Joanna Sánchez, Ph.D.

Joanna D. Sánchez received her Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy from UT-Austin in 2017. She is currently working as a Chief of Staff at Excelencia in Education, a national non-profit organization whose mission is to accelerate Latino student success in higher education. Excelencia’s work focuses on promoting Latino student post-secondary success by conducting research and data analysis to inform educational policies and advancing evidence-based institutional practices. Joanna provides oversight of Excelencia’s programmatic portfolio in coordination with executives including alignment of program staffing, funding, and development. She also supports the cultivation of a high-performance organizational culture by further developing and implementing recruitment, training, and retention strategies. Prior to joining Excelencia, Joanna completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at Howard University funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). She received her B.S. in Geosciences from Trinity University and her M.S. in Geographic Information Science from the University of Denver. Joanna is a first-generation college graduate and proud alum of the Gates Millennium Scholarship Program. Her hometown is Pharr, TX.