LULAC Bio Sketch_Contreras Dr. Gloria Contreras
M.C.
T r At this time, I would like to introduce our
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Featured Speaker:
°. Gloria Contreras is Professor Emeritus of the
University of North Texas having completed a 42 year-long career
of professional educational service. She's currently working with
Dr. Calderon on the Raza Chronicles Project, documenting the
history of Chicanos and Latinos at the University of North Texas
and the surrounding region.
Dr. Contreras was born in El Paso, Texas where she earned her
Bachelor's and Master's Degrees from the University of Texas at
El Paso and taught in the El Paso ISD prior to earning a doctorate
from the University of Georgia in Social Science Education. She
taught thirteen years at The University of Texas at Austin before
coming to the University of North Texas in 1987 where she also
served as the school's first Assistant Vice President for
Multicultural Affairs through 1995.
In addition to her work in social science education Dr. Contreras
was active throughout her career in international education. She
was a curriculum consultant for the Bolivian Ministry of Education
and Culture for an entire year in the seventies and was a Fulbright
Research Scholar to la Universidad del Tolima in Colombia,
South America. She consulted with other educational entities in
countries that included the Dominican Republic, Chile, and
Mexico, although her research interest in Mexican education
spanned her entire teaching career.
Dr. Contreras co-authored the most successful elementary social
studies textbook series through Macmillan/McGraw-Hill
Publishers in the 1980s and 90s and served as Executive Editor
of The Social Studies, a leading nationally refereed journal, for
Dr. Gloria Contreras
over 20 years. She has more than 60 publications including
books, textbook series, chapters, articles, and other materials.
Today Gloria's main research interest is documenting the history
of Latino student activism and student organizations at UNT
through oral history videotaped interviews of former UNT student
leaders from 1987 to the present that she is conducting along with
her colleague, Dr. Roberto Calderon, of the Raza Chronicles
Project.