Oscar is a Bay Area native that has over 25 years of experience promoting evaluation research, educational equity, youth capacity-building and community inclusion. As the first in his family to attend a university, Oscar transferred from City College of San Francisco to UC Irvine to receive his BA in Sociology and went on to receive his M.Ed and doctoral candidacy at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education. At the core of his academic and professional career is Oscar’s commitment to practice research and evaluation that strengthen opportunities for communities of color to not just be recipients of support services but to become agents of change.

Outside of work, you can find Oscar playing, listening to and dancing to music from across all genres and cultures. He’s served as a percussionist for multiple bands, is an avid playlist maker, live-show attendee, and tries his best as a salsa and bachata dancer. Other interests and hobbies include running, hiking, biking, meditation, learning about Toltec wisdom and binging quality TV show and movie franchises. His biggest source of pride is being a father to his teenage son and daughter, who are his heroes.