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mildred
Academics

Mildred Boveda

Professor

Education
  • EdD, Exceptional Student Education, Florida International University
  • EdM, Education Policy and Management, Harvard Graduate School of Education
  • MS, Exceptional Student Education, Florida International University
  • BS, Exceptional Student Education with ESOL endorsement, Florida International University
Area of Expertise
  • Intersectionality
  • Special Education
  • Teacher Education
  • Inclusive Education

Publications

  • Boveda, M., Artiles, A., & Oliveira, B.* (2026). A critical historical analysis of the trajectories and equity tensions in inclusive education for students with disabilities. In A. Goodwin, A. Hargreaves, V. Showunmi, C. Stone-Johnson, & J. Weiner (Eds.), Third international handbook of educational change (pp 1-22). Springer.
     
  • Boveda, M. (2025). Embracing complexity: Applying intersectional, post-oppositional approaches to examinations of students with disabilities in educational psychology research. Educational Psychologist, 60(3), 243-250. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2025.2516503 
     
  • Simmons-Reed, E., Scott, M. F. T., Taradash, G., Boveda, M., & Ford, D. Y. (2025). An equity-based and culturally responsive bill of rights for early childhood students of color with exceptionalities. Perspectives on Early Childhood Psychology & Education, 9(1), 51.  https://doi.org/10.58948/2834-8257.1071

Presentations

  • Boveda, M., Artiles, A., Oliveira, B. A Critical Historical Analysis of Recurrent Equity Tensions in Inclusive Education. Division of International Special Education and Services, Council for Exceptional Children, Lima, Peru, July 11-13, 2026
     
  • Boveda, M.  Anti-Racist Critical Perspectives Diversifying Special Education Research: Challenging Traditional Narratives of Objectivity, Neutrality, and Science AERA Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, California, April 8 -12, 2026.
     
  • Boveda, M. (Presidential session) Disability Justice in (Special) Education Futures: Exploring Critical, Intersectional, and Social and Emotional Dimensions. AERA Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, California, April 8 -12.

 

Mildred Boveda, EdD, is the Irving B. Harris Endowed Chair and Professor at Erikson Institute in Chicago and a Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Lagos. Prior to joining Erikson in 2026, she was a faculty member at The Pennsylvania State University, where she also served as Professor-in-Charge of the Special Education Program. A former special education teacher in Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Dr. Boveda has built a career spanning P–12 education, teacher preparation, educational research, scholarly leadership, and international engagement.

 

Dr. Boveda is widely recognized for scholarship at the intersections of special education, teacher education, disability, race, and other dimensions of social difference. She introduced and has advanced the concepts of intersectional competence and intersectional consciousness to describe educators’ capacity to recognize and respond to the ways multiple sociocultural positions shape the experiences of students, families, colleagues, and educators themselves. Her research has produced conceptual frameworks, measures, and collaborative protocols that operationalize intersectionality in educator preparation and professional practice. Her scholarship has been recognized as helping shape how teacher-preparation programs approach diversity, equity, and inclusion in special education and beyond.

 

Drawing on Black feminist, intersectional, critical disability, and post-oppositional traditions, Dr. Boveda challenges reductive approaches to educational difference and advances more complex understandings of inclusive education. Her scholarship appears in journals including Educational Researcher, Educational Psychologist, AERA Open, Curriculum Inquiry, Teacher Education and Special Education, and Feminist Formations, as well as major scholarly handbooks and edited volumes.

 

Her research and public scholarship have also reached audiences well beyond the academy. Dr. Boveda’s work and expertise have been featured or cited by Noticias Telemundo, The Miami Herald, Chalkbeat, and The Journalist’s Resource at Harvard Kennedy School, among other outlets. In The Miami Herald, she has written about the consequences of separating conversations about disability from race, gender, and other systems of inequality; Noticias Telemundo has featured her expertise on race, education, and public policy on several broadcasts.

 

Dr. Boveda has held significant disciplinary leadership roles, including serving as Co-Editor of the Review of Educational Research and in leadership positions within the American Educational Research Association and Council for Exceptional Children. Her honors include the 2025 Teacher Education Division Social Justice Award and the 2023 AERA Scholars of Color in Education Early Career Contribution Award. She earned her EdD in Exceptional Student Education from Florida International University and her EdM in Education Policy and Management from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

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