Background

As a researcher, Dr. Vasquez studied the psycho-social factors affecting the academic trajectories of traditionally underrepresented and marginalized students at both the undergrad and graduate levels. As a practitioner, he helps colleges and universities recruit, retain, and graduate underrepresented and minoritized students by examining and re-designing policies, programs, and procedures through an equity lens to provide holistic student-centered services and programs. Dr. Vasquez worked in many areas related to student success, including multicultural affairs, LGBTQIA+ programs, counseling services, mentoring, and academic advising. Some of his accomplishments include developing a comprehensive mental health website for all three campuses of the University of Michigan; expanding an undergraduate research program to include more ethnically and racially diverse students, and managing several multi-million-dollar state-wide NSF grants aimed at getting more URM doctoral recipients into the professoriate. As a visiting scholar at the National Forum on Higher Education for the Public Good, he led a team of graduate and undergraduate students in developing resources to help undocumented students access higher education in Michigan. Finally, as a first-generation Mexican American from the barrios of San Antonio, TX, Dr. Vasquez’ used his lived experience and research expertise to help develop MSU’s Éxito Educativo Program, a bilingual high school-to-college pipeline program for Latinx families, which he hopes to bring to Central Washington University. In 2019, Dr. Vasquez was also one of only three doctoral recipients at MSU selected to hold the prestigious King-Chavez-Parks Future Faculty Fellowship. Dr. Vasquez earned his BA in Organizational Studies and his MHSA in Public Health & Policy from the University of Michigan and his Ph.D. in Higher, Adult, & Lifelong Education (HALE) at Michigan State University (MSU).