Nadia Alvarez Mexia
Dr. Nadia Alvarez Mexia was born and raised in Mexico. Nadia serves as an Assistant Professor of Practice and Assistant Director of Learning Development and Community Involvement in the W.A. Franke Honors College. She is an award-winning educator that has devoted her professional and teaching career to creating safe learning spaces and remarkable academic experiences that have brought recognition from the University of Arizona, as well as from NAFSA in the U.S. and institutions of higher education in Mexico. Nadia has an interdisciplinary background, with Information Systems bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM). She also has her Ph.D. in Teaching & Teacher Education with a minor in Language, Reading & Culture in the UArizona from which she received the Erasmus Circle Award 2006.
In 2018, Nadia was recognized with the Edith Sayre Auslander Established Visionary Award and the Human Relations Commission of the City of Tucson Recognition. She has different publications including co-author of the chapter book “Climbing Uphill” in Amplified Voices, Intersectional Identities: Volume 2. Recently, Nadia led a four-member grant recipient team and obtained the IDEAS (Increase and Diversify Education Abroad for U.S. Students) grant from the U.S. Department of State’s Capacity Building Program for U.S. Study Abroad. This grant will expand the institution’s Navigating Education in Borderlands Program (NEBP), a program through which UArizona students will build cultural competencies and learn about the history, people, and culture from the intersecting borderlands area where UArizona resides. She is one of the UArizona Hispanic Serving Institution Fellows 2018-2019 and Academic Leadership Institute Fellows 2020-2021.
In her roles at Franke Honors, Nadia teaches courses, develops innovative pedagogy, including bilingual learning experiences, leads our efforts to solidify our identity as an Honors College at a Hispanic Serving Institution, and builds new connections with our community both locally and across the border to afford our students learning experiences centered around cultural competency and global identity.
Before joining the UA, Nadia worked for a decade in Mexico’s higher education system as a professor, mentor, and administrator within the ITESM Campus Monterrey and Mazatlán and other higher education institutions.
Learn more about Nadia and her work:
Arizona Daily Star Feature
HSI Fellow
ALI Fellow
Fellows | Office of Learning and Organizational Development (arizona.edu)
Radio Mini-Program
Knitting Identities, Tejiendo Identidades
NAFSA Article
Pedagogy for Shirt-Term Programming