HESACV 2025
March 14, 2025
"Rooted In Our Purpose: Collective Action Towards Transforming Higher Education and Student Affairs Leadership"
Located in the heart of California, the Central Valley is a region where communities lay deep roots, and social justice-oriented leaders nurture knowledge that spans generations. HESACV is designed to foster local networking among HESA graduate students and professionals while advancing collaborative efforts to reshape leadership in higher education.
This conference will serve as a platform for both emerging and experienced educational leaders to engage in shared learning, collaboration, and the pursuit of meaningful change. By connecting local networks and advancing collective action, the conference continues the HEAL program’s mission to develop critical scholar-practitioners who are committed to a socially just praxis by preparing them with the theoretical knowledge and competencies needed to lead across higher education roles. HESACV is also a space to enact our vision to mobilize collective knowledge as scholar-practitioners
to transform higher education in the Central Valley and beyond.
We welcome all to participate.
Dr. Cinthya Salazar
Keynote Speaker
Dr. Cinthya Salazar (ella/she) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Education within UCLA’s School of Education & Information Studies. Prior to joining the UCLA faculty, she served as an Assistant Professor of Higher Education Administration at Texas A&M University. She received her Ph.D. in Higher Education, Student Affairs, and International Education Policy at the University of Maryland in 2020. Dr. Salazar’s research focuses on the mechanisms used by undocumented students to access, persist, and succeed in higher education. She uses participatory action research and engages undocumented students as co-researchers to generate localized student success models that can promote their college retention. Dr. Salazar teaches undergraduate and graduate courses centering topics such as immigrant student experiences and needs, student development and engagement, qualitative research methodologies, and higher education and student affairs administration. Dr. Salazar’s research and pedagogy are informed by her former experiences as a higher education administrator and student affairs educator working with minoritized students in college access and retention programs for over 8 years.
Dr. Salazar has received numerous fellowships and awards including the Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship in 2019, the Bobby Wright Dissertation of the Year award conferred by the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) in 2020, the Early Career Scholar award presented by the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) in 2023, and the Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2023, among other distinctions. Her scholarship has been published in the Journal of Higher Education, the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, the Journal of Qualitative Research, and the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, among other outlets. Currently, Dr. Salazar is an active member of ASHE, serving as the co-chair for the Presidential Commission on Undocumented Immigrants. She also remains active in professional organizations and presently serves in the leadership team of the Undocumented Immigrants and Allies Knowledge Community (UIAKC) within NASPA.
Dr. Whitney Pirtle
Speaker
Dr. Whitney Pirtle is a critical race scholar with interdisciplinary subject area expertise in race, racism, and anti-Blackness; health disparities and health equity; Black feminist sociology and praxis; and mixed methodologies. Dr. Pirtle has authored numerous academic articles, is a co-editor of Black Feminist Sociology, and is working on a book titled Black Identities. Dr. Pirtle has achieved international recognition in her field including the MacArthur Foundation Chair in Human Rights and International Justice and inaugural Equity and Justice Award from the University of California Merced, and the A. Wade Smith Award for Teaching, Mentorship, and Service from the Association of Black Sociologists (ABS).
Dr. Pirtle will discuss the potential for college and universities to embed inclusive models of servingness to meet the ideal of Minority Serving Institutions. The talk will showcase her work, co-authored with undergraduate and graduate students, titled ““I Didn't Know What Anti-Blackness Was Until I Got Here”: The Unmet Needs of Black Students at Hispanic-Serving Institutions” published in Urban Education, and will help facilitate a conversation on how to build strategies and capacity for a re-envisioning of MSIs.
Imperial Dove Court de Fresno, Inc.
Performance
An identity rooted in tradition, community and charity.
The Imperial Dove Court De Fresno Inc. is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization serving the LGBTQ+ community for over 45 years in the counties of Fresno, Madera, Tulare, Kings and Kern. The organization accepts gifts and holds events throughout the year to raise funds to make grants to various charitable organizations both within and outside the LGBTQ+ community. Each year, court members elect our monarchs, an Emperor and Empress, to reign over the court for one full year. The reigning monarchs guide the court to further our community fundraising efforts through pageantry and social events.
The IDC is part of a larger network of courts called the International Court System; ICS for short. In 1965, Jose Sarria proclaimed herself the Empress of San Francisco, and laid the foundation for the formation of the Imperial Court de San Francisco. Today, the International Court System (ICS) has over 65 chapters in the United States, Canada and Mexico, making us the second largest GLBT organization in the world.
Conference Information
Address
Resnick Student Union
California State University, Fresno
5244 N Jackson Ave
Fresno, CA 93740
Conference
Date
Friday, March 14, 2025
Time
8:00 - 6:00 PM
Program
The program will be available in March.
