Diana Torres

Diana works with the Higher Education Team analyzing data related to college affordability, college outcomes, and racial equity. Diana’s primary job is to organize this data into interactive, user-friendly charts and graphs to help policymakers, education leaders, parents, and students get valuable information about colleges across the country.

Prior to joining The Education Trust, Diana worked as a graduate student researcher at the UCLA School of Education and as the Outreach and Program Development Assistant at the UCLA Campus Assault Resources and Education (CARE) office. She also previously interned at the Riverside County Office of Education.

Diana received her master’s degree from UCLA in Higher Education and Organizational Change and will begin the PhD program in Fall 2022. She is originally from Riverside, California and received her bachelor’s degree in education and sociology from UC Riverside

What drew you to education?
One of the reasons I was drawn to higher education research was because it has made me feel seen. Reading and conducting research on marginalized students has helped me make sense of my own educational experience by analyzing these experiences in a broader context. I hope that by highlighting the diverse experiences of Latinx students within higher education, we can make an impact, not at the institutional level, but on individual students reading this research.

Why are you passionate about working at Ed Trust?
I am passionate about working at Ed Trust because the research conducted here has a direct impact on the current state of education at all levels. With Ed Trust’s large team, we are able to widely spread the implications of this research by working with government officials, school districts, grassroots organizations, and individual students and parents.