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Faculty/Staff Updates
Four dynamic new faculty members joined the CLS Program as non-budgeted affiliates in Fall 2025. Their interests and engagements are remarkably varied. Hailing from disciplines including mass communication studies, theater arts, education, and gerontology, they all share a strong commitment to the interdisciplinary field of Latinx/e Studies. We present them here in alphabetical order.
Micha Espinosa: Professor in Directing, Theatre and Drama
An accomplished performer, teacher, and author, Prof. Micha Espinosa’s work spans voice, acting, actor training, pedagogy, authorship, and performance practices. She advances culturally responsive methodologies and centers Chicana/o/x, Latinx, and historically excluded narratives in theatre and film, shaping inclusive approaches to voice, performance, and storytelling. Professor Espinosa is the award-winning editor and co-editor of three influential monographs: Monologues for Latino Actors: A Resource Guide to Contemporary Latino/a Playwrights, Scenes for Latinx Actors: Voices of the New American Theatre (Smith and Krause, 2019), and Latinx Actor Training (Routledge, 2023)—each nationally recognized by the International Latino Book Awards. Latinx Actor Training received the gold medal and is widely celebrated as a pioneering collection adopted by institutions across the U.S., Canada, and the U.K. Both Monologues for Latino Actors and Scenes for Latinx Actors were awarded silver medals and continue to serve as essential resources that combat the myth of scarcity in Latinx theatre by providing culturally rich material for actors and educators. Professor Espinosa is currently under contract for Scenes for Latinx Actors, Volume II (2026), which will highlight emerging playwrights and reimagined Latine classics. Among her many publications are works that examine bilingual actor training, voice and embodiment practices, and the intersections of Shakespearean performance, sound, and cultural adaptation.
Diana Leon-Boys, Assistant Professor, Communication Arts
Diana Leon-Boys earned a Ph.D. in Communications and Media at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2020. A leader and the developer of the subfield of Latina girls’ media studies, she is the author of Elena, Princesa of the Periphery: Disney’s Flexible Latina Girl (Rutgers University Press, 2023). This study of the production and circulation of Disney’s first Latina princess won the 2024 Book of the Year award from both the Cultural Communication Studies Division, and the La Raza Caucus of the National Communication Association, as well as the 2023 Bonnie Ritter Outstanding Book Award from the same association’s Feminist and Gender Studies Division. Prof. Leon-Boys has been teaching long-standing CHICLA classes “Race, Ethnicity, and Media” and “Latinos and Media.” She also co-edited (with Jillian M. Báez and Angharad N. Valdivia) the volume Quinceañeras: Latinidades and Girlhood in Popular Culture (University of Illinois Press, 2026). She comes to us from Tampa, where she was part of the Communication faculty at the University of South Florida.
Francesca López: Jim and Georgia Thompson Distinguished Professor in Education, Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis (ELPA)
After beginning her career as a bilingual (English/Spanish) elementary teacher and high school counselor in El Paso, Texas, Francesca López has become a leader in the field of U.S. Latine education studies. Her research centers on educational practices and policies that promote equity and belonging for historically marginalized students, particularly multilingual learners and students from racially and linguistically diverse backgrounds. She is a contributor to more than 40 peer-reviewed articles and has served as principal investigator on numerous research grants. Her professional recognitions include being named a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the American Psychological Association (APA), and the National Education Policy Center. She is also the recipient of the AERA Midcareer Scholars of Color Award (2024) and the APA Division 15 Best Article Award (2023). She has served as Co-Editor of the American Educational Research Journal, the Review of Educational Research, and Educational Psychology Policy and Practice. Professor López comes to the UW-Madison from Penn State, where she was Professor and Waterbury Chair in Equity Pedagogy in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Before that, she taught at the University of Arizona in Tucson and at Marquette University in Milwaukee.
María Mora-Pinzón, Geriatrics/Gerontology Faculty, Dept. of Gerontology
Dr. Mora Pinzon is an implementation science leader for Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute and an assistant professor in the Division of Geriatrics and Gerontology at
the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. Her research program focuses on health services research in dementia care, barriers to access to medical care in diverse underrepresented communities, and health disparities in Latinx communities, with particular interest in improving access to care for Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias for Latinx individuals. Among her awards, she was selected as 2018 Young Physician of the year by the National Hispanic Medical Association, 2020 William Kane Rising Start Award from the American College of Preventive Medicine, and more recently named by Medscape as one of the 25 Rising Stars in Medicine. Dr. Mora Pinzon is a REC scholar with the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and received a K99/R00 from the National Institute of Aging to fund her project “Improving Access to Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia’s Care Services for Latinx Individuals at Community Health Clinics”. She has contributed to more than 50 peer-reviewed articles. Prof. Mora-Pinzón first came to the UW-Madison in 2017, when she joined Geriatrics and Gerontology in the School of Medicine and Public Health as an Assistant Researcher. She completed her initial medical training in the early 2000s at the Central University of Caracas and later completed a master’s degree in Clinical Research from Rush University in Chicago.