Dr. Jennifer Pacheco is WashU’s new Director for Dialogue across Difference. She joins WashU with over 12 years of experience in enrollment management and college access, and eight years leading and designing dialogue across difference. Her interests include understanding critical dialogue as a context for learning; de-colonizing dialogic processes in community-based research; and Participatory Design Research for social change making. Dr. Pacheco has led critical dialogue in local manufactured home communities, facilitated a school-based Photovoice project with Latina mothers, and taught undergraduate Dialogue Across Difference courses. Previously, she was a co-lead designer and facilitator for CU Dialogues at the University of Colorado Boulder, using dialogue-based tools towards collective action, intersectional equity, and improved DEI outcomes working across campus with students, faculty, and staff.
Dr. Pacheco was born and raised in Pueblo, CO. She received her B.A. in Human Biology with a concentration in Education from Stanford University, her M.A. in Educational Psychology from the University of Colorado Denver, and her Ph.D. in Learning Sciences and Human Development at the University of Colorado Boulder. She loves spending time with family, writing poetry, and salsa dancing.