Nina M. Flores, PhD is an educator whose interdisciplinary work is influenced by her graduate training in political science, education, and urban planning. She is an Assistant Professor with the Social & Cultural Analysis of Education (SCAE) graduate program at Long Beach State where she approaches education by examining campuses as communities, and looking at connections between education, power, and justice. She has also taught in the UCLA Urban Planning department, and with the department of Chicano/Latino Studies at UC Irvine.

Dr. Flores has a PhD in Urban Planning from the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, where she specialized in community development with research focused on gender, justice, and cities. In her dissertation, titled “Taking Back the Streets: Resisting #StreetHarassment in a New Era of (Virtual) Public Space”, she analyzed how social media is used to document and share experiences in public space; examined connections between on-line and on-the-ground resistance; and explored how community planners and organizers can use digital information to understand and address complex urban problems. Her findings revealed implications for students and safety: both middle and high school students reported experiencing street harassment during their trips to and from school.

For many years Dr. Flores worked as a jury consultant and a political messaging strategist. During that time she conducted pre-trial focus group research for legal cases in more than 30 states. She is the former managing editor of Critical Planning Journal, and her public writing has been featured in the Washington Post, Huffington Post, Ms. Magazine Blog, YES! Magazine, Progressive Planning Magazine, and other outlets where she offers critical analyses and ideas for action on topics including gender, justice, politics, pedagogies, campus sexual assault, for-profit schools, and more.

In recent years Dr. Flores was named the Most Valuable Professor in the College of Educational CSULB, accepted the Advancement of Women Award from the President’s Commission on the Status of Women, was a fellow with The OpEd Project, and won the Policy Brief Prize from the UCLA Center for the Study of Women for a policy brief titled “Protecting the Rights of Massage Parlor Workers” (with Dr. Karna Wong). Dr. Flores is proud to be a kindergarten-to-PhD product of the Calfiornia public education system, with master’s degrees in both Political Science (San Diego State University) and Education (CSULB), as well as a bachelors degree in Political Science (CSULB).

Contact: nina.flores@csulb.edu.

Reach out on Twitter: @bellhookedme.