Steering Committee

More than twenty years ago, a small group of dedicated educators, administrators, pastors, and theologians made a commitment to build a program that would support Latine PhD students in religion and theology. The Hispanic Theological Initiative is the result of their leadership. Today, HTI Steering Committee Members play a vital role in managing the unique collaborative enterprise called the HTI consortium which is comprised of 23 PhD-granting institutions committed to advancing the recruitment, retention, and graduation of Latine PhD students, as well as the sharing of ideas and best practices to address the needs of Latine faculty and students.  HTI Steering Committee members dedicate their time and talent to support gifted Latine PhD students to complete their doctorate and be leaders in the academy and church. The Member Council and the HTI Staff are grateful and acknowledge their wisdom, and service.

Edwin Aponte

Edwin Aponte

Steering Committee Chair

Edwin David Aponte is Dean of the Theological School and Professor of Religion and Culture at Drew University. Previously Aponte served as Executive Director of the Louisville Institute, a granting agency funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. After serving on the faculty of Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University, Aponte was academic dean at two institutions, Lancaster Theological Seminary, and Christian Theological Seminary. Aponte earned a Ph.D. in religion with an emphasis on religious cultural history from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Theology from Catholic Theological Union at Chicago in May 2023. His publications include ¡Santo! Varieties of Latino/a Spirituality(Orbis Books, 2012), and Introducing Latinx Theologies, co-authored with Miguel A. De La Torre (Orbis Books, 2020).

Mariana Alessandri

Mariana Alessandri

Member

Mariana Alessandri is an associate professor of philosophy at UTRGV, where she teaches existentialism, Latin American philosophy, religious studies, and the history of philosophy. Mariana and her spouse live on the Mexico-US border with their two children. She is the co-founder of RGV PUEDE (Parents United for Excellent Dual Education) which advocates for and supports Dual-Language Education in Rio Grande Valley public schools. Mariana has published public philosophy in the New York Times, Times Higher Ed, Chronicle of Higher Ed, New Philosopher Magazine and Womankind. Her book, Night Vision: Seeing Ourselves through Dark Moods will be published by Princeton University Press in May 2023.

Heath Carter

Heath Carter

Member

Heath W. Carter is associate professor of American Christianity at Princeton Theological Seminary, where he teaches and writes about the intersection of Christianity and American public life. He earned a BA in English and theology from Georgetown University in 2003, an MA from the University of Chicago Divinity School in 2005, and a PhD in history from the University of Notre Dame in 2012. He came to Princeton from Valparaiso University, where he was on faculty from 2012 to 2019. He spent the 2016–2017 academic year as the William S. Vaughn Visiting Fellow at Vanderbilt University.

Felipe Hinojosa

Felipe Hinojosa

Member

Born and raised in Brownsville, Texas, Felipe Hinojosa received his Ph.D. from the University of Houston in 2009 and joined the faculty at Texas A&M that same year. On August 2023, he was appointed the Inaugural Jackson Family Chair in Latin America studies.  His research areas include Chicana/o and Latinx Studies, American Religion, Race and Ethnicity, and Social Movements. In addition to serving as Director of the Carlos H. Cantu Hispanic Education & Opportunity Endowment, Prof. Hinojosa serves as editor for the interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed, and online moderated forum Latinx Talk. His work has appeared in Zócalo Public Square, Western Historical Quarterly, American Catholic Studies, Mennonite Quarterly Review, and in multiple edited collections on Latinx Studies. Dr. Hinojosa’s first book, Latino Mennonites: Civil Rights, Faith, and Evangelical Culture (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014) was awarded the 2015 Américo Paredes Book Award for the best book in Mexican American and Latina/o Studies by the Center for Mexican American Studies at South Texas College. His book, Apostles of Change: Latino Radical Politics, Church Occupations, and the Fight to Save the Barrio (University of Texas Press, 2021) is set in four major cities (Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and Houston) where in 1969 and 1970 Latine radicals clashed with religious leaders as they occupied churches to protest urban renewal, poverty, police brutality, and racism.

Adriana Nieto

Adriana Nieto

Member

Adriana Nieto is a daughter of Denver’s dust. Her ancestors have migrated up and down the path from El Paso, Texas to Denver, Colorado for generations. She was born in El Paso, Texas with maternal roots in Las Cruces, New Mexico and paternal roots throughout New Mexico. Adriana Nieto is currently the Chair & Associate Professor of Chicana/o Studies at Metropolitan State University of Denver. She has been faculty in the Chicana/o Studies department for over 15 years, first as an adjunct, then full time tenure track beginning in fall of 2009. She earned her BA with a double major in Women Studies and Latin American Studies, and MA from the University of New Mexico in Latin American Studies with concentrations in Borderlands History and Gender Studies. She earned her PhD in the Joint Doctoral Program in Religious and Theological Studies at the Iliff School of Theology and University of Denver in 2009.

Her teaching and research interests include Latina spiritualities and practices; mental health among Xicanas in early 20th Century New Mexico; women of color feminisms; Chicana Protestants in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands; oral history; and most recently water in the ‘West’, with special interest in acequia culture and practices in southern Colorado . She strives to integrate the demands of teaching, mentorship and scholarship while also being a mother, partner and healthy muxer.

Luis Rivera-Rodríguez

Luis Rivera-Rodríguez

Member

Luis R. Rivera-Rodríguez was the Academic Dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Garrett-Evangelical from 2014-2019. He is currently retired. Rivera maintains a thorough and diverse experience of academic teaching, administration, and institutional leadership. Rivera received his Th.D. (1993) and Th.M. (1981) from Harvard Divinity School, his M.Div. (1978) from Evangelical Seminary of Puerto Rico, and his B.A. (1973) from the University of Puerto Rico. He is co-editor of The Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theologians (English, Spanish, and Portuguese editions) and author of several articles and chapters focused on Latine and Diaspora theologies. Rivera was a faculty member at the Evangelical Seminary in Puerto Rico (1986-1995) and at McCormick Theological Seminary (1995-2013) where he also served as Academic Dean and Vice President for Academic Affairs (2008-2013).