Siria S. Martinez

Siria S. Martinez, Ph.D, who has dedicated her career to eliminating educational inequality, leads the Institutional Effectiveness Partnership Initiative (IEPI) in deploying professional development and technical assistance aimed at advancing equity and success strategies. She comes to the chancellor’s Office from Woodland Community College, where she served as dean of student success & institutional effectiveness and interim dean of student services and where she co-led an 11-person interdisciplinary Student Success Committee overseeing the development of a three-year Student Equity Plan.

A Los Angeles native raised in Compton who was the first in her family to attend college, Martinez began her higher education career at the University of Southern California where she served as assistant director in the Office of Admissions and associate director of aademic affairs in the Computer Science Department. She was recruited in 2007 to work for UC Riverside’s Bourns College of Engineering as its Graduate Student Affairs Manager, then worked for nearly two years at Palomar College as its Title V/Hispanic Serving Institution Project Supervisor providing leadership in supporting the retention and academic success of Hispanic and low-income students at the San Marcos campus.

In 2011, Martinez returned to her alma mater, UC Davis, as director of the Ronald E. McNair Scholars program guiding first-generation and low-income students to pursue doctorate degrees in their respective fields. While working with first-generation students, Martinez conducted research during her doctoral program that examined student experiences in community college developmental learning communities. Martinez holds a bachelor’s degree in rhetoric and communication from UC Davis; a master of education, postsecondary administration and student affairs, from USC; and a Ph.D. in higher education from Claremont Graduate University.