Dr. Álvaro Huerta is a Religion and Public Life Organizing Fellow at the Harvard Divinity School. Dr. Huerta is also an Associate Professor in Urban & Region Planning and Ethnic & Women’s Studies at Cal Poly Pomona. He’s the author of the forthcoming book, Jardineros: Cultivating Los Angeles’ Green Landscapes with Brown Hands, Migrant Networks and Technology (The MIT Press). He’s also the author of an award-winning book, Defending Latina/o Immigrant Communities: The Xenophobic Era of Trump and Beyond (Rowman & Littlefield).

Prior to becoming a scholar-activist, he was a successful community activist. As a son of Mexican immigrants, he spent his formative years in East Los Angeles’ Ramona Gardens public housing project (or Big Hazard projects—named after the notorious gang). As a first-generation graduate and Ford Foundation Fellow, he holds a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from UC Berkeley. He also holds an M.A. in Urban Planning and a B.A. in History from UCLA.