Dr. Yolanda Flores Niemann

Yolanda Flores Niemann (Ph.D., University of Houston, 1992) is a Professor in the Department of Comparative Ethnic Studies at Washington State University and Special Assistant to the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts. In the latter capacity, duties include: (1) coordinating the budget, payroll, course revision, and a few other aspects of DDP and working with the team developing the on-line MLS Degree in CLA; and (2) assembling and leading the CLA's response(s) in preparation for the Northwest Re-accreditation process involving assessment reports, unit-level self-studies, and the college's sumary of unit-level reports. Dr. Flores Niemann is also an Affiliate Faculty inWomen's Studies and American Studies.

Her research interests include effects of stereotypes across various domans, the social ecological contexts of stereotyping, the psychological effects of tokenism, and overcoming obstacles to Latina/o higher education. She is Principal Investigator of a twelve million dollar GEAR UP grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Education and the co-Principal Investigator of a second GEAR UP grant of the same size. The grants are currently serving 9,271 students in 29 schools in Central and Eastern Washington State that have a student population base of more than 50% low socio-economic status.

Dr. Flores Niemann has numerous publications, including Black/Brown Relations and Stereotypes, (with Tatcho Mindiola and Nestor Rodriguez, University of Texas Press, 2002), Chicana Leadership (University of Nebraska Press, 2002), a special issue of the Journal of Social Issues entitled "Inequities in Higher Education: Issues and Promising Practices in a World Ambivalent about Affirmative Action (2005). Her handbook chapters include "Stereotypes of Chicanas and Chicanos: Impact on Family Functioning, Individual Expectations, Goals and Behavior" (The Handbook of Chicana and Chicano Psychology and Mental Health, 2004) and "The Psychology of Tokensim: Psychosocial Reality of Faculty of Color" (The Handbook of Racial and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 2003). She has also published numerous journal articles.

In 2006-2007, Dr. Flores Niemann was an American Council on Education Fellow, conducting her fellowship at Pennsylvania State University. She has also participated in HERS (Higher Education Resource Services) Summer Institute for Women in Higher Education Administration at Bryn Mawr in 2002. She has served as WSU Assistant to the Provost, Director of Latina/o Outreach (at WSU TriCities campus), as well as on executive committees for the Division of the Study of Ethnic Minority Issues of the American Psychological Association (APA), and on the Washington State Governor's Commission on Hispanic Affairs.

Dr. Flores Niemann and her husband of 31 years, Barry, have two children -- Russell, who graduated from the University of Washington with a major in Construction Management, and Mychaelanne, who graduated from the University of Texas with a major in Psychology and Honors in Liberal Arts. In her free time she enjoys spending time with her children, golfing with her husband, reading, and playing cards.