Victor Saenz

Victor B. Saenz serves as the Associate Dean for Student Success, Community Engagement, and Administration in the College of Education and holds the L. D. Haskew Centennial Professorship in Public School Administration in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at The University of Texas at Austin. He previously chaired the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy, championing faculty development, graduate program expansion, and elevating the department's national profile. Saenz holds courtesy appointments with the LBJ School of Public Affairs, the Center for Mexican American Studies, the Department of Mexican American and Latina/o Studies, the Irma Rangel Public Policy Institute, the Institute for Urban Policy Research & Analysis, and the UCLA Higher Education Research Institute. A two-time UT Austin alumnus, he earned a Ph.D. and M.A. in Education from the University of California, Los Angeles, an M.P.A. from The University of Texas at Austin, and a B.A. in Mathematics from The University of Texas at Austin. With over 20 years of experience in higher education leadership, he oversees student success initiatives, career engagement, community partnerships, and collaborations with public school districts including UT Elementary School, UT Charter School, and UT High School.

Saenz's scholarship advances research-informed best practices and policy solutions to improve educational outcomes for underserved students, particularly boys and young men of color in secondary and postsecondary settings. In 2010, he co-founded Project MALES (Mentoring to Achieve Latino Educational Success), an award-winning multi-pronged initiative featuring a nationally recognized student mentoring program partnering undergraduate peer mentors with middle and high school males, and the Texas Education Consortium for Male Students of Color involving over 30 K-12 and higher education partners, supported by grants from the Greater Texas Foundation, Trellis Foundation, and Kresge Foundation. He has authored three books and over 70 peer-reviewed publications cited more than 8,000 times, including Ensuring the Success of Latino Males in Higher Education: A National Imperative (2016), Engaging Latino Men in Community Colleges: The Role of Student-Faculty Interactions (2017), Latino Men in Two-Year Public Colleges: State-Level Enrollment Changes and Trends Over the Last Decade (2017), and Factors Influencing Positive Interactions Across Race for African-American, Asian-American, Latino, and White College Students (2007). Saenz has received the Mentoring Award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education (2022), University Faculty Award from the Texas Association of Chicanos in Higher Education (2022), Research Award from AERA Hispanic Research Issues SIG (2018), and Faculty Fellow from the American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (2009). He serves on editorial boards for the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education and College Student Affairs Journal, and has presented at the White House, National Press Club, and Capitol Hill, informing national conversations on college access and success.

Professional Email: vsaenz@austin.utexas.edu