Vasti Torres

Vasti Torres is the Executive Associate Dean and professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the Indiana University School of Education. Previously she was a professor in CSHPE at University of Michigan. She has led several grants investigating the choice to stay in college for Latino students as well as a multi-year grant looking at the experiences of working college students. She has worked on several community college initiatives including Achieving the Dream. She has written six books and her research is focused on marginalized students in higher education.

Her professional service includes being Vice President for Division J: Postsecondary Education for the American Educational Research Association (AERA) from 2019 to 2021, in 2007 she became the first Latina president of a national student services association – ACPA, and in 2020 she began her term as the Editor of the Journal of College Student Development.

She has received the Contribution to Knowledge Award from both ACPA and NASPA, as well as the Professional Achievement Alumni Award from the University of Georgia, and the Hispanic Scholarship Fund Alumni Hall of Fame in 2014. In 2008 she received the Indiana University Trustees Teaching Award and served as a Fulbright Specialist in South Africa in 2011. She holds a B.A. from Stetson University and a Ph.D. from The University of Georgia.