Dr. Victoria DeFrancesco Soto is a political scientist whose expertise includes immigration, Latinos, women and politics, political psychology, and campaigns and elections. In looking at immigration, she takes a broad historical perspective to understand current policy debates. She is also a contributor to MSNBC and NBCNews.com as well as a regular political analyst for Telemundo. She has previously provided on-air analysis for CNN, Fox, PBS, Univision, NPR and has appeared on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher. Most recently Victoria was a featured expert in the PBS documentary of the Civil Rights Trailblazer, Willie Velasquez in, Your Vote is Your Voice. Victoria is also published in both academic and popular outlets such as POLITICO, Talking Points Memo, and Perspectives on Politics.
Victoria is a professor at the University of Texas’ LBJ School of Public Affairs where she was selected as one of the University’s Game Changing faculty. She is also a faculty affiliate of the Department of Mexican-American and Latino Studies and the Center for Mexican American Studies. Named one of the top 12 scholars in the country by Diverse magazine Victoria previously taught at Northwestern University and Rutgers. Victoria received her Ph.D. from Duke University and did her undergrad work at the University of Arizona.