H. Andrea Neves, Ph.D.

Professor Emerita
Sonoma State University

Born and reared in Merced County, California, Dr. Neves completed her undergraduate education in Mexico D.F., Mexico, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in International Relations / Latin American Studies from the Universidad de las Americas. After graduating she taught U.S. History and Economics and Comparative Government at the American School Foundation secondary school, Mexico City.

Upon returning to the United States, Dr. Neves continued teaching at the secondary level and ultimately, upon receiving a full scholarship from the Mexican American Education Project, entered a Master’s Degree program at Sacramento State University and subsequently was awarded an M.A. degree in Social Sciences / Cultural Anthropology and Early Childhood Education. In concert with her studies, she consulted for the California State Department of Education where she assessed the effectiveness of migrant farmworker housing and pre-school education programs. Dr. Neves’ thesis focused on the education needs of Mexican American children.

In 1984, Dr. Neves was awarded her Ph.D. in Education at Stanford University. Her dissertation studied the relationship among social status, language, and academic achievement of elementary school Mexican American students. Dr. Neves has been a consultant to several districts in Northern California, Alaska (North Slope Inupiat District), Washington, Idaho and evaluated the doctorate program in Bilingual Education at Wayne State University, Michigan, which focused on Arabic/English and Spanish/English education.

Following the award of her Ph.D., Dr. Neves taught at Stanford University in the School of Education. Since then, she has returned to Stanford as a Visiting Scholar and Professor on four separate occasions, most recently in 2007. Her first scholar appointment was with the Program for Complex Instruction where she pursued her interest in social stratification and education, followed by her appointment with Dean Richard Shavelson where she engaged in research on the transformation of school. Her third appointment was with the International Education program where she engaged in research on the effects of structural adjustment programs and education in the east African countries of Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda. During her most recent appointment, which was in response to a request by Dean Deborah Stipek, she developed and presented a course entitled “Curriculum and Pedagogy in Multicultural Education.”

Dr. Neves recently retired from Sonoma State University, Sonoma County, where she had been a professor of education for over 30 years. Dr. Neves began her teaching career at SSU in the School of Ethnic studies where she taught a variety of courses, including Ethnic Groups in America and Mexican-American History and Culture and Multicultural Education. For most of her career at Sonoma State she taught in the School of Education where her courses focused on the relationship between schooling and society, qualitative and quantitative research methods, multicultural education, and first and second language acquisition. Since retirement she continues to teach an intensive course each summer entitled “School and Society.”

In 1997, 1999, and 2002, Dr. Neves received fellowships from the Fulbright-Hays Program to study the effects of globalization on the educational systems of Tanzania and Uganda. In 1999, Dr. Neves lived in the North Mara (Lake Victoria) district on Northern Tanzania where she conducted ethnographic studies of schooling in five schools of the Simbiti people. In 2003, she studied schooling in various kingdoms, chiefdoms and districts in Uganda. She is presently engaged in development projects that include the building of classrooms, teacher’s houses and also scholarships to several young women to boarding schools in North Mara, Musoma, Tanzania.

More recently, Dr. Neves has leveraged her career and expertise in the field of global cultural anthropology to her speaking, writing, and teaching of the implications of culture/identity and ethnic boundaries on the education process. Her ongoing research has taken her throughout Europe and the former Eastern Bloc; African destinations including Morocco, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Ethiopia; Middle Eastern destinations of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey; Asian destinations of Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, China, and Japan; and South American destinations that include Mexico and Peru. She regularly presents papers at the African Conference for Peace and Justice and will present a paper in 2009 on the Sub-Sahara African Diaspora in the Middle East and issues of ethnic identity and cultural boundaries.

Dr. Neves’ board memberships include: International Fulbright Association, Washington, DC;  Stanford University School of Education Advisory Council, Stanford, CA;  Social Justice Advisory Board Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA;  Sonoma State University Foundation Advisory Board, Rohnert Park, CA; The Berger Institute for Work, Family, and Children, Claremont, CA; and Scripps Women’s College, Claremont, CA.

Andrea is married to Barton Evans, retired Silicon Valley executive, and lives in Hillsborough, California. They are active in philanthropy directed toward the support of education, both public and private. To this end, they have endowed teaching chairs, a student fellowship, a social justice lecture series and have supported Scholarships, the construction of classrooms, and the construction of teacher residences in Africa. Andrea and her husband are also active in the arts, supporting the San Francisco Opera, the San Francisco Symphony, the San Francisco Lyric Opera (where her husband is Secretary-Treasurer), Opera San Jose, and the San Jose Repertory Theater.