Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton

Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton serves as Richard and Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor in the Division of Social Sciences at UC Berkeley, where he has taught since 2002. His multicultural upbringing across Mexico, the United States, Ivory Coast, and Thailand shaped his academic focus on cultural differences and intergroup relations. After earning his BA from Yale University and PhD in Social/Personality Psychology from Columbia University, he established himself as a leading researcher in stereotyping, prejudice, and educational outcomes. His work adopts a process-oriented approach to understanding social behavior, particularly examining how marginalization affects educational and mental health outcomes of stigmatized groups. As Associate Executive Dean for Diversity and Inclusion in the College of Letters and Science, he champions institutional excellence in diversity initiatives. His contributions have earned him the UC Berkeley Chancellor's Award for Advancing Institutional Excellence in 2015 and the University-wide Distinguished Teaching Award in 2018. Through his leadership of the Relationships and Social Cognition Laboratory, he continues to explore how stable individual characteristics interact with social contexts to influence intergroup dynamics and academic achievement.