Bernardette J. Pinetta, an assistant professor of psychology at UC Riverside, has been selected as a 2025-2027 CASEL Weissberg Scholar. The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, or CASEL, is a nonpartisan nonprofit that founded the field of social and emotional learning, or SEL. 

Participation in the two-year program includes mentorship with a leader in SEL research, practice, or policy. Scholars participate in monthly virtual seminars, attend CASEL’s annual SEL conference, and have opportunities to contribute to congressional briefings and CASEL’s learning products.

Pinetta joined the UCR faculty in 2025. She brings an interdisciplinary approach that integrates education, psychology, and political science to her work on ethnic racial identity development and social justice orientation in youth of color. She explores how young people’s understanding of their racial and ethnic identities can shape their engagement with social justice issues and educational environments. She collaborates with schools, community organizations, and young people to cultivate culturally affirming and consciousness raising learning spaces.

“Being a part of the CASEL Weissberg Scholars Program will provide me with a structured cohort experience where I can connect with other SEL professionals and researchers who are also seeking to expand their expertise while innovating the SEL field,” Pinetta said. “I am excited about receiving guided mentorship from current leaders in the field who can help to scale up my dissemination outputs to ensure my research will have policy and practice impacts.”

Pinetta is seeking new collaborations and partnerships with schools in the Inland Empire centered around supporting youths’ socioemotional learning and integrating SEL practices rooted in social justice.

“As an interdisciplinary scholar committed to the advancement and well-being of marginalized communities, I hope to further integrate theories of ethnic-racial identity development, sociopolitical development, and inquiry-based learning to better understand how we can create socioemotional learning opportunities that culturally affirm and empower our young people,” she said. “I am excited about the potential of project-based learning and youth participatory action research as socioemotional learning avenues.”

Pinetta grew up in Los Angeles as the daughter of Guatemalan and Mexican immigrants, which shaped her commitment to addressing educational inequities for communities of color. She earned her doctoral degree from the University of Michigan and her bachelor’s degree in political science with a minor in education from UCLA. Prior to UCR, she was a Chancellor’s HSI Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA and received several fellowships including the Ford Pre Doctoral Fellowship and Rackham Merit Fellowship.