A native of Wichita Falls, Texas, Dr. Jesse Perez Mendez is the Dean of the College of Education at Texas Tech University. Prior to that, he was a Dean and Professor at the Indiana University School of Education at IUPUI and an Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and a professor at the University of Central Florida (UCF) within the College of Education and Human Performance. Before his years at UCF, he served as the Head of the School of Educational Studies at the College of Education of Oklahoma State University from 2012-2016 in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Throughout his academic career, he has worked and administered budgetary operations within both urban and rural universities, a land-grant institution, a community college, a Hispanic Serving Institution, and a flight center. He earned his Ph.D. in Higher Education and J.D. from the Maurer School of Law at Indiana University. Mendez also holds a master's degree in Political Science from Texas Tech University and a Bachelor of Arts from Midwestern State University. Mendez's research explores the dynamics of postsecondary access and policy issues in higher education and has been published in such outlets as the Community College Review, Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, NASPA Journal on Women in Higher Education, and Journal of American Indians in Education and a recently completed book, entitled Hispanic Serving Institutions in American Higher Education: A Comprehensive Overview. He was also a recipient of the College of Education Leadership and Service Award in 2010 at Oklahoma State University, held the Donnie and John A. Brock Professorship of Education Leadership and Policy at OSU as an associate professor, and served on the Foundation Board of Northern Oklahoma College from 2012-2016. Mendez is a former fellow of the American Council on Education (ACE) where he worked under the Office of the Provost at the University of Wisconsin-Madison during the 2015-2016 academic year.