The Majority in the Minority

Lee Jones is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Instruction and Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the College of Education, The Florida State University. Jeanett Castellanos, Ph.D. is Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies and Professor of Teaching at the University of California, Irvine in the School of Social Sciences. Her areas of research include BIPOC student coping and persistence, cultural values and identity, and well-being. Nationally, Dr. Castellanos is the recipient of the 2020 APA Division 45 (Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity, and Race) Distinguished Career in Service Award, the APA Division 12 (Clinical Psychology) Samuel M. Turner Mentorship Award, the 2012 NLPA Star Vega Community Service Award, and 2012 AAHEE Outstanding Support of Hispanics in Higher Education. Laura I. Rendon is Professor Emerita at the University of Texas-San Antonio. She is also an educational consultant and featured speaker at over 100 higher education institutions and conferences throughout the nation. Her presentations focus on topics such as student success, Latinx STEM students, and sensing/thinking deep learning experiences, as well as self-care and healing.Laura is a nationally-recognized student advocate, activist scholar and contemplative educator. She grew up in a low-income, single-parent household along the U.S. Mexico Border in Laredo, Texas where she learned to speak English in the first grade. Rendon is a passionate advocate for low-income, first-generation students who she feels have hopes and dreams but often do not know how to realize them especially without resources.She has held faculty and administrative appointments at a wide range of universities including the University of South Carolina, North Carolina State University, Arizona State University, California State University-Long Beach, and Iowa State University and the University of Texas-San Antonio.