Nicole M. Guidotti-Hernández has been named the inaugural executive director of the Mills Institute at Northeastern University’s Oakland campus. Launched with $30 million in funding, the Mills Institute is charged with preserving and advancing the legacy of Mills College, which was founded in 1852 and merged with Northeastern University in July after a period of financial instability. The new institute’s programs and partnerships will support transformative learning, advocacy and research, with a focus on career development for women, gender nonbinary individuals and communities that historically have been marginalized because of race or ethnicity.
“One of the things that I really like about Northeastern is that they’re constantly trying new things. And I tend to work that way,” Dr. Guidotti-Hernández said. “My vision is to have a tremendous impact both locally and globally. We will find our place in the community. It has always been a dream to work in a setting like this one, where the mission is ripe for opportunity. I feel really lucky — really lucky. I’m just super excited. It couldn’t be a better fit for me.”
Born and raised in California’s Salinas Valley about two hours south of San Francisco, Dr. Guidotti-Hernández comes to the Mills Institute from Emory University in Atlanta, where she was a professor of English, history, Hispanic, and women’s, gender and sexuality studies. Previously, she was an associate professor of gender studies at the University of Arizona and was the inaugural chair of the department of Mexican American and Latina/o studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Guidotti-Hernández is the author of Unspeakable Violence: Remapping U.S. and Mexican National Imaginaries (Duke University Press, 2011).
Professor Guidotti-Hernández earned a bachelor’s degree in literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She holds master’s and doctoral degrees in English from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.