Irasema Coronado

Irasema Coronado is the director and professor of the School of Transborder Studies at Arizona State University.  She received her bachelor's degree in political science and a certificate of Latin American Studies from the University of South Florida. She has an M.A. in Latin American Studies and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Arizona. Her area of specialization is comparative politics, her research focuses on human rights on the U.S.-Mexico Border.  She is co-author of the book titled “Fronteras No Mas: Toward Social Justice at the U.S.-Mexico Border”  and co-editor of numerous articles  “Digame! Policy and Politics on the Texas Border” and the book “Juntos Pero No Revueltos: Estudios sobre la frontera Texas-Chihuahua”. She also coauthored “Latinas in Local Government, Políticas: Latina Public Officials in Texas”. She was the recipient of a Fulbright to Germany in 2002, and a Border Fulbright in 2004 at the Universidad Autonoma de Ciudad Juarez.

Previously, she was a professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), where she held the Kruszewski Family Endowed Professorship.

Irasema Coronado has had a variety of academic and administrative positions at the University of Texas El Paso. She served as graduate Advisor in the Department of Political Science September 2006- January 2008; Chair, Department of Political Science, University of Texas at El Paso September 1, 2005-September 1, 2006 and associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts 2007-2008, and Associate Provost from 2008-2012.   

Irasema Coronado is past president of the Association for Borderland Studies 2005-2006. She served as a member of the Environmental Protection Agency Good Neighbor Environmental Board from 1999-2002 and co-chair of the Coalition Against Violence Toward Women and Children on the Border. She was also part of the National Advisory Committee for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from 2003-2006 and the National Advisory Council for  Policy and Technology from 2016- 2019. 

President Barack Obama appointed her to serve on the Joint Public Advisory Committee of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation in North America in 2010. 

Currently, she is also a member of the academic advisory board for Ms. Magazine and served on the Department of Human Health Services, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences- National Advisory Environmental Health Sciences Council 2016-2020.

Irasema Coronado served as the executive director of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation of North America 2012-2016.  The Commission for Environmental Cooperation facilitates collaboration and public participation to foster conservation, protection and enhancement of the North American environment for the benefit of present and future generations, in the context of increasing economic, trade, and social links among Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Hispanic Business Magazine named her one of the Top 100 Influential Hispanics in the United States in October of 2010. 

Her present research include the impact of the deportation process on families and children, environmental cooperation, and U.S.-Mexico border politics.