Melissa A. Martinez, PhD

Associate Professor
Department of Counseling, Leadership, Adult Education, and School Psychology
Texas State University

Melissa A. Martinez, PhD, a native Texan and former bilingual school teacher and counselor, is currently an associate professor in the Educational and Community Leadership master’s and PhD in School Improvement programs in the Department of Counseling, Leadership, Adult Education, and School Psychology at Texas State University. She is passionate about preparing and supporting school and district leaders, critical practitioner scholars, who can meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse communities. Her research focuses on issues of equity and access along the P-20 education continuum. Her scholarship focuses on: 1) college access, college readiness, and college-going cultures for underserved communities, 2) social justice and equity-oriented leadership preparation and Latinx leadership/leaders, and 3) the experiences of faculty of color in academia.

Dr. Martinez has written articles for the Teachers College Record, Educational Administration Quarterly, Race Ethnicity and Education, Urban Review, Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, and Journal of Latinos and Education. She is co-editor of Latino educational leadership: Serving Latino communities and preparing Latinx leaders across the P-20 pipeline and Latinas leading schools (in press). Active in educational leadership national organizations, she served on AERA’s Division A Equity, Inclusion, and Action Committee and chaired the Outstanding Dissertation Award Committee; as UCEA’s Barbara Jackson Scholar mentor; and on editorial boards of the Journal of School Leadership and Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership. She is a former Greater Texas Foundation Faculty Fellow (2013-2016), the recipient of the AERA Division A Early Career Award (2016) and Texas State University’s Presidential Award for Excellence in Scholarly and Creative Activities at the Assistant Professor level (2016).