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Kremen School of Education and Human Development

Varaxy Yi Borromeo

Associate Professor

Educational Leadership | 559.278.0309 | Office: ED365

varaxy@csufresno.edu

Education

  • Ph.D. Higher Education, University of Denver 
    • Cognate: Research Methods and Statistics
  • M.L.I.S. Library and Information Science, San Jose State University 
  • B.S. Business Administration, University of the Pacific 
  • B.A. English, University of the Pacific   

Courses Taught

Higher Education Administration and Leadership (HEAL) Courses
  • HEAL 220: Introduction to Higher Education
  • HEAL 225: Higher Education Leadership & Supervision
  • HEAL 226: Assessment in Higher Education
  • HEAL 228: Current Issues in Higher Education
  • EAD 261: Introduction to Education Administration
  • EAD 269: Site-Based Leadership
  • ERE 153: Educational Statistics
Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership Courses
  • EDL 580T: Contemporary Issues in Higher Education
  • EDL 580T: Women in Global Higher Education
  • EDL 502: Education Reform
  • EDL 507: Qualitative Research
  • EDL 580T: Critical Qualitative Inquiry
  • EDL 599: Dissertations
Varaxy Yi (she/her) is an associate professor of Higher Education Administration and Leadership (HEAL). She is a core faculty member of the Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership and director of the Kremen Research Center.

As a first-generation Khmer/Cambodian American graduate and faculty, Dr. Yi is committed to advancing knowledge to serve racially minoritized communities. She conducts research to advance equity, access, and opportunity for historically underserved communities, such as racially minoritized, Southeast Asian American, and refugee populations. Her dissertation was a phenomenological exploration of the racialized experiences of Southeast Asian American community college students. She is a consistent contributor to scholarly knowledge, having published in peer-reviewed journals, such as The Review of Higher Education, Review of Education Research, and the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education.

Currently, she is an active member of the higher education and student affairs discipline, currently serving as the Communications Chair for the Association for the Study of Higher Education Council for the Advancement of Higher Education Programs. She is a 2020-2021 NASPA Emerging Faculty Leader. Dr. Yi is also a Gates Millennium Scholar.

Dr. Yi values collectivism and collaboration in her research and work. She is a member of the Southeast Asian American (SEAAster) Scholars Collective, a group of SEAA women scholars committed to advancing knowledge with and by SEAA communities. Learn more about the collective via this podcast.
Dr. Yi's research seeks to understand transformational, systemic, and cultural shifts within education systems. Specifically, she works towards these goals through three overarching research foci, with an emphasis on racially minoritized populations:
  • Racial Equity: Utilize critical theories of race to explore the racialized experiences of racially minoritized populations in education.
  • Racialized Campus Environments and Success: Analyze campus racial climates and cultures to explore their impact on diverse students’ college success.
  • Organizational Change and Institutional Equity: Explore the factors and conditions that are necessary for transforming higher education organizations to better achieve equity and inclusion.
Current Research Projects

Curriculum Vitae

Selected Publications (*** Publications with Students)

LePeau, L. A., Yi, V., Chang, T. H. (2024). Leveraging power: A multiple embedded case study of institutional change efforts for racial equity at four private universities. Journal of Higher Education. Advanced online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2024.2364571

Yi, V & Nauk, V. (2024).“You weren’t good enough, so here’s a bronze medal”: Southeast Asian American community college students and racialized community college stigma. Community College Review. Advanced online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/00915521241258438

Yi, V. & Mackey, J. Z. (2023). Poetic transcription and its possibilities for (re)presentation. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 37(7), 1853-1967. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2023.223393 [Access 50 Free Eprints]

Yi, V., Nauk, V., Yang, K., Moua, K., Vang, G. (2023). Falling through the cracks: The institutional invisibility of Southeast Asian American community college students and the need for data disaggregation. Journal of Applied Research in Community Colleges, 30(1), 47-60. *** 

Yi, V., Chang, T., LePeau, L., Museus, S. D., Mathew, S. A., Saelua, N., & Haywood, J. (2022). Symbols contested: An analysis of how symbols advance and hinder diversity, equity, and inclusion. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000435

Sotto-Santiago, S., Mac, J., Sharp, S., Haywood, A., Messmore, N., Tyson, M., & Yi, V. (2021). Reclaiming the mission of academic medicine: An examination of institutional responses to (anti)racism. AEM Education and Training, 5(S1), 33-43. https://doi.org/10.1002/aet2.10668

Kiyama, J. M., Yi, V., & Contreras, L. (2020). Refugee students and postsecondary realities: New Directions for Higher Education, 2020(191), 5-9. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/he.20377**

Saelua, N., Yi, V., Na, V. S., & Museus, S. D. (2020). Refugee lifemaking: (Re)Centering the refugee narrative through feminist refugee epistemology. In J. Kiyama, V. Yi, & L. Contreras (Eds.), Refugee students and postsecondary realities: New Directions for Higher Education, 2020(191), 67-78. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/he.20383**

**This NDHE volume was produced in 2020-21, with an actual release of July 2021. However, the coronavirus pandemic disrupted Wiley production schedules and to maintain sequential volume issues and dates, NDHE backdated several volumes.

Mac, J., Yi, V., Na, V., Thaviseth, L., Phommasa, M., & Pheng, L. M. (2021). The SEAAster Scholars Collective: A story of homemaking in academia. 16(1), 1–13.*** https://doi.org/10.7771/2153-8999.1233

Yi, V., & Ramos, D. (2021). Collective achievement and resistance: Understanding the motivations of doctoral women of color. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1037/dhe0000296

Yi, V., Mac, J., Na, V. S., Venturanza, R. J., Museus, S. D., Buenavista, T. L., & Pendakur, S. L. (2020). Toward an anti-imperialistic critical race analysis of the model minority myth. Review of Educational Research. Online. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654320933532