Biography
Dr. Rebecca Covarrubias is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Faculty Director of the Student Success Equity Research Center at UC Santa Cruz. She earned her PhD in social psychology at The University of Arizona before becoming a University Diversity Initiative Postdoctoral Fellow for the Center of the Study of Diversity and the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Delaware. As a social and cultural psychologist, Dr. Covarrubias examines how institutional structures perpetuate educational inequality by privileging middle-class, White ways of being and thereby undermining outcomes for low-income, first-generation students of color (e.g., Latinx, Native). She then examines how to reverse these effects through culturally-informed approaches that draw attention to students’ cultural strengths. With her team of student researchers in the Culture and Achievement Collaborative, she works to translate their research into actionable practices that can shift the culture of institutions and can help students thrive.