Patricia Gándara is Professor of Education at the University of California, Los Angeles. She has authored books and articles on peer group influence and college-going behavior of low-income Latino and other ethnic minority students; immigrant students, bilingual education policy, and the public schools; high academic achievement of low-income Mexican Americans; Chicanos and educational mobility; and mathematics instruction in multicultural classroom.

Frances Contreras is Assistant Professor of Education at the University of Washington, Seattle. She researches issues of equity and access for under-represented students in the education pipeline. She addresses transitions between K-12 and higher education, community college transfer, faculty diversity, affirmative action in higher education, and the role of the public policy arena in higher educationaccess for underserved students of color. She also serves on the Boards of the Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy, LEAP, and the Chicana/Latina Foundation.

Gilberto Conchas is Senior Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Associate Professor of education and Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of California, Irvine. His research illuminates student voices as a way to make meaning of their lives in urban communities and schools. As the son of Mexican immigrant farm workers, Dr. Conchas maintains a strong commitment to promoting school success. He closely works with communities and schools as a means to understand their roles in improving engagement and achievement among youth.