Adrian H. Huerta

Adrian H. Huerta is an Associate Professor (tenured) in the Pullias Center for Higher Education at the Rossier School of Education and the Department of Population & Public Health Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine (by courtesy), both at the University of Southern California. Dr. Huerta is a leading expert on the social and academic experiences of active and former/inactive gang-involved people across the educational pipeline. Through sociocultural perspectives and qualitative methods, he examines individual and structural factors that impact college access and success, boys and men of color, student parents, and gang-involved populations. Dr. Huerta has secured more than $2.8 million in local, state, federal, and philanthropic dollars for research, evaluation, fellowships, and contractual projects tied to his research agenda. Some funders include the U.S. Department of Education, the ECMC Foundation, the W. T. Grant Foundation, the College Futures Foundation, the California Community Foundation, and others. His more than 28 peer-reviewed research papers appear in leading education journals, including The Review of Higher Education, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Journal of College Student Development, Community College Review, The Urban Review, Urban Education, and many other outlets. He is a past co-winner of the American Sociological Association Julia Anna Cooper Early Career Award from the Sociology of Education section, a recipient of the Postdoctoral Fellowship from the National Academy of Education and Spencer Foundation, and an Early Career Award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE). He earned his PhD and M.A. in education from UCLA, an M.A. in educational policy & leadership from The Ohio State University, and a B.S. in human services counseling from UNLV, and he attended both the College of Southern Nevada and Santa Barbara City College as a part-time student.  

American Sociological Association (ASA) Sociology of Education - Anna Julia Copper Early Career Award, 2024 (co-winner)
USC Rossier School of Education, Excellence in Research Award, 2023
Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) Early Career Award, 2022
National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, 2022-2024
ACPA Men and Masculinities Outstanding Research Award, 2022
Health Equity Fellow in Training (HEFT), Health Affairs, 2021-2022
Visiting Scholar, Harvard University, Graduate School of Education (Spring 2020 - COVID-19)
Emerging Poverty Scholar, Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Poverty-Scholar-in-Residence, West Coast Poverty Center, University of Washington; 
Diversity Scholar, National Center for Institutional Diversity, University of Michigan; 
HEOC Faculty Award, UCLAA; 
Minority Dissertation Fellow, American Educational Research Association (AERA) 

EDUC 661: Equity in College and Career Access (Fall 2019)
EDUC 651: Introduction to Qualitative Methods (Summer 2020; Fall 2020; Summer 2022)
EDUC 658: School-to-Prison Nexus (Fall 2021) 

