Dr. Patricia Gándara is Professor of Education in the Graduate School of Education and Information Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles. She received her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles and recently returned there after many years away. She is also Associate Director of the UC Linguistic Minority Research Institute (UC LMRI), and Director of the LMRI Education Policy Center.  Between 1981-86 she served as Commissioner for Post-secondary Education for the state of California. She has been a bilingual school psychologist, a Social Scientist with the RAND Corporation, and Director of education research in the California Legislature (State Assembly).

Professor Gándara's research focuses on educational equity and access for low income and ethnic minority students, language policy, and the education of Mexican origin youth. She has just completed a study, with her colleague Russell Rumberger, entitled Resource Needs for California's English Learners, as part of a statewide school finance project involving more than 30 researchers from across the country, and funded by four major foundations. She is the author of numerous articles and several books, including the forthcoming, Understanding the Latino Education Gap, Why Latinos Don't Go to College, with Harvard University Press.