynh, T., & Tali Hairston, W. (2025). Exposing and challenging “grit” in physics education. Science Education, 110(1), 102-116.

Bauman, L., Huynh, T., Robertson, A., & Vélez, V. (2024). Gaining power and shaping space through helping in introductory physics classes. In Q. X. Ryan, A. Pawl, & J. P. Zwolak (Eds.), Proceedings of the Physics Education Research Conference 2024 (pp. 40–45).

Stella, S., Robertson, A., & Vélez, V. (2024). Considerations for collecting racial demographics data in physics education research. In Q. X. Ryan, A. Pawl, & J. P. Zwolak (Eds.), Proceedings of the Physics Education Research Conference 2024 (pp. 399–406).

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 rutures: 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 (pp. 695-714). 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 Physical Review Physics Education Research, 19(1), 010115.

Puente, M. & Vélez, V. (2023). Platicando y Mapeando. A Chicana/Latina feminist GIS methodology in educational research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 36(9), 1659-1674. [Awarded Division J (AERA) Outstanding Publication Award at AERA 2024]

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.

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, 56(1-2), 190-205. 

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.  

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, 36(6), 1073-1091.

Additional information on Google Scholar