Jackie Pedota

Jackie is a doctoral candidate at the University of Texas at Austin within the Educational Leadership and Policy department and works as a Graduate Research Assistant under the supervision of Dr. Liliana Garces. She currently works on a project, funded by the Spencer Foundation, that examines how law-based pressures, such as state legislation restricting teaching and knowledge production focused on race, shape racial inclusion policy and practice within higher education. Prior to pursuing her PhD, Jackie received her M.Ed. from the University of Texas at Austin and her B.S. in Wildlife Ecology and Conservation from the University of Florida. She has had a wealth of professional experiences across the P-20 educational pipeline including roles in K-12 instruction, non-profit management, educational technology, and higher education administration.

Jackie's research focuses on racial equity within higher education and the institutionalization of diversity initiatives using organizational frameworks to illuminate structure, policies, and practice that inhibit equity-driven, transformational change. Her most recent funded project examines the institutionalization of a Latinx Campus Cultural Center at a PWI. She found that as institutional leaders invested in the center, new racialized organizational structures and policies reduced the agency of Latinx students and staff, ultimately undermining the fundamental equity-focused purpose of the center.

Jackie's work as a multi-disciplinary scholar utilizes participatory methods, like oral history, to produce public scholarship that democratizes knowledge and disrupt power structures historically present within knowledge production and dissemination. She serves as the Managing Editor for the US Latina & Latino Oral History Journal and is a Graduate Student Member of the Editorial Board for the Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice. Her work has been recognized at national conferences such as the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the Oral History Association (OHA), the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), and the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies (NACCS). Her scholarship has also been publish in a variety of journals, including the Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership (JCEL), the Journal Committed to Social Change on Race and Ethnicity (JCSCORE), Educational Researcher, and the US Latina & Latino Oral History Journal.