UW–Madison alumna Mary Dueñas was named one of 15 top Emerging Scholars “who represent the future of the academy” by Diverse Issues magazine.
Dueñas earned her master’s degree in counseling from the School of Education’s Department of Counseling Psychology, and in 2021 she graduated with a PhD from the School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis.
Diverse Issues describes Dueñas as an “Equity and Access Champion,” who through her scholarship and administrative responsibilities works to help underrepresented and marginalized students succeed in higher education. Her research addresses issues of equity and access in higher education, focusing on Latinx students’ sense of belonging and their experiences with imposter syndrome.
Dueñas, who is currently an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and also is the program coordinator for the college’s master’s student personnel program, explains that her work comes from an asset-based, rather than a deficit-based, perspective. “It’s more about the positives of what makes a student’s experience successful in higher education, and I ask the questions of what works,” she tells the magazine.
Read more about Dueñas and the other 2024 Emerging Scholars.