Joanna Núñez is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Women’s and Gender Studies at Sacramento State. She is a queer Chicana feminist activist scholar. In 2019, she earned her Ph.D. in Feminist Studies at the University of Minnesota. Her dissertation was titled “Mi Mamá me Enseño! Teaching and Learning Mexicana and Chicana Feminisms in the Home.” Her work explores the connection between home and intimate community building practices, particularly those within queer and feminist communities of color, in facilitating movements for social transformation. Her most recent publications can be found in The Handbook of Latinos in Education and Transmovimientos: Latinx Queer Migrations, Bodies, and Spaces.

Roberto C. Orozco (he/him/él), PhD, is a Presidential Postdoctoral Associate in the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities. He is a queer Muxerista and originally from Sioux City, Iowa! In 2022, he earned his PhD in Higher Education from Rutgers University–New Brunswick. His dissertation was titled, “Aquí Entre Nos: Identity and Socio-Political Consciousness Development of Queer Latinx/a/o College Student Activists through the Muxerista Activist Consciousness Development Framework”. His research explores questions around race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality with relation to college student activism and student development, queer resistance, and queer worldmaking in and outside of higher education contexts. Roberto has received multiple awards for his research and service including the 2020 Bevier Dissertation Fellowship and the 2021 Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship.

Omi Salas-SantaCruz is the current President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at Penn State University in the Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. They earned their PhD in Education with a designated emphasis in Critical Theory and Gender, Women, & Sexuality from The University of California, Berkeley, and a master's degree in Sociology from Columbia University. Their intellectual and community work tends to decolonial and Latinx trans feminisms with a focus on trans* and queer of color space-making & resistant practices. They grew up as a trans-fronterizx along the Tijuana-San Diego border which informs their research, teaching, and living practices. Their current project examines questions at the intersections of race, Latinidad, the epistemology of trans inclusion, and practices of being.

Dr. DiPietro works at the intersection of decolonial feminism, women of color thinking, Latinx/Afro-Latinx studies, and trans* studies. With a transdisciplinary approach, they engage anthropology, human geography, and philosophy. They are one of the co-editors of Speaking Face to Face: The Visionary Philosophy of María Lugones (SUNY 2019) and their single-author manuscript, Sideways Selves, The Politics of Transing Matter Across the Américas, is forthcoming with the University of Texas Press. They collaborate with various organizations committed to social justice, including the Democratizing Knowledge Collective at Syracuse University, the Association for Jotería Arts, Activism, and Scholarship (AJAAS), and the travesti collectives Damas de Hierro and Futuro TransGenérico. DiPietro is the director of undergraduate studies in the department of women’s and gender studies and the director of the LGBTQ studies program at Syracuse University.

Maya Chinchilla is a media maker, writer and author of “The Cha Cha Files: A Chapina Poética” and editor of the forthcoming "CentroMaricondas: A Queer and Trans Central American Anthology". She also hosts the monthly interview talk show “Live and Queer” produced by the Queer Cultural Center. She has taught creative writing, English, Chicana/Latina/o/x Studies and Queer studies as a lecturer at UC Davis, Laney College College and co-coordinates a Puente Program and works independently as a facilitator, creativity coach and guest speaker. She is available to travel and present readings and workshops in your small town or big city. www.mayachinchilla.com

"I believe in the heart of the work that AJAAS has set out to do. I come to AJAAS as someone who has not always felt at home in some of of our community spaces as a Central American writer, poet, performer, educator, disabled femme, or queer introvert. But that discomfort is a message. It is our job to push the boundaries of our worlds, make ourselves at home and make space in places that don't always welcome us. This is an ongoing project and not always an easy task. I enjoy collaborating, believe everyone has a particular skill to bring no matter your education or life path, that consent is sexy, and I abhor models of scarcity and chingón-queerer-woke'r-than-thou-politics. I want all of us to thrive, leaving seeds for future joteria with joy, consciousness raising, hard work, payasadas and pleasure."

Marco (he, él, ele) holds a Phd in Cultural Studies and Social Thought in Education (CSSTE) from Washington State University (WSU) in Pullman, (Wash.). He is an associate professor in the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi. A journalist from Brazil, he identifies as a queer Afro-Latinx. His scholarship aligns with jotería, feminist and arts-based methods with a special focus on Gloria Anzaldúa’s concept of autohistoria-teoría.

