Rubén Martinez, PhD

Rubén O. Martinez is the Director of the nationally renowned Julían Samora Research Institute at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan. He is a nationally known scholar with expertise in the areas of higher education, race and ethnic relations, and diversity leadership. His research focuses on leadership and institutional change, education and ethnic minorities, youth development, and environmental justice. He is the editor of the Latinos in the United States book series with Michigan State University Press. He has co-authored the books A Brief History of Cristo Rey Church in Lansing, MI, Chicanos in Higher Education and Diversity Leadership in Higher Education. He also edited the volume Latinos in the Midwest and co-edited the books Occupational Health Disparities among Racial and Ethnic Minorities and Latino College Presidents: In their own Words, in which selected Latinos and Latinas share personal insights and experiences on their pathways to their presidencies at colleges and universities in the U.S. He has lectured widely across the country, including presentations at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavior Science at Stanford, Johns Hopkins University, the University of Colorado, University of Michigan, and at many professional conferences. He has served for many years on various university faculty senates and academic councils, and has made many far-reaching contributions to our nation’s higher education enterprise through his distinguished professional service as President of the Western Social Science Association, as member of the AASCU and ACE leadership institutes, as a consultant-evaluator with higher education accreditation associations, and as a member of the HACU-ETS Policy Fellowship Program. Rubén Martinez is widely recognized for his extensive scholarly achievements, his consulting work in higher education and community research projects, and his participation in high-profile projects sponsored by key entities such as the W. K. Kellogg Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Pfizer Foundation, the Anne E. Casey Foundation, and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities. He is one of our nation’s leading sociologists of higher education, who is not only a prolific, creative, and influential scholar but also a deep and sophisticated thinker on the most vexing issues facing our communities and institutions of higher learning, including the issues of culture, identity, social justice, excellence, accountability, diversity, and leadership.