Laura Minero-Meza, a Ph.D. student with the School of Education’s Department of Counseling Psychology, is receiving an Outstanding Women of Color Award from UW-Madison.
The 2019-20 Outstanding Women of Color come from varied interests, ranging from a Madison City Council member and a computational chemist to an Alzheimer’s research advocate and a university chief of staff. They’re passionate, innovative, and they’re making an impact on their local and national communities.
Besides her role as a student, Minero-Meza is a counseling psychology researcher and scholar, therapist, teacher, mentor, public lecturer, and activist. She has partnered in national studies on undocumented youth and the lived experience in the intersection of gender identity, race, citizenship status, and mental health.
Additionally, Minero-Meza is an advocate for the LGBTQAI+ community and undocumented students like herself at all levels.
One colleague describes the way she blends groundbreaking scholarship with personal experience and compassionate activism as ‘intellectual courage.” Minero-Meza has been influential in Madison and beyond as a Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice collaborator and a person who has used her own story to raise awareness and debunk misconceptions about undocumented immigrants.
Minero-Meza co-founded the first UW-Madison student organization for undocumented students and a scholarship to directly support these students, all while working through her own financial challenges. She also created a support group to connect middle school students with mentors to support their Latinx and immigrant identities, and collaborates with UW administration on supporting the safety and legal needs of undocumented students on campus.
Minero-Meza also currently is an intern at the University of California, Los Angeles’ Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior.
The 12th cohort of Outstanding Women of Color awardees will be honored at a reception on Thursday, March 5 from 5 to 7:30 p.m. in the Alumni Lounge of the Pyle Center at 716 Langdon St. The event to celebrate this year’s honorees is open to the campus and the community. To register for the event, visit this website.
To learn about all of this year’s Outstanding Women of Color Award winners, check out this news post.