Norma Jimenez Hernandez

	Education
	Ed.D., Harvard University Ed.M., Human Development and Psychology, Harvard University M.A., Sociocultural Anthropology, University of California at Berkeley B.A., Concordia University Irvine.
	Biography
	Devoted to a conception of professionalism that encompasses a deep commitment to social justice through educational excellence and public service, Dr. Norma Jimenez Hernandez has focused her research and teaching on the academic achievement and motivation of adolescents from ethnic minority groups and the effects of gender, generational status, and ethnic identity on achievement motivation. Dr. Hernandez has actively leveraged her academic and professional energies to benefit populations on the periphery of society. She has completed anthropological fieldwork projects throughout the world, applying her training and research in such countries as Honduras, Panama, and Mexico.  She has also taught in a variety of racially concentrated public school settings and at the university level, where she served on the faculty of Harvard Graduate School of Education, teaching courses in achievement motivation, second language acquisition, and research methods. Dr. Hernandez's current research endeavors include working on a Catholic School Study that explores factors related to academic success for low-income African-American and Latino adolescents in Catholic schools; the National Campus Diversity Project at Harvard University, which investigates the vital role that diversity plays at the academy in preparing students for successful citizenry in a multicultural world; and a developing study which will examine first-year experiences of teachers working in Latino schools and teacher retention. A firm believer that the university should leverage its resources to benefit local communities, Dr. Hernandez has served as an advisor to low-income urban students in a variety of contexts throughout Southern California.  In the Santa Ana Unified School District, for instance, she has served as an advisor to the Century High School Teach Academy, a preparatory program that helps low-income urban students with an interest in teaching as a career negotiate the challenging path to college acceptance.  On behalf of the program, she has successfully lobbied local private colleges to grant scholarships to their deserving graduates.  She is also co-authoring a collection of information guides that will promote the sharing of college knowledge through informal networks in underserved urban communities.