Dr. Elisa Diana Huerta is a Brawley born and Tejas raised organizer, educator, artesanx, and scholar. After earning B.A.s in Mexican American Studies, Cultural Anthropology, and Plan II from the University of Texas, Austin, Elisa attended the University of California, Santa Cruz to pursue a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology with emphasis in Latin American & Latino Studies and Feminist Studies. Their scholarship focuses on expressive culture, women of color feminist praxis, hemispheric Indigeneity, radical pedagogy, and community-based research.

As the Director of the Multicultural Community Center (MCC) at the University of California, Berkeley, Elisa is proud to co-create create dynamic and engaged holistic resources for students, faculty, staff, and community members on a daily basis. Rooted in the Third World Liberation Front’s fight for representative and liberatory education, the MCC is an insurgent and emergent space grounded in anti-oppression and transformative justice praxis. In this role, Elisa is proud to teach and steward campus-wide projects and programs that support sustainability, holistic wellness, popular education, and intersectional solidarity.

As a practicing consultant, Elisa works with individuals and organizations, offering trainings/workshops on issues of inclusive praxis, strategic and transformational leadership, difficult dialogues, implicit bias, and storytelling, among others. They have served on several local and national advisory boards, including as national Chair of MALCS (Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social).

Art-making, of all kinds, make their heart happy.