NVC a Key Partner on Social Justice Grant

UTSA has been awarded a three-year, $5 million grant, from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support community partnerships focused on advancing a more democratic society through racial justice and social equity.

The project, “Democratizing Racial Justice,” was among 16 other projects selected from 165 grant applications and the only project awarded in Texas.

Democratizing Racial Justice is coordinated through the Women’s Studies Institute and the Department of Racial, Ethnic, Gender and Sexuality Studies (REGSS) at UTSA and is led by Dr. Jackie Cuevas, associate professor and assistant chair of the Department of REGGS and director of the Women’s Studies Institute. Project co-leads are Drs. Alejandra Elenes, professor and chair of the Department of Race, Ethnicity, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and Rhonda M. Gonzales, professor and chair of the Department of History at UTSA.

The Alamo Colleges District will serve as a key institutional partner in creating Educators’ Academies for faculty, shareable teaching guides, and strengthening transfer pathways to UTSA for students committed to the study of racial justice as a career path.

Dr. Sandra D. Garza, San Antonio College graduate, assistant professor, and coordinator for the Mexican American Studies Program (MAS) at Northwest Vista College, has been selected to serve as project liaison for the Alamo Colleges. She will work closely with the UTSA project leads and site coordinators at two other Alamo Colleges campuses, Drs. Lori Beth Rodriguez at Palo Alto College and Lisa Ramos at San Antonio College.

The three Alamo Colleges MAS Program Coordinators collaborated with Dr. Lilliana P. Saldaña, Director of Mexican American Studies at UTSA, to ensure Alamo Colleges was included in this multi-institutional project.

“This project is built on a foundation of ongoing work and a legacy of civil rights and educational activism in Texas,” says Garza.