Dr. Karla Lomelí joins Santa Clara University, School of Education and Counseling Psychology as Assistant Professor of Education. Dr. Lomelí earned her Ph.D. in Race, Inequality, and Language in Education and M.A. in Sociology from Stanford University. Before pursuing her Ph.D. at Stanford University, she was a High School English teacher for nine years in East Side Salinas, Gilroy, and in the community that nurtured her as a child and adolescent, East Side San José. Joining the School of Education and Counseling Psychology is a ‘coming home’ of sorts for Dr. Lomelí. She has a long connection to Jesuit education tracing back to her parent’s commitment to social justice and their work with Archbishop Monseñor Romero in El Salvador and her own personal teaching experience at Latino College Preparatory Academy, one of SCU’s East San Jose partner high schools. During her tenure as a High School English Teacher, she was a language and literacy coach and led a highly successful reading and writing initiative in which the bilingualism and biliteracy of her Latinx students was nurtured and fostered across content and grade levels. Dr. Lomelí teaches courses in Adolescent Literacy as well as courses in Spanish in the Bilingual Education program. Her teaching philosophy is deeply rooted in a generative model that encourages dialogue and reflection centering on the student’s lived experiences and funds of knowledge at the core of the learning experience.
Her research interest lies at the intersection of race, class, equity, language & literacy with a theoretical focus on critical race theory, liberatory literacy, and critical care pedagogies. Her work examines teachers' use of critical literacy and the potential impact that culturally competent teaching might have in sustaining culturally and linguistically diverse students in K-12 schools. Dr. Lomelí’s current research explores the practices and perspectives of highly effective teachers serving immigrant-origin Latinx students. In this work she presents an equity framework of the ethic of cariño grounded in the critical literacy practices employed by secondary teachers. She has presented her research at regional and national conferences, including American Educational Research Association (AERA), California Association for Bilingual Education (CABE), Education and Social Justice Conference and the American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAL).
Dr. Lomelí lives in San José with her loving husband Raúl. She is a proud mother-scholar and has two beautiful children, Kiara and Mateo who guide her sense of fun and joy daily. Together, they enjoy soccer and outdoor activities like hiking, biking, and skiing.
Publications
Lomelí, K. (2020). Cultural Competence in Teaching Immigrant-Origin Youth: The Ethic of Cariño. Stanford University.