Last year, de la Torre became the ninth permanent president and first female president of the university after three decades of experience at the University of Arizona, the California State University system and the University of California, Davis – where the daughter of Mexican immigrants became the first Latina to receive the rank of distinguished professor. Her research has focused on Latino community health. de la Torre’s list of leadership and service roles include director of the Mexican American Studies and Research Center at the University of Arizona, the school’s director of the Hispanic Center of Excellence in the College of Medicine, chair of the UC Davis Chicana/Chicano Studies Department and director of the UC-Davis Center for Transnational Health. She has received numerous accolades, including the American Society of Hispanic Economists Academic Achievement Award and a California State resolution commendation in 2016 for exemplary service as a scholar and for a history of service to the people of California. She attended UC Berkeley, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in the political economy of natural resources and a master’s and Ph.D. in agricultural and resource economics.
