Meriah Heredia-Griego has been appointed director of the UNM Center for Education Policy Research (CEPR) by UNM Vice President for Research Michael Dougher. Heredia-Griego was associate director and research assistant professor at CEPR prior to her appointment.
In announcing Heredia-Griego as director, Dougher said, “UNM is fortunate to have such a strong leader at CEPR. She brings commitment to high quality policy research and enthusiasm to CEPR.”
Heredia-Griego works closely with the Division of Equity and Inclusion and is a senior fellow with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center for Health Policy at UNM. Within this position she conducts research and evaluation on several large-scale projects, including the Department of Labor Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) grant programs in New Mexico, the Lumina Latino Student Success Initiative and the WKKF New Mexico Learning and Evaluation Virtual Consortium.
During the legislative session, Heredia-Griego serves as the university legislative bill tracker conducting legislative bill and policy analysis. She has more than ten years of experience working on college readiness, access, persistence, and graduation issues with students, families, leaders, and policy-makers.
Heredia-Griego was recently elected to the advisory council for the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute (CHCI) where she serves as a co-chair for the CHCI Strategic Planning Committee. She is a part-time instructor in Teacher Education, Educational Leadership and Policy in the College of Education where she teaches courses focused on developing emerging educational leaders.
Heredia-Griego has a BA in Broadcast Journalism with a minor in Chicano Studies and Masters of Community and Regional Planning with an emphasis in Community Development from the University of New Mexico.
She has a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration and Policy from Colorado State University. Her scholarly interests include education policy, narrative inquiry, construction of student identities in policy discourse, Hispanic Serving Institution leadership, and government relations and lobbying in higher education.