• Huerta, A.H. (in press). Hoped-for selves: Using possible selves to explore the career and college-going aspirations of gang-involved Latino boys. The Review of Higher Education
• Huerta, A. H., & Lopez, E. F. (in press). Pathways and supports to higher education: Reflections of college knowledge development for first- and second-generation Latino men. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education.
• Huerta, A. H., & Salazar, M. E. (in press). Examining how continuation schools engage in criminalizing practices against Latino boys and limiting future opportunities. Educational Administration Quarterly.
• Lopez, E. F., Huerta, A. H., Torres, G. M., Jaramillo Castillo, A., & Salazar, M. E. (in press). Mentorship and outreach: Exploring students’ feedback to improve men of color retention programs. Innovative Higher Education.  
• Huerta, A. H., Muñoz, M., De La Torre-Iniguez, S., & Ibarra-Virgen, J. (2024). Using evidence-based design to support gang-impacted students in an urban community college: Lessons from the Phoenix Scholars Program. New Directions for Higher Education, 2024(208), 25-32. https://doi.org/10.1002/he.20518. (Practitioner journal).
• Cesar-Davis, N. M., Huerta, A. H., Graves, D. L., Rios-Aguilar, C. & Deil-Amen, R. (2024). Processing the poor: A case study of the financial aid ecosystem for community college students. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 48(2), 126-130. 
• Huerta, A. H. (2024). Linking education and criminology research to understand the schooling experiences of gang youth and adults. In J. Leverso, D. Pyrooz, & J. Densley. (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Gangs and Society (pp. 573-593). Oxford University Press.
• Huerta, A. H., Salazar, M. E., & Dizon, J. P. M. (2024). “No space for humanizing us:” Men of color identifying institutional needs at a rural university. Journal of College Student Retention: Research, Theory & Practice. 26(1), 85-107. 
• Huerta, A. H., Lopez, E. F., Salazar, M. E., Torres, G. M., & Muñoz, M. (2023). Bridging criminal justice scholarship into the field of higher education: Implications for research, practice, and policy. In L.W. Perna (Ed.), Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research, vol. 38, (pg. 589-630). Springer. 
• Huerta, A. H., McDonough, P. M., Venegas, K. V. & Allen, W. R. (2023). College is…: Focusing on the college knowledge of gang-associated Latino boys and young men. Urban Education. DOI: 10.1177/0042085920934854 
• Neri, R. C., Zipin, L., Rios-Aguilar, C. & Huerta, A. H. (2023). Surfacing deep challenges for social-educational justice: Putting funds, wealth, and capital frameworks into dialogue. Urban Education. 58(7), 1512-1538. 
• Huerta, A. H., & Martinez, E., Jr. (2022). Strategies and support services for community college Latino/x men on academic probation. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, 15(4), 406-411, https://doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000418. 
• Huerta, A. H. (2022). Exploring undergraduate students’ emotional vulnerability in men of color programs. Journal of College Student Development. 
• Huerta, A. H. (2022). Accessing possible selves with limited college knowledge: Case studies of Latino boys in two urban continuation schools. American Behavioral Scientist, 66(10), 1342–1367.
• Huerta, A. H., Rios-Aguilar, C., & Ramirez, D. (2022). A case study of how racial and ethnic minoritized community college student parents make decisions about college, careers, and campus resources. Community College Review.
• Huerta, A. H., & Hernandez, E. (2021). Capturing the complexity of alternative schools: Narratives of Latino males in an overlooked educational space. The Urban Review. 
• Huerta, A. H., & Rios-Aguilar, C. (2021). “Treat a cop like they are God”: Exploring the relevance and utility of funds of gang knowledge among Latino male students. Urban Education. 
• Huerta, A.H., & Dizon, J.P.M. (2021). Redistributing resources for men of color in higher education. About Campus.
• Huerta, A.H., Howard, T.C., & Haro, B.N. (2020). A call to action for new practice and research efforts to support Black and Latino boys in education. Phi Delta Kappa, 102(1), 29–33.
• Huerta, A. H. (2018). Educational persistence in the face of violence: Narratives of resilient Latino male youth. Boyhood Studies, 11(2), 94-113.
• Huerta, A. H., McDonough, P. M., & Allen, W. R. (2018). Employing a developmental perspective to examine how young men of color construct a college-going identity. Urban Review, DOI: 10.1007/s11256-018-0466-9​
• Howard, T. C., Woodward, B., Navarro, O., Huerta, A. H., Haro, B., & Watson, K. (2019). (2019). Renaming the narrative, reclaiming their humanity: Black and Latino males descriptions of success. Teachers College Record. 121(5), 1-32
• Martinez, E., & Huerta, A. H. (2020). Deferred enrollment: Chicano/Latino males, social mobility and military enlistment. Education & Urban Society, DOI: 10.1177/0013124518785021​
• Estrada, J. N., Huerta, A. H., Hernandez, E., Hernandez, R., & Kim, S. (2018). Socio-ecological risk and protective factors for youth gang involvement. In H. Shapiro and associates (Eds.), The Handbook of Violence in Education: Forms, Factors, and Preventions. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell.
• Garcia, G., Huerta, A. H., Ramirez, J. J., & Patron, O. E. (2017). Contexts that matter to the leadership development of Latino male college students: A mixed-methods perspective. Journal of College Student Development, 58(1), 1-18. 
• Howard, T. C., & Associates (2017). The counter narrative: Reframing success of high achieving Black and Latino males in Los Angeles County. University of California, Los Angeles: UCLA Black Male Institute. 
• Giraldo, L. G., Huerta, A. H., & Solórzano, D. G. (2017). From incarceration to community college: Funds of knowledge, community cultural wealth, and critical race theory. In C. Rios-Aguilar & J. M. Kiyama (Eds.), Funds of Knowledge in Higher Education: Honoring Students’ Cultural Experiences and Resources as Strengths (pp. 48-65). New York: Routledge. 
• Santos, J. L., Roth, K., & Huerta, A. H., & Ritter, Z. (2015). Technology and improving learning outcomes: A discussion of policy, costs and access. In R. T. Teranishi, L. Bordoloi Pazich, M. Knobel, & W. R. Allen (Eds.), Mitigating Inequality: Higher Education Research, Policy, and Practice in an Era of Massification and Stratification. U.K.: Emerald Group Publishing.
• Huerta, A. H. (2015). “I didn’t want my life to be like that”: Gangs, college, or the military for Latino male high school students. Journal of Latino/Latin American Studies, 7(2), 156-167.
• Huerta, A. H. (2015). The role of counselors in facilitating college opportunities for marginalized student populations. In J. D. Mathis, R. M. Rall & T. M. Laudino (Eds.), Fundamentals of college admission counseling: A textbook for graduate students and practicing counselors (pp. 276-289). Arlington, VA: NACAC.
• Huerta, A. H., & Fishman, S. M. (2014). Marginality and mattering: Urban Latino male undergraduates in higher education. Journal of The First-Year Experience & Students in Transition, 26(1), 85 -100.
• Sanchez, S. M., Huerta, A. H., & Venegas, K. M. (2012). Latino males and college preparation programs: Examples of increased access. Metropolitan Universities, 22(3), 27-45.
• Venegas, K. M., & Huerta, A. H. (2010). Urban ethnography: Approaches, perspectives and challenges. In M. Savin-Baden & C. H. Major (Eds.), New approaches to qualitative research: Wisdom and uncertainty (pp. 154-161). New York: Taylor Francis.

