Adriana Aldana

Adriana Aldana (she/ella) is the Learning and Evaluation Specialist for UCI Community Resilience Projects (AY 2022-23). Dr. Aldana is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work at California State University, Dominguez Hills. She earned her doctorate from the Joint Doctoral Program in Social Work and Psychology at the University of Michigan. As a critical race scholar and developmental psychologist interested in youth sociopolitical empowerment, she examines how participatory action research and group empowerment models build adolescents’ capacity for anti-racism engagement and civic participation. As a practitioner, she has extensive experience developing and evaluating youth sociopolitical empowerment programs.

As the Learning and Evaluation Specialist she is accountable for leading the design, implementation, analysis, and dissemination of cross-project evaluation and research studies. She also serves as an advisory board member for the Community-Academic Partnerships to Advance Equity-Focused Climate Action (CAPECA) training pilot.