Pedro Antonio Noguera, PhD | Speaker, 2025 Graduate and Professional Studies Commencement
This renowned sociologist and distinguished educator researches race, equity, and urban education in the K–12 setting. In May, he'll speak to more than 300 SMC graduate students.
Pedro Antonio Noguera, PhD, one of the nation’s leading scholars on issues related to racial inequality and policy, will deliver the address at the 2025 Graduate and Professional Studies Commencement ceremony at Saint Mary’s College on May 25.
Noguera serves as the Emery Stoops and Joyce King Stoops Dean of the Rossier School of Education at the University of Southern California (USC) and as a Distinguished Professor of Education at USC. A sociologist, Noguera’s research focuses on the ways in which schools are influenced by social and economic conditions, as well as by demographic trends in local, regional, and global contexts.
He is the author of 15 books, including A Search for Common Ground: Conversations ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½ the Tough Questions and Complex Issues Confronting K-12 Education in the United States Today (Teachers College Press) which was the winner of the Association of American Publishers 2022 Prose Award, with Rick Hess, and City Schools and the American Dream: Still Pursuing the Dream (Teachers College Press, 2001) with Esa Syeed.
Noguera has published over 250 research articles in academic journals, book chapters in edited volumes, research reports, and editorials in major newspapers. He serves on the boards of numerous national and local organizations, including the Economic Policy Institute, the National Equity Project and The Nation. Noguera appears as a regular commentator on educational issues on several national media outlets, and his editorials on educational issues have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Dallas Morning News, and Los Angeles Times.
Prior to being appointed Dean of the USC Rossier School of Education, Noguera served as a Professor of Education and holder of endowed chairs at UCLA (2015–20), New York University (2004–15), Harvard University (2000–03) and the University of California, Berkeley (1990–2000).
From 2009 to 2012 Noguera served as a trustee for the State University of New York as an appointee of the governor. He has served as an advisor to the governor of New Mexico on education policy, and worked as an advisor to the state departments of education in Washington, Oregon, New York, and Rhode Island, as well as several large urban school districts. In 2022 he was appointed to President Biden’s National Commission on Hispanics, and he was asked to serve as the co-chair of the state of California’s Black Student Achievement Taskforce by the state superintendent. In 2014 he was elected to the National Academy of Education and Phi Delta Kappa honor society, and in 2020 Noguera was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Noguera has received seven honorary doctorates from American universities, and received awards from the Center for the Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, and from the McSilver Institute for Poverty Policy and Research at NYU for his research and advocacy efforts aimed at fighting poverty. In 2023 he was ranked first in the nation for influence and impact in the field of education, by Education Week.