Ángel de Jesus González, Ed.D. (he/they/elle) is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education Administration and Leadership (HEAL) at Fresno State University. As a first-generation queer, Latinx, joto, they engage their scholarship through post-structuralist and transformative paradigms rooted in Xicana/Latina feminists epistemologies. Dr. González’s research agenda focuses on three strands; 1) examining the conditions, experiences, and outcomes for queer and/or trans communities; 2) Latinx Leadership and organizational change; and 3) racial equity policy implementation all within the community college context. Dr. González's foundational research has been published in many leading community college and higher education journals such as the Community College Journal of Research and Practice (CCJRP), the Journal of Research for Community Colleges (JARCC), the Journal for Student Affairs Research and Practice (JSARP), New Directions for Community Colleges (NDCC), and the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education (IJQSE).

As an interdisciplinary scholar, Dr. González employs critical theories and methods such as jotería studies, intersectionality, queer pláticas, testimonio, queer chisme, queer phenomenology, critical policy analysis, and QuantCrit to name a few. Dr. González is a Faculty Affiliate for the Queer and Trans Latinx/a/o in HigherEd Collective and the Community College HigherEd Access Leadership Equity Scholarship (CCHALES) research collective at San Diego State University (SDSU). They is part of the Queer Trans People in Education (QTPiE) Research Team as an Emerging Scholar at the University of Vermont (UVM). Their work has been celebrated and acknowledged by a myriad of organizations. Dr. Gonzalez was the 2022 recipient of the NASPA Community College Division Research and Scholarship Award and ACPA’s Gender and Sexuality Coalition D.L. Stewart Research Award for their scholarship that advances queer and trans people of color well-being in community colleges and higher education.

Activism Liaison Bio

Yajanetsy also goes by Alejandra, is originally from Salt Lake City, Utah, with roots in Nayarit, Mexico. Pronouns She/They/Ella, they have always worked in Education in some capacity, and strongly believe that working in Education is in their blood. Coming from a long line of teachers, and educators, this path has always felt serene and predetermined to her. Her experience growing up Undocuqueer, and first generation, informed her practice and taught her to be a better advocate for the communities she belongs to and cares about. Yajanetsy recently graduated from The University of Utah with her M.Ed in Education, Leadership and Policy. She is excited to be part of meaningful work in the org. In her spare time, she rock climbs indoors, reads, and enjoys dancing.

I write from the core of who I am: joto, Latinx, feminist, hijo de (son of) a first- generation Madre (mother) and Mexican Immigrant Padre (father), Jotería scholar, and activist. My connection to Jotería emerges from my experiences navigating the Ivory Tower and trying to understand where I exist within this space. As a scholar-activist, I focus on co-creating counternarratives of queer and trans Latinx/a/o individuals within higher education.

Irina Núñez is an abolitionist muxerista jotx living in Sacramento, CA. She organizes fiercely for freedom using her expertise in Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) and Community-based participatory research. Currently, she is the Participatory Director for Evaluation Studio, a firm that centers youth and community in research and evaluation. She grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada and graduated with a bachelors in Women's Studies at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She completed her Masters in Social Work in Minneapolis, MN in 2016. While living in Minneapolis, she worked and organized alongside youth of color and was introduced to YPAR as a means to radically abolish and build new ways of being. It was in Minneapolis, Minnesota where she and her chosen family organized the 2017 AJAAS Conference.

Dr. Anita Tijerina Revilla is a muxerista and joteria activist-scholar, Professor, and Chair of CSULA’s Department of Chicana(o) and Latina(o) Studies. Her research focuses on student movements and social justice education, specifically in the areas of Chicana/Latina, immigrant, feminist and queer rights activism. Her expertise is in the areas of Jotería (Queer and Latinx) Studies, Chicanx Education, Chicana/Latina Feminism, and Critical Race & Ethnic Studies. She is a Harlandale High School graduate from the Southside of San Antonio and the first in her family to go to college. After receiving her bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and master’s degree from Teachers College, Columbia University, she earned her doctorate from UCLA Graduate School of Education in Social Sciences and Comparative Education with an emphasis in Race and Ethnic Studies.

Olga Estrada is a fourth-year doctoral student in the Culture, Literacy, and Language program at University of Texas San Antonio. She is currently a Democratizing Social Justice fellow through the Andrew W. Mellon grant. As part of the department of Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality, she teaches courses in the Intro to Women, Gender, and LGBTQ studies. As an Anzaldúan theorist, her research interest is centered on decolonial Chicana/x feminist theory and epistimology. Her current research involves critical autoethnography to explore the experience of being a Queer Chicanx in higher education. She has served as a summer graduate research assistant for the Mexican American Studies Teachers’ Academy for three consecutive years.

