Maria Teresa Velez, PhD Position: Board Member Current Term: 2009 – 2011

Committee Member: Native American Affairs Committee

Institution: University of Arizona
Position: Associate Dean, Graduate College
Field: Psychology

Maria Teresa Velez, PhD has worked at The University of Arizona (UA) for the past 25 years in many capacities, where diversity has been her focus.

With a PhD in socio-clinical psychology from the Wright Institute, Dr. Velez first came to the UA as a postdoctoral fellow. She soon became the director of Counseling and Testing Services, helping lead the first UA efforts to diversify the student body.

In 1996, she became an associate dean in the Graduate College where she has led campus-wide efforts resulting in the doubling of minority graduate enrollment in 12 years. Currently 24% of graduate students at The University of Arizona identify as belonging to a minority group. To support these efforts, Dr. Velez has created several pipeline building and graduate student recruitment and retention programs, garnering over 18 Million from the federal government and private foundations and obtaining an institutional commitment of over 1 Million dollars every year from The University of Arizona.

Dr. Velez has served on many national boards advancing diversity including the Council of Graduate Schools’ Minority Advisory Board and the GRE Board’s MGE Committee. She is also the recipient of many awards, the latest of which include the ACS Stanley C. Israel, Regional Award for Advancing Diversity in the Chemical Sciences, the UA’s Vision Award, the UA’s Peter W. Likins Inclusive Excellence Award and the 2008 UA Homecoming Alumni’s award.

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