About

I was born and raised in the San Gabriel Valley by parents from Nicaragua and New York who became junior high school teachers. These experiences inspire my work on Chicanas/os Latinas/os, race/ethnicity, activism, education, and Los Angeles-area communities​.

 

Committed to centering community voices, experiences, and histories, I have written four books. My newest book, In the Shadows of Los Angeles: Black and Chicana/o Suburban Activism, due out in January 2027 with UC Press, is based on oral histories and archival materials.

 

My last book, Academic Profiling: Latinos, Asian Americans, and the Achievement Gap (2013) was named as one of 35 books that all educators of African American and Latino students must read. It received awards from the Asian American Studies Association, the American Sociological Association, and the Society for the Study of Social Problem for its focus on race and eradicating racism.

 

My earlier books are Becoming Neighbors in a Mexican American Community (2004), Learning from Latino Teachers (2007), and Latina/o Los Angeles (2005), co-edited with my brother Enrique C. Ochoa. My writing has also appeared in Rethinking Schools, Truthout, CounterPunch, Alternet, and LA Progressive.

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In the classroom, I aim for interactive and transformative learning spaces, and I regularly collaborate with K-12 educators on student-centered projects. My teaching and mentoring have been recognized with multiple awards at Pomona College and UCLA, and I was named the 2016 Susan Currier Visiting Professor for Teaching Excellence at California Polytechnic University San Luis Obispo.

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I am a frequent presenter and have been invited as a keynote speaker at colleges, conferences, and K-12 schools on topics such as teaching, identities, racism, education, and activism.