Rate My Professor Penelope Espinoza

Penelope Espinoza serves as Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Foundations at the University of Texas at El Paso’s College of Education, where she also directs the Ed.D. Program. She earned her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Michigan in 2003, a Master of Arts in Social Psychology from the University of Michigan in 2000, and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Stanford University in 1998. Espinoza’s research integrates psychology and education, with interests in social cognition in education and leadership, underrepresented students in higher education, and gender differences in STEM achievement.

Espinoza received the Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship in 2002 and the Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship in 1999. Her publications include “Answering the Call for Title V Data: A Success Skills Intervention to Increase Retention at a Hispanic-Serving Institution” in the Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice (2021 OnlineFirst; 2024, Vol. 25, No. 4), co-authored with Gaspare M. Genna; “Hi, I Want to Talk to You About Your Progress: A Large Course Intervention for At-Risk College Students” in the same journal (2021, Vol. 23, No. 1); “Cultivating constructivist science internships for high school students through a community of practice with cogenerative dialogues” (2018); “Attributional gender bias: Teachers’ ability and effort explanations for students’ math performance” (2014); and “Attributional bias instrument (ABI): Validation of a measure to assess ability and effort explanations for math performance” (2012). She has presented on the Diversity and Culture of Inclusion Scorecard (2023-2024), gender equity at Hispanic-serving institutions (2022), and biases and phobias (2021). Espinoza teaches doctoral courses such as EDAD 6380 Capstone Doctoral Seminar, EDAD 6398 Dissertation Research, EDAD 6399 Dissertation Writing, EDAD 6328 Quantitative Research Methods I, and EDAD 6306 Seminar on Decision Making and Problem Solving.