Vannessa Falcón Orta, Ph.D.

Bio

Vannessa Falcón Orta is Transfronteriza (transborder) from the San Diego-Tijuana borderlands and the daughter of working-class immigrant parents from Mexico and Peru. She graduated from SDSU’s Joint Ph.D. Program in Education (JDP) with Claremont Graduate University. A scholar and organizer dedicated to the social justice of Transfronterizx students, her research, teaching and service center on preparing Critically Conscious Border Educators along the California-Baja California Borderlands. For the past decade, she has implemented innovative initiatives informed by her interdisciplinary research in borderlands studies and education centered on the advocacy of Transfronterizx students at the San Diego-Tijuana, Imperial Valley-Mexicali and Douglas-Agua Prieta border regions. In 2022, she founded the Building Bridges Graduation Initiative, the first-ever transborder graduation at the U.S.-Mexico border, providing SDSU graduates whose immediate family members cannot cross the border an opportunity to celebrate graduation with their loved ones in México.

Today Vannessa is proud to call the Calexico-Mexicali border region her home. For fun, she enjoys spending time with friends and family, walking with her dog, Chocolate, and dancing tango.