Evelyn Ambriz

Dr. Evelyn M. Ambriz, PhD is a postdoctoral research associate at Cornell University. In her research, she draws from frameworks in sociology and employs qualitative methods to investigate how organizational actors work within constrained and racialized systems of higher education to promote equitable access to capital for students and alumni. In her dissertation, she focuses on meso-level organizations historically led by socially privileged groups and whose membership is determined by group consensus - collegiate secret societies and fraternities historically exclusive to White males - and how they contribute to micro-level ideologies and macro-level social reproduction.

Her research has been published in the American Educational Research Journal, Journal of Higher Education, the Review of Higher Education, and Administrative Theory & Praxis. She holds an MPA in social policy and a BS in sociology from Cornell University, where she served as the assistant dean of students for student development diversity initiatives.

Dr. Ambriz brings extensive higher education experience to her scholarship. She is currently the advisor for student members of a senior honor society at Cornell University. Prior to her doctoral studies, she served as the Assistant Dean of Students for Student Development Diversity Initiatives at Cornell University. There, she advised over 100 students who led various culturally-based student organizations, developed educational and cultural programming for students, and led a committee that created and implemented a diversity and inclusion curriculum for all Greek-letter organizations at Cornell. She has also advised and supported graduate students to ensure degree completion. Outside of higher education, she has worked as a financial services specialist for a private insurance firm.

Dr. Ambriz regularly engages in collaborative research with scholars around the country. Dr. Ambriz holds a PhD in Higher Education Leadership from The University of Texas at Austin, an MPA with a concentration in social policy and a focus on diversity and inclusion in higher education and a graduate minor in Latina/o studies from Cornell University, and a BS in Development Sociology from Cornell University.

Liliana M Garces (Supervisor)
Expertise on the intersection of law and educational policies and practices focused on access, diversity, and equity in higher education, including affirmative action, freedom of expression and inclusion, and the use and influence of research in law.

Joshua Childs (Committee Member)
Examines collaborative approaches involving community organizations and stakeholders that improve academic achievement and reduce opportunity gaps for students. Also studies chronic absenteeism, the role of high school athletics in school settings, and computer science education.

Terrance L Green (Committee Member)
Examines principals and school-community engagement/community development and issues of educational equity and opportunity.

Member, Educational Leadership & Policy Student Advisory Committee, The University of Texas at Austin(2019 - 2020)

Chair, Educational Leadership & Policy Student Advisory Mentorship Sub-Committee, The University of Texas at Austin(2019 - 2020)

Member, National Risk Management Committee, Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority, Inc.(2019 - 2020)

Co-Chair, National Leadership Development Standards Committee, Lambda Theta Alpha Latin Sorority, Inc.(2018 - 2019)

Vice President & Student Advisor, Circulus Praesidum, Inc. (Collegiate Honor Society)(2016 - Present)

Garces, L. M.., Johnson, B. D.., Ambriz, E.. & Bradley, D.. (2021). Repressive legalism: How postsecondary administrators responses to on-campus hate speech undermine a focus on inclusion.. American Education Research Journal. doi:https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312211027586.

Garces, L.., Ambriz, E.. & Pedota, J.. (2021). Legal Challenges to Bias Response Teams on College Campuses. Educational Research.

Childs, J. & Ambriz, E. (2021). Infamous and wicked: The unique utility of interorganizational networks during COVID-19.. Administrative Theory & Praxis.

Morales, N. (University of California, Santa Barbara) & Ambriz, E. (Cornell University) in Mobilizing Cultura and Becoming Latina/o in a New England College Town: Promiscuous Narratives of Latinidades draw on ethnographic interviews with 15 community leaders to explore how accounts of local radio activism, advocacy efforts, and community celebrations reflected an urgency for Latinidad and comunidad. Across diverse class, gendered, raced bodies, multiple identities and experiences of exclusion and inclusion, cultura was leveraged in promiscuous ways, reconfiguring Latinidad as an ambiguous, elastic and blurred site of identity-making practice.

From being overrepresented in essential jobs, to underrepresented among those with access to healthcare, to the undocumented living in fear, the global coronavirus pandemic has affected Latinas/os disproportionately. As this crisis unfolds, the Voces Oral History Center is leading a team of collaborators including institutions of higher education across the country, to record, archive and disseminate interviews to help researchers, journalists and the broader public gain a greater appreciation of the experiences in the Latino community during this historic time.

The Dr. Bill Lasher Doctoral Student Excellence Award, The University of Texas at Austin (2022)

John and Suanne Roueche Endowed Scholarship, The University of Texas at Austin (2021)

Graduate Continuing Bruton Fellowship, The University of Texas at Austin (2021)

Amado M. Pena, Sr. Endowed Scholarship in the Community College Leadership Program, The University of Texas at Austin (2021)

Provost Award, The University of Texas at Austin (2018 - 2022)

Texas New Scholar Fund Award, The University of Texas at Austin, (2018 - 2022)

A.D. White Administrator of the Year, Cornell University (2017 - 2018)

Tomás Bautista Mapúa Staff Collaborator Award, Office of Academic Diversity Initiatives, Cornell University (2017 - 2018)

Navigating hate speech on campus: How student leaders understand and react to university responses., Association for the Study of Higher Education, Online (2020)

Historically White fraternities and secret societies: Racialized experiences of Black and Latinx/a/o recent alumni members, Association for the Student of Higher Education, Online (2020)

Legislating Inclusion: How Free Speech Laws are Shaping Higher Education Practices, NASPA (Sponsored by the Public Policy Division), Austin, TX (forthcoming) (2020)

Constrained by Law? How University Administrators Responses to Hateful Incidents Relate to Inclusion, ASHE, Portland, OR (2019)

Advising and Programming Best Practices for Effective Student Engagement through an Assessment and Research Based Lens, Auburn University, Webinar (2018)

What Does it Mean to be a Person of Color at Cornell?, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (2017)

Find Other Students