Daniela Anais Cortez Bravo (she/her/hers)

Hello! I’m Daniela Anais Cortez Bravo (she/her), a proud first-generation Latina from the Bay Area and recent graduate of UCLA’s M.A. program in Higher Education and Organizational Change. My academic journey began as the daughter of immigrants navigating college for the first time in my family, which inspired me to double major in Public Affairs and Education & Social Transformation. These experiences nurtured both my passion for educational justice and my commitment to creating spaces where students feel seen, heard, and celebrated.

I am now pursuing a Ph.D. in Education at UCLA’s School of Education & Information Studies. My work builds on my involvement with UCLA’s Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) initiative, where I focus on transforming higher education to honor the cultural wealth, resilience, and voices of Latinx students and other marginalized communities.

I thrive in spaces grounded in community, storytelling, and collective advocacy. My vision is to reimagine colleges and universities as places intentionally designed to serve underrepresented students—not as an afterthought, but as a reflection of the brilliance, histories, and knowledge our communities already carry.

At the heart of my work is the belief that se necesita un pueblo—it takes a village—to create lasting change in higher education.