Stanford education professor appointed to endowed chair

Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE) Professor Alfredo J. Artiles has been appointed to an endowed chair, the highest honor the university can bestow on faculty.

Artiles was named the Lee L. Jacks Professor of Education by GSE Dean Dan Schwartz.

“Alfredo has distinguished himself in advancing our knowledge and understanding of race and disability, and how these issues intersect in education,” said Schwartz, the I. James Quillen Dean and Nomellini & Olivier Professor of Educational Technology. “I’m thrilled to honor his contributions and recognize this important area of scholarship that he lifts up.”

Artiles joined the Stanford faculty in 2020 as part of the GSE’s initiative on learning differences. He serves as faculty director of the Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education (SCOPE), as well as affiliated faculty with the Stanford Center for Comparative Studies in Race & Ethnicity (CCSRE) and the Stanford King Center on Global Development.

His research focuses on educational inequities related to responses to the ways in which disability intersects with sociocultural differences such as race, language, social class and gender. For more than three decades, his work hasadvanced equity policies, personnel preparation programs and inclusive educational systems. His recent books include Language, Learning and Disability in the Education of Young Bilingual Children (2021) and The SAGE Handbook on Inclusion and Diversity in Education (2019). He also serves as editor of the long-running Disability, Culture & Equity book series published by Teachers College Press.

Artiles is an elected member of the National Academy of Education and a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences’ 2017 consensus study report Promoting the Educational Success of Children and Youth Learning English: Promising Futures and serves on the consensus study panel Exploring the Opportunity Gap for Young Children From Birth to Age Eight. He served on the White House Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics from 2011-17.

Prior to coming to Stanford, Artiles was dean of the Graduate College and the Ryan C. Harris Professor of Special Education at Arizona State University. He received his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Virginia and his undergraduate degree from the Universidad Rafael Landívar, a Jesuit college in Guatemala. Artiles received an honorary doctorate from the University of Göteborgs (Sweden) and is an honorary professor at the University of Birmingham (United Kingdom).

The professorship was established in 1966. Lee L. Jacks, who died in 1941, was one of the daughters of the David Jacks family of Monterey, Calif. A major portion of the Jacks estate was bequeathed to Stanford. Previous chair holders include David Labaree, Nel Noddings, Kenji Hakuta and Elliot W. Eisner.