UC Riverside education professor Tara J. Yosso, has been named a 2025 fellow by the American Educational Research Association, or AERA, in recognition of her exceptional and sustained research contributions.

A professor and associate dean of academic personnel in the School of Education, Yosso was among 29 education scholars selected as 2025 Fellows. Nominated by peers and approved by the AERA Council, the fellows will be inducted during a ceremony at the AERA Annual Meeting in Denver on April 24.

“The 2025 AERA Fellows join a brilliant group of scholars, and they are most deserving of this honor,” said AERA Executive Director Felice J. Levine. “Their significant contributions to the education research field demonstrate the highest standards of academic excellence and scholarship.”

The honor follows Yosso’s 2023 AERA Division G Distinguished Research Award - Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognized the influence of her research on the social contexts of education.

Across two decades, Yosso has reframed the debate about educational inequality. Her work weaves together multiple bodies of literature, presenting evidence to debunk “deficit” presumptions about students of color ostensibly lacking the appropriate knowledge and networks necessary for academic achievement. She developed a model that recognizes cultural knowledges, skills, abilities, and networks utilized by communities of color. Nationally and internationally, this model has been received as a paradigm shift for thinking about social structures, practices, and discourse. 

Yosso is now doing research for a book that will map Hollywood portrayals of Latina/o and Black students from 1955-2007. It will examine how these images contribute to a distorted image of U.S. public schools.

Yosso earned her bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from UCLA. Before joining UCR in 2017, she held faculty positions at UC Santa Barbara and the University of Michigan.