Autobiography of Dr. Sandra Pacheco
Dr. Sandra Pacheco received her B.A. in Psychology with departmental honors from
California State University, Los Angeles in 1989. In 1997, she received her Ph.D.
in Experimental Psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
In 1996, Dr. Pacheco joined the interdisciplinary faculty of the Social and Behavioral
Sciences Center at California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB), a "start-up"
university in its second year of operation. Her appointment was a combination of
teaching and administrative duties geared towards developing and advancing various
programs in this "start-up" environment. Dr. Pacheco's teaching responsibilities
included courses in research methodology, data analysis, service learning in multicultural
communities, computer applications for the social sciences, critical psychology,
introduction to the social and behavioral sciences, and senior capstone. In addition
to classroom teaching, Dr. Pacheco served in numerous administrative capacities.
As a Faculty Associate with the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment, she
worked closely with faculty across the campus to develop learning outcomes for courses
and corresponding assessment techniques. She facilitated workshops to assist faculty
with aligning course outcomes with teaching, learning and assessment components.
As a Service Learning Consultant, she worked with faculty to develop learning outcomes
that went beyond cognitive skills. She also designed an online database to facilitate
assessment of service learning outcomes that is currently being beta-tested by faculty
and students. As an Assessment Specialist, she coordinated the student-feedback
component for WASC review. Most recently, Dr. Pacheco coordinated the first conference
on Critical Psychology in the United States, which was cosponsored with UCSC.
Dr. Pacheco's research interest cover a diverse range of topics. Her recent scholarly
works include topics on: assessment in higher education, service learning pedagogy
in diverse settings, intersectionality of identities in high achieving Latinas, spirituality
in higher education, media gender stereotypes, critical pedagogy, Latina spirituality,
and discourse analysis of social justice narratives.
In August 2001, Dr. Pacheco was appointed to the position of Assistant Dean of Graduate Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz.