OER Symposium Keynote Speaker

Shinta Hernandez, Ph.D. is the Department Chair of Sociology, Anthropology, and Criminal Justice at Montgomery College in Montgomery County, Maryland. During her 14 years at the College, she has helped to advance work in the areas of open educational resources and open pedagogy, social justice and equity, inclusive curriculum, faculty professional development, international collaborations, and online education. She currently serves on the leadership teams of the Montgomery College Achieving the Dream (ATD) Student Success Network, the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER) Equity and Inclusion Committee, and the Maryland Higher Education Commission (MHEC) Faculty Advisory Council.

Dr. Hernandez is co-founder of the award-winning United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Open Pedagogy Fellowship, which has now grown to seven institutional partners across North America in just four years. She has presented to higher education institutions across the U.S., specifically on issues related to social justice. Dr. Hernandez was awarded the Outstanding Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching and Advising from Montgomery College in 2017 and the Excellence Award from the National Institute for Staff and Organizational Development (NISOD) in 2018.

Prior to academia, Dr. Hernandez worked in research and public policy think tank organizations in the Washington, D.C. area, namely the Urban Institute and Westat. As a public policy researcher, analyst, and project manager, she conducted extensive quantitative and qualitative research studies and traveled across the U.S. on site visits to conduct program evaluations, including projects on the No Child Left Behind Act, the National Child Abuse and Neglect Study, and the Food Stamp Program Evaluation.

Dr. Hernandez received her B.A. degree in Psychology from Brandeis University, M.P.P. degree in Social Policy from Georgetown University, and Ph.D. degree in Sociology at the University of Maryland College Park. Her doctoral dissertation is “A Sociological Analysis of the Impact of Online Education on Community College Completion: A Case Study of Montgomery College in Maryland.” Follow Dr. Hernandez on Twitter @ProfHernandez2.