Elvira Abrica

Associate Professor

Department of Teaching, Learning & Teacher Education University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Address: CPEH 284
Lincoln, NE 68588-0233
Phone: 402-472-2231 On-campus 2-2231
Email: elvira.abrica@unl.edu

Elvira J. Abrica is a scholar of American higher education whose research examines how race, culture, and institutional power shape educational opportunity. Working across critical social theory, sociology, philosophy, and cultural studies, she considers the relationship between students’ interpretations of their experiences and the organizational conditions in which those experiences take place. Her scholarship spans community colleges, Hispanic-serving institutions, STEM education, and rural contexts.

A central concern of Abrica’s scholarship is how people interpret their encounters with educational institutions and act upon them, the relationship between educational structures and individual agency. Her account of racial reappraisal examines students’ interpretations of racialized experiences. Her concept of transformational impetus asks how higher education might foster, and study, a person’s desire and capacity to change the world around them, rather than treating civic participation alone as the measure of social development. She has also questioned approaches that infer a shared political outlook from a single identity category, arguing for closer attention to differences in experience and thought.

Her empirical research has examined vocational and transfer pathways for Black, Latino, and Asian American immigrant students in Nebraska; Latino students’ experiences in engineering; and culturally engaging STEM education at a rural Hispanic-serving institution in New Mexico. She is a co-principal investigator on the National Science Foundation–funded Somos STEM project. Drawing on her experience in institutional research, she has also proposed alternative frameworks for examining culturally engaging campus environments that asks how institutions create opportunities to engage across different experiences and viewpoints.

Abrica has held substantial academic leadership responsibilities alongside her research. As chair of the Department of Educational Administration at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, she developed a five-year strategic vision, advanced curriculum alignment and new certificate offerings, and launched a rural doctoral cohort for aspiring school leaders with support from state and philanthropic partners. She established a faculty mentoring structure that paired new colleagues with departmental and external mentors, secured funding for external mentorship, and supported promotion and tenure cases. She also developed policies addressing the evaluation of faculty work and the roles of professors of practice.

Her administrative portfolio has included oversight of five academic programs, graduate program coordination, program assessment, recruitment, and budget management. She oversaw a departmental budget of nearly $2 million and managed substantial foundation funds. She strengthened departmental processes, expanded alumni engagement, and hired a recruitment and outreach coordinator. When the department closed as part of the university’s budget-reduction process in 2025, Abrica managed the transition. She continues to oversee the student teach-out plan and support the faculty and departmental operations that remain in place during the transition. She currently coordinates the master’s program in higher education, now housed in TLTE.

Education

Ph.D., Higher Education and Organizational Change, University of California, Los Angeles, 2015
M.A., Higher Education and Organizational Change, University of California, Los Angeles, 2009
B.A., Chicana/o Studies, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), 2008
Cum Laude, Departmental Highest Honors, College Honors, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), 2008

Areas of Expertise

Critical Social Thought and Theory in Education
Higher Education, Community Colleges, Leadership
Qualitative & Quantitative Research Methods
Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)

Teaching and Advising

Dr. Abrica teaches graduate and undergraduate courses that range from topics related to schooling, sociology of eduction, access and equity, qualitative and quantitative methods, and organizational change. In serving as a faculty advisor and mentor to students, Dr. Abrica encourages students to think critically about research and to develop their own research agendas based on their interests and experiences. Prospective advisees are encouraged to pursue methodologically rigorous and conceptually innovative topics in developing thesis topics. Current students are working with Dr. Abrica to explore a range of topics related to success and completion in higher education.

Select Publications

Abrica, E., Hatch-Tocaimaza, D., 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.
Abrica, E. (2022). Revisiting the complexity of racial understandings and subjective experiences of race among students of color in STEM higher education: Toward a racial reappraisal framework. Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering.
McDonough, P., & Abrica, E. (2021). Towards an integrated application of Bourdieuian theory. Urban Education.
Abrica, E., Hatch-Tocaimaza, D., & Rios-Aguilar, C. (2021). On the impossibilities of advancing racial equity in higher education research through reliance on the campus climate heuristic. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education.
Brown, J., Padilla, M., & Abrica, E. (2019). Immigrant community college students’ changing perspectives of the value of a four-year degree in Nebraska. Community College Journal of Research and Practice.
Alicea, S., Suárez-Orozco, C., Singh, S., Darbes, T., & Abrica, E. (2016). Observing classroom engagement in community college: A systematic approach. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 38(4), 757–782. https://doi.org/10.3102/0162373716675726

Courses Taught

TEAC 331 — School and Society
EDAD 842 — College Students in America (in person and online)
EDAD 830 — Administrative Theory
EDAD 920 — Diversity and Equity in Educational Organizations
EDAD 934 — Teaching and Learning in the Community College
EDAD 929 — Organizational Theory and Change
EDAD 981 — Intermediate Quantitative Methods for Educational Administration Research
EDAD 995 — Research Seminar: Advanced Qualitative Methods Seminar
EDAD 890 — Seminar in Educational Administration: Immigrants in Higher Education
EDAD 966 — Seminar in Educational Administration: COVID’s Impacts on Education
EDAD 966 — Seminar in Educational Administration: Policing in Education
EDAD 966 — Seminar in Educational Administration: Latina/o/x Student Success in Higher Education

Honors and Recognition

2020 Semifinalist, NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship
2019 Semifinalist, NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship
2018 Faculty Fellow, American Association for Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE)

Experience

Administrative Appointments

August 2026-present
- Faculty Transition Coordinator
  Department of Educational Administration (EDAD)
  College of Education and Human Sciences
  University of Nebraska–Lincoln
2024-2026
- Interim Department Chair
  Department of Educational Administration (EDAD)
  College of Education and Human Sciences
  University of Nebraska–Lincoln
2023-2024
- Acting Department Chair
  Department of Educational Administration (EDAD)
  College of Education and Human Sciences
  University of Nebraska–Lincoln

Faculty Appointments

2026-Present
- Associate Professor
  Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education
  College of Education and Human Sciences
  University of Nebraska–Lincoln
2022-2026
- Associate Professor
  Department of Educational Administration, College of Education and Human Sciences
  University of Nebraska–Lincoln
2016-2022
- Assistant Professor
  Department of Educational Administration, College of Education and Human Sciences
  University of Nebraska–Lincoln
2015-2016
- Postdoctoral Research Fellow
  Office of Assessment and Educational Effectiveness
  California State University, Fullerton (CSUF)

Research and Professional Appointments

2015-2016
- Institutional Research Specialist
  Office of Institutional Research
  Riverside Community College District (RCCD)
2014-2015
- Graduate Student Researcher
  Office of Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
  UCLA
2009-2015
- Research Analyst
  Student Affairs Information and Research Office
  UCLA
2009
- Research Analyst
  Center for Juvenile Law and Policy
  Loyola Law School, Los Angeles
2009
- Graduate Research Assistant
  National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing
  UCLA

Research and Faculty Affiliations

2016–present
- Faculty Affiliate
  Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools (CYFS)
2016–present
- Faculty Affiliate
  Project MALES (Mentoring to Achieve Latino Educational Success)
  University of Texas at Austin
2015–2016
- Research Affiliate
  Project MALES (Mentoring to Achieve Latino Educational Success)
  University of Texas at Austin

Memberships

Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE)
American Educational Research Association (AERA)
American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE)
Center for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC)
Critical Race Studies in Education Association (CRSEA)