From assistant professor to dean, Rodrigo Renterìa-Valencia’s professional career has taken on many roles during his time at CWU. In January of 2025, Rodrigo Renterìa-Valencia was promoted to the full-time dean for Graduate Studies and Research.

“I have made Central my home, my place of personal and professional growth,” Renterìa-Valencia said.

Renterìa-Valencia’s academic journey started in his hometown, Mexico City. He attended the National School of Anthropology and History to receive his bachelor’s degree, “I became enamored with anthropology as a way to approach life, and so I started to study anthropology. I finished my Bachelor studies there,” Renterìa-Valencia said.

During this time, Renterìa-Valencia moved to Northern Mexico to research Indigenous communities in the area. The five-week trip turned into five years, and a new door to higher education was opened up for him due to the project.

“My idea of education stopped at the bachelor level,” Renterìa-Valencia said. “And then working in the Borderlands, a professor from the University of Arizona came and saw what I was doing there and said, ‘Hey, you should apply to the University of Arizona,’ and for me, that was a question that I never expected. I never considered myself a PhD candidate or PhD material. I never considered myself as a doctor, much less as a dean … This professor, Marcela Vasquez, who is still at the University of Arizona, opened the world for me.”

Furthering his career academically, Renterìa-Valencia attended the University of Arizona to receive his master’s and doctoral degrees in ecological and environmental anthropology. He did not attend his own hooding ceremony since his parents were not able to be there. He said, “From my perspective, it was more a celebration to showcase to them the collective achievement.”

According to the newly appointed dean, he takes the aspect of passing on the gift of education that a professor was able to give him many years ago very personally. He wants to give people the ability to consider grad education as a possibility.

He shared that part of his mission is helping first-generation students, something he said CWU values very highly. “I know for a fact that a lot of the emphasis of Central’s mission and vision and strategic plan is to support first-generation students, because that’s part of the identity of Central, to support their journeys and the journeys of their families in understanding higher education and the value of higher education and creating a new future for everyone. So in that sense, this institution is very sensitive to the challenges and opportunities of first-generation students,” Renteria-Valencia said. 

One of the responsibilities his new role comes with is taking on CWU’s hooding ceremony and any decisions on how it will occur for those graduating this spring.The previous decision to have students walk the stage already hooded was pushed by ASCWU. Now, the ceremony will take place with Dean Rodrigo Renterìa-Valencia being the one to hood the graduates on stage.

Renterìa-Valencia shared how he feels being able to host this year’s ceremony. “I always appreciate it because these ceremonies really matter … I am always, full disclosure, crying in these commitment ceremonies, because I see my students and nothing gives me more pride,” Renterìa-Valencia said. “So it’s something that I look forward to every year and that I hope everyone at Central gets to experience at least once.”