Dolores Inés Casillas is Professor in the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies and Director of the Chicano Studies Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). She is the author of Sounds of Belonging: U.S. Spanish-language Radio and Public Advocacy (NYU Press, 2014), which received two book prizes, and co-editor with María Elena Cepeda (Williams College) of the Companion to Latina/o Media Studies (Routledge Press, 2016) and co-editor with Mary Bucholtz and Jin Sook Lee (UC Santa Barbara) of Feeling It: Language, Race and Affect in Latinx Youth Learning (Routledge Press, 2018). Her next book, under contract with New York University Press, examines language learning and language play as heard through different sound media (Instagram Reels, Tik Toks, What’s App).

Prof. Casillas is also the Lead Project Investigator (PI) on a recently awarded $3m Hispanic Serving Institute (HSI) grant by the National Science Foundation (NSF-HSI). Together with UCSB colleagues in Environmental Sciences and Environmental Management, the grant helps establish the Center for Equitable Environmental Sciences (CEES) at the Chicano Studies Institute (CSI). CEES reframes STEM at UCSB by making racial, social, and environmental justice fundamental to STEM undergraduate experiences. She is also the Lead PI on a Crossing Latinidades $310,000 grant, funded by the Andrew Mellon Foundation, which brings together scholars across geographical regions to discuss the significance of sound cultures to Latinx communities.

For the past ten years, Prof. Casillas has done extensive research and community work on promoting academic achievement among Latinx youth and supporting college pathways for them. In addition to GEF, she is also a Board Member of Adelante Charter School, adual-language (Spanish-English) K-6 elementary school in Santa Barbara as well as Dos Pueblos Little League (DPLL).