Maria Joaquina Villaseñor (Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley) is an associate professor of Chicanx-Latinx Studies at California State University, Monterey where she has been a faculty member since 2006. She teaches courses in Chicanx-Latinx Studies and Comparative Ethnic Studies. In 2015, she was named an Outstanding First-Year Student Advocate by the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition. She is a twin and a mother of twins.