Lessons in Grassroots Leadership

In this episode of ¿Qué pasa, HSIs? we engage in lessons in grassroots leadership with Dra. Leticia Villarreal Sosa, a scholar activist who serves as Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development and Professor in the School of Social Work at University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. She shares stories of the risks and challenges that grassroots leaders face while trying to transform their campuses into Latine-serving spaces. As a social worker who centers feminist teachings and racial justice in her work, enacting servingness comes natural to her, yet she has faced numerous struggles and strong opposition along the way. One of her passions is curriculum redesign, which she describes for us, providing techniques for making changes to curriculum, measuring critical consciousness as a goal of the course, and strategies for getting changes through formal governance structures. We also talk about our co-authored article on “decolonizing faculty governance” and the fear, anger, and resistance we invoked from colleagues. With every story, Dra. Villarreal Sosa weaves in the risks she has taken while doing the work. Grassroots leadership is vital to HSI transformation, and many of us can learn from Leticia in this episode.

Guest: Dra. Leticia Villarreal Sosa (she/her/hers/ella), Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development | Professor in the School of Social Work, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley

X: @leticiavillarr

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leticia-villarreal-sosa-58a2b320/ 

Instagram: @nepantlahealing

APA Citation: 

Garcia, G.A. (Host). (2024, May 5). Lessons in Grassroots Leadership. (No.408) [Audio podcast episode]. In ¿Qué pasa, HSIs?. https://www.ginaanngarcia.com/podcast/408

Attachments / Show notes: 

• Villarreal Sosa, L., Garcia, G. A., & Bucher, J. (2022). Decolonizing faculty governance in Hispanic-Serving Institutions. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education. Online first. https://doi.org/10.1177/15381927221126781
• Villarreal Sosa, L., & Castillo Martinez, M. (2023). Human rights and Latina feminisms: Implications for clinical practice with the Latine diaspora in anti-immigrant times. Clinical Social Work Journal. https://doi.org//10.1007/s10615-023-00892-0
• Villarreal Sosa, L., Roth, B., Rodriquez, S. (2021). Crossing borders: Exploring the role of social workers in immigrant-serving schools. Social Work Research. https://doi.org/10.1093/swr/svab011  
• Villarreal Sosa, L. & Lesniewski, J. (2020). De-colonizing study abroad: Social workers confronting racism, sexism and poverty in Guatemala. Social Work Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2020.1770719
• https://www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p088162 (link to forthcoming book)