Stephen Santa-Ramirez, PhD (he/him/his)

Dr. Stephen Santa-Ramirez (he/him/his) is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education at the University at Buffalo (UB), which operates on the unceded ancestral territory of the Seneca Nation of the Haudenosaunee Six Nations Confederacy. His vast experiences in U.S. higher education and student affairs include work in Multicultural and LGBT+ Affairs, Residential Life and Housing Services, and Migrant Student Services. In addition to teaching at UB, Dr. Santa-Ramirez has taught for the Philadelphia Freedom Schools, Michigan State University, The University of Texas at Arlington, and Arizona State University.

Dr. Santa Ramirez's personal and professional experiences in higher education – and identity as a scholar-practitioner-advocate – have played formative roles in the development of his research agenda, which centers on the lives and knowledge of historically marginalized and economically neglected students. Broadly, he investigates the historical, ideological, and structural inequities that impact Black, Latinx, Indigenous, migrant, and other marginalized communities. Particularly, by employing critical, student-centered, and asset-based frameworks, he investigates campus racial climate, transitions and belongingness of first-generation students of color, college student activism and resistance, and the various ways race, ethnicity, im/migration status and policy inform the educational experiences of collegians who are undocumented.

In addition to authoring a host of book chapters, some of his recently published peer-reviewed articles can be located in The Review of Higher Education, The Journal of Higher Education, Journal of First-generation Student Success, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Journal of College Student Development, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, and the Journal of Hispanic Higher Education. Additionally, he was the 2023 special issue editor for New Directions for Higher Education (journal) titled "Equitable and Humanizing Research, Policy, and Practice With and For Undocumented Collegians in the United States."

Dr. Santa-Ramirez is a 2024-2026 co-chair of the Latinx Network via ACPA-College Student Educators International, an Associate Editor for the College Student Affairs Journal (CSAJ), and an advisory board member for Voces Nuevas via The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU).

Dr. Santa-Ramirez is an award-winning scholar, including a 2024-2026 ACPA Emerging Scholar, a 2022-2024 National Academy of Education (NAEd)/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, and a 2022 ACPA Diamond Honoree, a prestigious honor for professionals who have made and continue to make a tremendous impact in the field of higher education and student affairs. He was also the recipient of a 2023-2024 UB Exceptional Scholar-Young Investigator Award from President Satish K. Tripathi and received the 2022-2023 GSE S.T.A.R. Faculty Award for Research, 2023 UB Pillar of Leadership from the Division of Student Affairs, and the 2020-2021 UB GSE S.T.A.R. Faculty Award for Teaching. Furthermore, in recent years, he has received the Legacy of Leadership honor from West Chester University and was selected as a Fellow for NASPA's Emerging Faculty Leadership Academy, the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE), and New York University's Faculty First-Look. He is also a Diversity Scholar via the University of Michigan’s National Center for Institutional Diversity and a recipient of the ACPA Latinx Network Community Advancement & Service Award.

• Certificate - Public Narrative: Leadership, Storytelling, and Action, Harvard University, Kennedy School of Public Policy & Government
• Certificate - Penn Equity Institute, University of Pennsylvania, Center for the Study of Race & Equity in Education
• Certificate - Socioeconomic Justice, Arizona State University, School of Social Transformation
• Ph.D., Educational Policy and Evaluation, Arizona State University
• M.A., Student Affairs Administration, Michigan State University
• B.A., Communication Studies, West Chester University
• M.L.S., Master of Legal Studies/Business Law (in progress), University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), School of Law

• NAEd/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow 2022; National Academy of Education; 2022-05-09;
• Diamond Honoree; ACPA - College Student Educators International; 2022-03-08;
• NASPA’s Emerging Faculty Leadership Academy (EFLA); NASPA – Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education; 2021-02-01;
• University of Michigan's Diversity Scholars Network; University of Michigan; 2020-09-30;
• NYU Faculty First-Look Fellow/Visiting Affiliate; New York University; 2019-11-01;

