Jennifer M. Matos

Jen Matos is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology and Education and the director of middle, secondary, and the arts teacher licensure programs. She serves as the program director of ¡Científicas Presente!, a summer STEM program for girls in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Matos is interested in the role of equality and liberation in learning communities. Matos' research has two distinct areas. In the first area, she examines the assets that Latinx students, families and communities bring to the classroom and how those strengths can be utilized to enhance the system of public education in the U.S. In the second area, she examines the longitudinal effects of a community based STEM program for girls in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Matos has worked with diverse populations of college students as a hallmark of her career and has served as director of multicultural affairs at Simon’s Rock, assistant dean of ALANA and GLBTQ students at Clark University, and assistant dean of students and advisor to Latinx students at Dartmouth College. Prior to her teaching appointment at Mount Holyoke, Matos taught at Our Lady of the Elms College, the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and the Smith College School for Social Work.