Deryl Hatch-Tocaimaza

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Deryl Hatch-Tocaimaza

Associate Professor

Department of Educational Administration University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Contact

Address
TEAC 119
Lincoln NE 68588-0360
Phone
4028075067
Email
derylhatch@unl.edu

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Dr. Deryl Hatch-Tocaimaza is an associate professor of educational administration whose research examines how governance, institutional design, and teaching practices shape learning environments and organizational conditions for navigating complex social and ecological challenges in higher education. He is convenor of the Collaborative for Just Governance in Higher Education, which anchors four streams of scholarship: teaching and learning environments, distributed leadership, climate resiliency and sustainability, and transdisciplinarity. Trained in advanced quantitative methods for institutional research and improvement, he employs empirical mixed-methods and integrative research designs, along with conceptual analyses, to study higher education at multiple levels—from high impact pedagogical practices and student experiences to issues of the foundations of education.

Dr. Hatch-Tocaimaza has been recognized for his research, teaching, and service with the Barbara Townsend Emerging Scholar Award from the Council for the Study of Community Colleges and the UNL College Distinguished Teaching Award. He has served as associate editor of the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, and on the editorial boards of Review of Higher Education, Community College Review, and the Community College Journal of Research and Practice. At the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, he serves as Lead for Scholarship and Creative Activity in the College of Education and Human Sciences and has guided institutional initiatives on research development, faculty evaluation reform, and collaborative capacity building. Dr. Hatch-Tocaimaza received his Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin.

Education

Ph.D., Higher Education Administration, University of Texas at Austin, 2013
Ed.M, Technology, Innovation, and Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education, 2006
B.A., Linguistics, Brigham Young University, 2003
A.B.A. (all but associates degree) - I stand as a proud community college transfer student, Mt. San Antonio College, Walnut, CA, 1999

Areas of Expertise

  • Community Colleges & Student Success – Structures, programs, and interventions shaping student experiences and outcomes.
  • Higher Education Governance – Distributed leadership, organizational change, and institutional capacity building.
  • Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Methods Research – Applied designs that link conceptual innovation with policy and practice.
  • Graduate Mentorship & Curricular Program Design – Guiding doctoral and master’s students through inquiry, research, and writing, while also leading curriculum redesign and program development in both research-intensive and applied program contexts.

Teaching and Advising

Dr. Hatch-Tocaimaza teaches across Ph.D., Ed.D., and M.A. programs in educational administration, with courses spanning research design, quantitative and mixed methods, higher education governance, community college leadership, and the social and political contexts of education, among others. His teaching emphasizes inquiry as a developmental journey, inviting students to wrestle with uncertainty, situate their questions within broader scholarly debates, and connect their learning to professional practice. Advising and mentoring extend this philosophy: through sustained dialogue, collaborative inquiry, and structured workshopping tools, he helps graduate students hone their capacity for research design, academic writing, and methodological reflexivity. This approach treats teaching and advising as sites of professional formation, cultivating the intellectual and relational capacities needed to lead with clarity and integrity.

Selected Representative Publications

Hatch-Tocaimaza, D. K., Abrica, E. J., & Rios-Aguilar, C. (2025). Justice, sustainability, and disrupting campus climate studies toward more just climate futures of higher education. In L. W. Perna (Ed.), Higher education handbook of theory and research (Vol. 40, pp. 177-264). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51930-7_11-1 

Abrica, E. J., Hatch-Tocaimaza, D. K., Corey-Rivas, S., Garcia, J., & Dixit, A. (2024). A community-based, culturally engaging STEM learning environment and its impact on students' psychosocial attributes at a rural Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). CBE—Life Sciences Education, 23(4), article 62. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.23-12-0238  

Hatch-Tocaimaza, D. K., Mardock-Uman, N., Garcia, C. E., & Rodriguez, S. (2021). Charting the design of community college student success courses: Uncovering their espoused and enacted curricula. Community College Journal of Research and Practice, 45(10), 756-772. https://doi.org/10.1080/10668926.2020.1797598 

Briscoe, K. L., Jones, V., Hatch-Tocaimaza, D. K., & Martinez Jr, E. (2020).  Positionality and power: The individual’s role in directing community college Men of Color initiatives. Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice, 57(5), 473-486. https://doi.org/10.1080/19496591.2019.1699103 

Hatch, D. K., Garcia, C. E., Mardock-Uman, N., Rodriguez, S., & Young, D. H. (2019). What works: Learning outcomes due to design variations in community college student success courses. Teachers College Record, 121(7). https://doi.org/10.1177/016146811912100707 

Hatch, D. K., Mardock-Uman, N., Garcia, C. E., & Johnson, M. (2018). Best laid plans: An activity systems analysis of how community college student success courses work. Community College Review, 46(2), 115–144. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091552118760191 

Hatch, D. K. (2017). The structure of student engagement in community college student success programs: A quantitative activity systems analysis. AERA Open, 3(4), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332858417732744