Dr. Nancy López is professor of sociology at the University of New Mexico. Dr. López is co-founder and past director of the Institute for the Study of “Race” and Social Justice (2009-2024). Her scholarship, teaching and service are guided by the insights of intersectionality–the importance of examining the simultaneity of race, gender, class, ethnicity and other systems of inequalities across a variety of social outcomes, including education, health, employment, housing, for developing contextualized solutions that advance social justice. Dr. López is author of Hopeful Girls, Troubled Boys: Race & Gender Disparity in Urban Education (2003); co-editor of, Creating Alternative Discourses in the Education of Latinas & Latinos (2003), Mapping “Race”: Critical Approaches to Health Disparities Research (2013); and, QuantCrit: An Antiracist Approach to Education Equity (2023).  Dr. López is PI NSF HIS Hub, “Intersectionality as Inquiry and Praxis: Race-Gender-Class-Ethnicity for Student Success in STEM,” a community of practice consisting of UNM, NMSU, CNM and CUNY-City College, Lehman College and Hostos Community College (hsistemintersectionality.com).   Dr. López’s other current research projects include: the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for a study on “Employing and Intersectionality Framework in Revising Office of Management and Budget Standards for Collecting Administrative Race and Ethnicity Data” for illuminating the difference between race (visual social status/street race) and ethnicity (cultural heritage) for interrogating inequalities. She is also co-PI for research funded by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on “Climate for Latino Students: Employing Intersectionality for Understanding Latino Student Success in Higher Education;” the Hewlett Foundation and the WT Grant Foundation for a mixed-methods research project on the impact of high school ethnic studies classes for reducing intersectional inequalities; and the Spencer Foundation for a planning grant to conduct a study on “Envisioning the Transformation of Measures and Analysis of Structural and Systemic Racism.” Dr. López is Black Latina, New York City-born daughter of Dominican immigrants with a second-grade education rich in cultural wealth. She is the first woman of color tenured in Sociology and the first woman of the African Diaspora tenured in the College of Arts and Sciences (2008) and promoted to full professor (2018) at UNM.