Marie T. Mora, Ph.D., is deputy provost and professor of economics at Metropolitan State University of Denver. A labor economist, she has been invited to share her research expertise on the socioeconomic outcomes of Hispanics/Latinos with institutions and agencies across the country, including the White House and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System.
Adriann Wycoff, Ph.D., is a professor of Chicana/o Studies and holds a courtesy appointment as an associate professor of Women’s Studies at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Apart from teaching she is also Director of the MSU Denver Family Literacy Program and Co-Principal Investigator of the College Assistance Migrant Program. She has more than thirty years’ experience in community-based, non-traditional education. Her responsibilities have included teaching, program administration, curriculum development, grant writing, community outreach and public relations. Wycoff holds a B.A. in Spanish from the University of Illinois at Chicago and an M.A. and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University, also in Spanish.
Jose Quintana, M.A., is a senior lecturer in the Department of Chicana/Chicano Studies at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He teaches Introduction to Chicano Studies as well as Survey of Chicana/o Literature. Quintana’s areas of research encompass all things cultural based, especially folklore that has been deconstructed and reinterpreted. He believes in using cultural elements such as language, art, music and food to help students connect with the personal aspects of his classes.
Robert Preuhs, Ph.D, is a professor and chair of the Political Science Department at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He currently teaches democracy: U.S. and Third World, conducting political analysis and applied political research lab.
Preuhs has been teaching political science at the college level for nearly 20 years. He held positions at the University of Denver and the University of Colorado as lecturer, affiliate faculty and instructor before coming to MSU Denver in 2007. Preuhs was also the associate director of the Social Science Data Laboratory at the University of Colorado from 2004 to 2006. He has received numerous awards, including the Award for Excellence in Research and Creative Work by the University of Colorado Graduate School in 2001 and Best Book on Latino Politics, awarded by the Latino Caucus of the American Political Science Association in 2014.
His main research areas focus on issues of representation and democracy through the lens of racial and ethnic politics, state and national politics, public policy and administration. Preuhs has published in academic journals including the Journal of Politics, Political Research Quarterly, American Politics Quarterly and Social Science Quarterly. He also co-authored the book “Black-Latino Relations in U.S. National Politics: Beyond Conflict or Cooperation” in 2013, the first study of minority intergroup relations at the national level.
Preuhs received his doctorate in American politics, methodology and public policy and a master’s in political science from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2001 and 1999, respectively. He also earned a master’s in public administration from the University of New Mexico in 1996 and a bachelor’s in political science and international studies from Hamline University, cum laude, in 1992.
David Piacenti teaches Prejudice & Discrimination, Contemporary Sociology, Art & Craft of Sociology Writing, and Sociological Theory: Past and Present.
He has taught at Metropolitan State University of Denver since 2010.
Piacenti has published “Yucatec-Mayan Immigration to the Mission and Edison Neighborhoods: A Comparison of Social Conditions and Immigrant Satisfaction” in the Journal of Méxican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos, “The Tangle of Anthropological Tourism: How the Consumption of Fantasy and Academia Share Common Spaces” in Applied Anthropologist and “For Love of Family and Family Values: How Immigrant Motivations Can Inform Immigration Policy” in the Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy.
Professor Marina Pereira has taught graduate courses in the Graduate Social Work program as MSU Denver. She has taught at Metropolitan State University of Denver since 1999.
Professor Pereira is well versed in topics of mental health and families. She has special interest in issues of acculturation, diversity and first-generation Latino students. She was an advisor for the Student Association of Social Workers (SASW), a student organization that helps students develop and increase their sense of civic responsibility and community engagement by service learning activities.
Before teaching at MSU Denver, Pereira worked in the areas of medical social work and mental health, where she specialized in treating and advocating for children and families with a history of domestic violence, sexual and physical abuse.
Malena Perdomo, MS, RD, CDE, is an affiliate professor of nutrition at MSU Denver. She’s a dietitian, nutritionist and certified diabetes educator and she also educates the Latino community on nutrition. She produces educational materials on general nutrition, diabetes and other consumer topics such as nutritional videos aimed at Latinos.
She is co-author of “Los Secretos de Maya,” a cookbook featuring health-conscious Latin flavors. Malena was the national Latino nutrition spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association (now called the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics) from 2005 to 2011. She was also president of the Latino/Hispanic Dietetics and Nutrition (LAHIDAN) and was the star nutritionist for the LiveWell Colorado campaigns for Latinos. Previously, Perdomo worked as a clinical dietitian at Kaiser Permanente Colorado, a nutritionist for the WIC public health program and a nutrition consultant for children with special needs.
She graduated from Florida State University-Panama Canal Branch and University of Tennessee-Chattanooga and earned a master’s degree in nutrition education from Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science.
Adriana Nieto, Ph.D., is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Chicana/o Studies at Metropolitan State University of Denver. She has been with the university for over 15 years, first starting out as an adjunct professor and then becoming a full-time faculty member in 2009. Her teaching and research interests include Latina spiritualities and practices; women of color feminisms; mental health among Xicanas in early 20th Century New Mexico; Chicana protestants in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands; oral history and water in the ‘West’, with special interest in acequia culture and practices in southern Colorado.
Nieto received her Ph.D. in religious and theological studies form the University of Denver Iliff School of Theology, her master’s in Latin American studies with a focus on gender studies and borderland history from the University of New Mexico and her bachelor’s in Latin American and women studies also from the University of New Mexico.
Born and educated in Uruguay, Cristina Miguez Cruz completed a B.A. in Letters in 1999, an M.A. in Literary Studies in 2002 in Venezuela and a doctorate at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, with a focus on 20th Century Latin American Crime Narrative and Cinema in 2009.
Lunden MacDonald, Ph.D., is a professor of modern languages at Metropolitan State University of Denver. MacDonald started teaching Spanish at MSU Denver in 1998 and has since held the positions of instructor, assistant professor, full professor, chair of the Department of Modern Languages and director of First Year Success program. She speaks Spanish, French, Portuguese and Galician. Her areas of expertise are in Spanish language, literature, teaching, contemporary trends in foreign language study, translation, SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), SUDC (Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood), Investigative trends in SIDS and SUDC research.
MacDonald has published several articles including “The Virtual Language Lab: Virtually Painless, Simply Real” in the International Association for Language Learning Technology Journal in 2009 and Spanish Translation of “La próxima etapa en Panamá: la subcontratación de pensiones” in La Prensa, Journal of Honduras, in 2007. Her research topics include Joseph Blanco White, European Enlightenment, Enlightenment (or lack thereof) in Spain, paradigms of Enlightenment in the Spanish-speaking world, Spanish language learning and teaching methods; and technology and technological applications in the teaching and learning of Spanish language, literature and culture.
MacDonald received her Ph.D. and master’s in Spanish language and literature from Princeton University in 2006 and 1997. Additionally, she also received a master’s and bachelor’s in Spanish language and literature from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1995 and 1993.
