Born and raised in Hawthorne, California, Dr. Bernardette Pinetta is the daughter of Guatemalan and Mexican immigrants. Growing up in Los Angeles, she witnessed how inequitable our educational system is towards communities of color and the need for culturally relevant and social justice-oriented education. As an interdisciplinary scholar, she weaves together theories from education, psychology, and political science to contextualize how youth of color develop their ethnic-racial identity and how such views serve as key mechanisms for their orientation toward social justice. As a community-engaged scholar, she partners with schools, organizations, and young people to cultivate learning environments that are both culturally affirming and consciousness-raising.

Before coming to UCLA, Pinetta received funding from the William T. Grant Foundation to work with Hispanas for Political Equality (HOPE) to develop a youth participatory action research curriculum for Latina adolescents growing up in California. Building on this work, she facilitates the Collective Healing and Research-Led Action (CHARLA) network with Dr. Adriana Aldana. CHARLA brings together Latina scholars across university institutions who engage in youth/community participatory action research methods (Y/CPAR).

Pinetta earned her doctorate from the Combined Program of Education and Psychology at the University of Michigan; and holds a B.A. in Political Science and a minor in Education from UCLA. She is a Ford Pre-Doctoral Fellow and Rackham Merit Fellow. She is currently a Chancellor’s HSI Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA.