Born and raised in the South Side of Tucson, Arizona, Dr. Jessala A. Grijalva began her academic journey at Pima Community College before transferring to the University of Arizona (South), where she graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in Government and Public Policy. She earned her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Notre Dame, defending her dissertation titled “From Binary to Multidimensional: Reframing Latino Acculturation in Political Science” under the guidance of Dr. Luis Fraga, with committee members Dr. Ricardo Ramirez and Dr. David Cortez.
Her research challenges traditional binary models of acculturation that primarily emphasize assimilation, introducing instead a novel framework: the Multidimensional Latino Acculturation Model (MLAM). This model focuses on uncovering a spectrum of acculturation orientations, including culture-affirming, assimilationist, and bicultural orientations. It also identifies a novel orientation, demicultural—a previously unrecognized hybrid form of acculturation. Her work examines how different acculturation orientations influence Latino public opinion on key issues such as immigration and the formation of Latino political identities and ideologies.
Additionally, Dr. Grijalva has developed a comparative cluster analysis framework that enables in-depth exploration of political behavior and the complex process of acculturation through multidimensional data. Leveraging her proficiency in R programming, she introduces a new approach to validating conceptual and theoretical models using non-parametric techniques, particularly through cluster analysis.
Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), including a Graduate Research Fellowship Program (GRFP) grant totaling over $130,000. She further honed her methodological expertise by spending two summers at the University of Michigan's Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), funded by the Rooney Center for the Study of American Democracy and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, specializing in survey methods, scaling and dimensional analysis, and categorical data analysis. Dr. Grijalva currently mentors multiple ICPSR diversity scholars and is deeply committed to making quantitative methods more accessible.
As an Instructor and Coordinator at the University of Notre Dame’s Institute for Latino Studies (ILS), Dr. Grijalva has developed courses like “Empowering Change: Latino Leadership and Professional Growth,” aimed at fostering leadership development and mentorship among students. In the fall of 2024, she developed and led a four-day Leadership Academy for merit scholars, focusing on leadership, mentorship, professional skills, and the ethical application of AI in academic research. Her commitment to student mentorship extends beyond the classroom as she actively supports both undergraduate and graduate students in their academic and professional development.
Dr. Grijalva is currently preparing several articles, including one that expands upon her comparative cluster analysis framework and another that delves into acculturation research through a comprehensive meta-analysis. She is also transforming her dissertation into a book, aimed at further contributing to the scholarship on Latino political behavior and acculturation in the U.S. Through her research, she continues to pioneer new understandings of how political identities form and evolve in response to shifting social dynamics within an increasingly multiracial democracy.