Associate Professor of Education (tenured), Rossier School of Education, 4/2025 - Present
Assistant Professor of Education (tenure-track), Rossier School of Education, 8/2019 - 4/2025
Assistant Professor of Population & Public Health Sciences (courtesy), Keck School of Medicine, 7/2024 - Present
Provost Postdoctoral Scholar, Pullias Center for Higher Education, Rossier School of Education, USC, 8/2017 - 8/2019
Research Affiliate, University of Texas, Austin, Project MALES, 8/2016 – present
Postdoctoral Research Scholar, UCLA Higher Education Research Institute (HERI), 7/2016 – 7/2018 
Research Assistant, UCLA, 10/2011 – 6/2016
Assistant Director, USC, Office of the Provost, McNair Scholars Program, 3/2011 – 8/2011
Program Coordinator, USC, McNair Scholars Program, 3/2010 – 3/2011
Academic Advisor, USC, Rossier School of Education, Master of Arts in Teaching, 6/2009 – 3/2010

Funder: W. T. Grant Foundation. 
Amount: 599,997
co-PI
Duration: 2025-2028

Funder: California Community Foundation. 
Amount: 50,000
PI
Duration: 2024-2026

Funder: ECMC Foundation
Amount: 159,203
PI
Duration: 2022-2023

Funder: U.S. Department of Education
Amount: 990,000
co-PI. 
Duration: 2021-2024
Title: LBCC Phoenix Scholars: Supporting gang-involved youth and young adults into postsecondary education
 
Funder: CSU Student Success Network
PI
Amount: 38,500
Duration: 2020-2021
 
Funder: ECMC Foundation
PI
Amount: 9,350
Duration: 2020

Funder: Institute for Research on Poverty
PI
Amount: 20,000
Duration: 2019-2021

Funder: ECMC Foundation
Amount: 300,000
Duration: 2018-2021

Funder: The Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions
Amount: ~45,000 (25K from community college partner) 
Duration: 2018-2020