• García-Louis, C., Santa-Ramirez, S., & Hinojosa, J. (2024). (In)Visibility to advocacy: The insider-outsider experiences of AfroLatinx higher education professionals. The Journal of Higher Education, 95(7), 917–941. http://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2023.2259773
• Santa-Ramirez, S. & Hall, K. A. (2023). UndocuJoy as resistance: Undocumented collegians' narratives of joy. Journal of College Student Development, 64(5), 572–588. http://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2023.a911791
• Santa-Ramirez, S. (2023). A historical snapshot of Latinx student activism from the 1960s – 1990s: A university archival analysis. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 22(1), 46-59. https://doi.org/10.1177/15381927211008681
• Santa-Ramirez, S., Wells, T., Sandoval, J., & Koro, M. (2022). Working through first-generation students of Color experiences, university mission, intersectionality, and post-subjectivity. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 35(2), 109-124. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2020.1783012

• Muñoz, S. M., & Santa-Ramirez, S. (2022). Reimagining institutionalized support for undocumented and DACA college students: A critical approach. In R. Johnson, U. Anya, & L. Garces (Eds.), Racial Equity on College Campus: Connecting Research to Practice (pp. 141-165). SUNY Press.

• Alhadad, S. S. J., Vasco, D., & Santa-Ramirez, S. (June 2023). Imagining Generatively Together: Exploring Strategies for Deepening Problematizing in Design Thinking Towards Justice-oriented Futures. Research paper presentation at the International Conference of the Learning Sciences Annual Conference, Montréal, Canada.;
• Santa-Ramirez, S., & Hall, K. A. (November 2023). The Post-Graduation Transitional Experiences of Recently Graduated Undocumented Collegians. Research paper presentation at the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) Annual Conference, Minneapolis, MN.;
• Santa-Ramirez, S., Israni, V., & Lathan, I. (March 2024). Using a Bioecological Lens to Examine Latinx Doctoral Students' Experiences. Research paper presentation at the ACPA–College Student Educators International Annual Conference, Chicago, IL.;
• Wright, K., Ardoin, S., Mac., J., & Santa-Ramirez, S. (March 2024). Trailblazing Academia: Stories and Strategies of First-Gen Doctoral Graduates. Presentation at the ACPA – College Student Educators International Annual Conference, Chicago, IL.;
• Santa-Ramirez, S., & Hall, K. A. (November 2022). Leaning into UndocuJoy: Undocu/DACAmented Collegians’ Stories of Joy. Research paper presented at the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) Annual Conference, Las Vegas, NV.;

• In Community: Undocumented Collegians (Re)Imagining Together; Foundation and Research Organization; ACPA-College Student Educators International; Awarded; (08/29/2024-09/01/2025)
• So, What Happens Now?: The Post-Graduation Transitional Experiences of Undocu/DACAmented Collegians; Foundation and Research Organization; 2022 NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship; Awarded; (09/01/2022-08/01/2023)
• Transitional Experiences of Collegians who are Undocu/DACAmented; Foundation and Research Organization; NASPA Foundation Channing Briggs Research Grant; Awarded; (05/01/2022-08/01/2023)
• Transitional Experiences of Collegians who are Undocu/DACAmented; Foundation and Research Organization; ACPA Foundation Research Grant; Awarded; (10/08/2021-10/08/2021)
• First-generation collegians navigating the transition into higher education during the global health pandemic COVID-19; Local Government; UB Graduate School of Education Seed Grant; Awarded; (09/01/2021-06/01/2022)

• Co-Chair, Latinx Network, ACPA - College Student Educators International
  03/21/2024-04/01/2026
• Advisory Council, Voces Nuevas, The Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU)
  07/01/2023-07/31/2025
• Associate Editor, College Student Affairs Journal
  09/01/2022-09/01/2025

• Special Issue Editor; "Equitable and humanizing research, policy, and practice with and for undocumented collegians in the United States," 2023, New Directions for Higher Education.
  01/01/2023-12/31/2023
• Associate Editor; College Students Affairs Journal
  08/29/2022-06/15/2024
• Editorial Board; Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice (JSARP)
  01/01/2022-09/01/2024
• Advisory Board; Journal of Critical Scholarship on Higher Education and Student Affairs
  05/01/2021-05/01/2024
• Associate Editor; Journal of Critical Scholarship on Higher Education and Student Affairs
  06/01/2019-08/31/2020