Dr. Ray Ramirez

Dr. Ray Ramírez has dedicated his life's work, research, and advocacy efforts to racial equity, anti-racism, and social justice in higher education. His scholar-practitioner research and advocacy interest include the role of community college practitioners (student affairs professionals, faculty, administrators, and staff) in fostering equitable student outcomes and institutional policy and practice impacting racially minoritized students, particularly Latino men.

 

Dr. Ramírez has taught Chicanx-Latinx Studies courses at Fresno City College since 2012, served as the college Student Equity Coordinator from 2015 to 2019, Director of Student Equity and Success from 2019 to November 2023, and currently is Interim Vice President of Equity and Institutional Effectiveness at Madera Community College. Prior to 2015, Dr. Ramírez worked for the California Teaching Fellows Foundation in several capacities and ultimately as the Director of Operations from 2013 to 2015. He has also taught graduate courses in the Student Affairs and College Counseling program and Higher Education, Administration, and Leadership (HEAL) program as a lecturer in the Kremen School of Education and Human Development at Fresno State. He holds a dual B.A. in Cultural Anthropology and Chicano and Latin American Studies, and an M.A. in HEAL from Fresno State. Dr. Ramírez earned his doctorate in Community College/Postsecondary Education Leadership at San Diego State University in the Community College Leadership program and studied under the leadership of Drs. Frank Harris III, J. Luke Wood, and Marissa Vasquez.

 

Growing up in a culturally and artistically rich family full of musicians and dancers, Dr. Ramírez is also passionate about Mexican folk dance (folklórico). His late father was well-known throughout the Central San Joaquín Valley and California as a pioneering mariachero (mariachi musician), and folklórico instructor and choreographer. Dr. Ramírez hopes to foster a similar passion for nuestra cultra, comunidad and folklórico in his toddler, Mateo