Gutiérrez joins Education professors emeriti Richard C. Anderson (Educational Psychology) and James D. Anderson (Education Policy, Organization & Leadership) in representing the University of Illinois in the highly esteemed Academy. She becomes one of just 342 NAEd members, worldwide.

“We are delighted to see Dr. Gutiérrez and her innovative, meaningful scholarship being recognized at the highest level with her election to the National Academy of Education,” said Chrystalla Mouza, Dean of the College of Education at Illinois and Gutgsell Professor of Curriculum & Instruction. “Her body of work in mathematics education is truly trailblazing, and her commitment to interrogating the status quo—for the good of society—is both inspiring and essential.”

A professor of mathematics education, Gutiérrez has been University of Illinois faculty since 1996. She holds secondary faculty appointments in the Department of Latina/Latino Studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology at Illinois. A former Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellow, National Academy of Education/Spencer Post-Doctoral Fellow, and Fulbright Scholar, her work challenges deficit views of students who are Latinx, Black, and Indigenous and suggests that mathematics teachers need much more than just content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, or knowledge of diverse students to be successful.

Gutiérrez’s scholarship focuses on the import of considering identity, power, relationships, and environmental factors as they relate to mathematics education, paying particular attention to how race, class, and language affect teaching and learning. She has coined the phrases “political conocimiento,” “rehumanizing mathematics,” and “living mathematx” to encourage the field to move beyond issues of access and achievement.

Among various other accomplishments, Gutiérrez has served on the National Writing Team for the Standards for Preparing Teachers of Mathematics produced by the Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators and has advised the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago. In 2024, she was also selected a fellow of the American Educational Research Association, an organization that also strives to advance educational research and practice.

For more on the 2025 class of NAEd members, view the story at their website...