Treasurer Bio

Desiré Gabriela (They/She) is a queer artist, capturing the wonder all around them with the intention to nourish our imaginations. They are a descendent of a beautiful ancestry in Mexico which consists of Indigenous lineage + Spanish lineage, due to colonization. About five years ago she began to consciously choose healing, and this opened up her understanding of herself and the world around her. Their commitment to community activism developed in her studies at UNLV Gender Sexuality & Ethnic Studies, which gave them the foundation and support to continue researching how to protect human rights and live freely. She will be using all this knowledge as she moves forward in her Master’s degree in Elementary Education. She believes that fluidity, change, and growth are all consistently working in our lives and it's important to create a different relationship to how we work through those concepts. They believe its valuable to remain curious and to nurture our enthusiasm for learning and playing with the magic the universe shares with us. As an artist & healing facilitator their intention is to share what they are learning as they come home to the wholeness and love within. There is so much that makes us feel constrained and limited, and every day we must work to get free. We are powerful, divine, and abundant and we must remember and awaken our self trust, belief, and faith to see that the answers we seek are within.

Nancy Liliana Godoy (She/Her/Hers) is the Director of Community-Driven Archives Initiative and Associate Archivist of ASU Library's Chicano/a Research Collection. She has received several grants including one from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation ($450,000) and the Institute of Museum and Library Services ($534,975) to engage and empower historically marginalized communities in Arizona. Godoy is the recipient of the Outreach Services Award (Arizona Library Association 2019), the Movers and Shakers - Advocates Award (Library Journal 2020), and the Archival Innovator Award (Society of American Archivists 2022). In 2021, Godoy published “Community-Driven Archives: Conocimiento, Healing, and Justice” in the Journal of Critical Library and Information Studies (special issue on radical empathy in archival practice). The manuscript discusses how Gloria Anzaldúa’s path to “conocimiento”, a Spanish word for knowledge, can be used to decolonize the mind, body, and soul of marginalized communities as well as reimagine 21st century archives and memory keeping.

Lizeth (Liz) Zepeda (she/ella) is originally from Santa Ana, Orange County, California. She is the university archivist at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, California. She holds a Master’s in Library and Information Science from the University of Arizona School of Information. Her research and archival interests include working with BIPOC communities, outreach programming, community and queer(ing) archives. When she is not working, she likes to go on hikes/walks with her partner and dog, Monita, listen to audiobooks, and cross-stitch.

Eileen is a queer indigenous artist in Occupied Duwamish Territory (Seattle, WA). She is a current doctoral student at the Muckleshoot Tribal College & the University of Washington, Tacoma focusing her research on the ways that settler colonialism has impacted our connection to the Land. She loves to process and metabolize her readings and schoolwork by creating art with concepts that resonate with her experience. She earned her Master of Counseling degree from the California State University, Long Beach and her Bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles in French/Francophone Studies. As an indigenous leader, community member, and as an artist, everything she does and creates is influenced by her many intersecting identities and lived experiences. She creates the art, the structures, the programming and the educational experiences she wishes she and her community would have seen and had access to as a girl from the 'hood. In her current body of work you will see her ongoing journey to heal and to share her family’s and community’s stories. She aims to create pieces that embody Indigenous life, joy, resilience and relationship to Land.

Úmi Vera (she/élla) is a child of Tepehuan O’dami indigenous immigrant parents. She was born and raised half of her life in Tongva lands (southeast Los Angeles) and currently resides in Kalapuya, Cowlitz and the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde lands in the Pacific Northwest. With 15 years of organizing experience predominantly in policy advocacy in the intersections of migrant and trans/queer grassroots organizing, she joins PUAH from her most recent role as National Campaign and Organizing Director at Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement. She has executive leadership experience and was the End Profiling Campaign Director at Unite Oregon.

Daniel Enrique Pérez (He/Him/His) is a founding member of AJAAS. He is a fierce mariposa warrior and a Jotería studies scholar and activist. His books include: Rethinking Chicana/o and Latina/o Popular Culture, an edited collection of plays entitled Latina/o Heritage on Stage: Dramatizing Heroes and Legends, and a collection of poems entitled Things You See in the Dark. He was born in Texas to a migrant farmworking family and raised in the onion fields outside of Phoenix, Arizona. He obtained his PhD from Arizona State University and currently serves as Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for the College of Liberal Arts and Associate Professor of Chicanx and Latinx Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno.