University of Utah's College of Social and Behavioral Science names 1st Latina dean

SALT LAKE CITY — Michelle Camacho has reached the upper echelons of academia as the new dean at the University of Utah's College of Social and Behavioral Science. But her pathway to higher education looked a bit different than that of many of her colleagues.

Camacho grew up in poverty in Southern California and was the first in her family to attend college. Her parents divorced when she was 5 and her mother struggled to make ends meet. Her mother, who immigrated to the U.S. at a young age from Cochabamba, Bolivia, worked a variety of jobs, ranging from child care and waitressing, to clerical work.

Camacho would often come home to empty cupboards. But her grandparents' house, a short walk from her own, was a refuge.

"There was always music, dancing and cooking," Camacho said. "The characteristics that bring my life a lot of joy, ... those complementary elements of my life, were really formative, I think, to the person that I am today and really helped me kind of get through what were very tough financial years of my childhood and youth."

Those humble beginnings give Camacho a unique outlook and approach to her new position, where she plans to champion faculty research and advocate for students and faculty who feel like they don't belong. Camacho is the college's first Latina dean; though other colleges at the U. have already reached that milestone.

"I am a college-educated woman with an advanced degree, but my mother speaks very broken English and sees the world through a very different cultural lens than I do," Camacho said. "In a way, I see the world both through her lens and through my own lens."

"I have always brokered these kinds of territories in a way," she added. "My hometown is the kind of community where there's bars on the windows and a lot of graffiti in the alleys and it's not safe to be out at night. I can go back and that's still my hometown, but then I can step in the very elite space that is a college campus and offer a different source of being welcoming and be a different kind of reference point and a different type of mentor and have connections with people who may feel like they don't necessarily belong, when in fact they just need time and friends and mentors and guides to help them get to the finish line."

Leading students

Part of Camacho's approach is focusing on the assets students already have and meeting them where they are. Some of their strengths, she said, often go unrecognized or are under-tapped.

It's a phenomenon Camacho saw in her own life as well. Growing up, Camacho didn't have someone at home to check her work. Her grandparents only spoke Spanish and Quechua, an indigenous language in the Andes; and English is her mother's second language. It wasn't until grad school — where she saw how students whose parents had doctorates were able to get feedback and ideas for their dissertations — that she realized that aspect of her upbringing set her apart.

"I think growing up, at times, I didn't see that as a characteristic that would eventually make me stronger or more resilient," she said. She hopes to help students from similar backgrounds to see their strengths.

Camacho also raised the possibility of the college becoming a Hispanic-serving institution (where at least 25% of the student population is Hispanic).

Her advice to first-generation students and others who might feel like they don't belong on a college campus comes from lessons she learned while studying high-achieving Latina students for her book, "The Borderlands of Education: Latinas in Engineering."

"When you go through those most difficult challenges in your life, you develop this tenacity that can translate into other fields of life and it is that kind of resilience that will carry you through the hardest things," she said. "Be compassionate with yourself and know that you are not always going to be successful."

Supporting faculty

One of Camacho's goals as dean is to further elevate faculty research, especially as it pertains to solving societal problems like environmental injustices and racial inequities.

"Those are all the kinds of issues that social and behavioral scientists grapple with daily in their work," she said. "Sometimes there are really excellent ideas and initiatives, but there needs to be someone who is willing to champion those ideas and who's willing to provide an intellectual argument about why it's important to create mechanisms for change around issues of equity, diversity and inclusion."

Camacho also researches student-veteran populations and hopes to fortify pathways for their success in partnership with Salt Lake Community College, saying student-veterans need advocacy.

Her training as a cultural anthropologist and sociologist also helps her prioritize listening to and learning from the community.

"I'm not coming in with a top-down direction that I want to take the college in, but rather, I'm really trying to understand where faculty are now and where we want to move forward together," she said.

From California to Utah

Although Camacho spent the majority of her life Southern California, coming to the University of Utah was far from her first time in Utah. A national parks enthusiast, Camacho has been to many of Utah's parks, including a seven-year streak of spending each Thanksgiving at Zion.

"I am still getting used to Salt Lake City and to the state of Utah, but I have found so much peace in the beauty of the landscape," Camacho said. "There is so much beauty still to be discovered and the possibility of developing new companions and colleagues and friends in the context of this beautiful state is something that I'm really looking forward to."

Her career has included developing the Ethnic Studies courses and programming at the University of San Diego; authoring multiple books and journal articles about diversity in higher education; and, building an initiative to increase the number of women STEM faculty at USD.

Camacho began her teaching career in 1994 as a graduate student, before earning a doctorate in social science. During the next decade of her career, Camacho advanced through the academic ranks to a tenured professor at University of San Diego, serving in multiple administrative roles along the way.

There were a handful of experiences, however, that she pointed to as catalysts for her decision to move to Utah. One was a completing a yearlong fellowship with the American Council on Education, which helps prepare faculty for leadership positions in higher education.

"That year of service really helped me distill my values — so what type of institution do I think I can best serve at? Under what conditions, for whom and why?" she said. "The 'why' piece of it was really important for me," she said, adding that because some institutions are shrinking so there is "not that much room for growth or innovation."

Camacho had just finished a rotation as acting deputy division director at the National Science Foundation's Division of Education and Human Resources when she was nominated for her current position at the U. It seemed like timing was on the U.'s side. Camacho's father passed away after a chronic illness and the last of her three children graduated high school earlier this year.

She had an empty nest, but more important, she felt like she could make a difference in Utah.

"There's really an opportunity for me to advance the work that I've been doing in terms of advocating for faculty research across the country and supporting student success, which has been a top priority for me," Camacho said. "The importance of education as a factor in promoting social mobility is so close to my own trajectory and my own story of growing up in poverty and being able to finish college and then go on to graduate school.

"For me, it's been so powerful to see how education has been an important catalyst in just changing the circumstances of my life."

Correction: University of Utah officials initially said that the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences is the largest college at the University of Utah; however, last year, that title went to the College of Engineering. Enrollment numbers for the current school year are not yet available.

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