Julissa Muñiz, Ph.D., is an assistant professor of education in the School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research focuses on teaching, learning, and identity development in the carceral context with an interest in better understanding how students who are incarcerated both live and learn while confined. Importantly, her work explores questions of race and racism, power and privilege, youth development, gender-based violence, and abolition at the intersections of the U.S. public education, criminal legal and juvenile legal systems. Given the transdisciplinarity of her research, Julissa draws on a range of theories and concepts from various fields including education, human development, sociology, and critical carceral studies to better understand how we can best support young people navigating the carceral continuum towards liberatory futures.

Dr. Muñiz holds an Ed.M. in Prevention Science and Practice from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, a M.A. in Human Development and Social Policy from Northwestern University, and a B.A. in Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. Her research has been generously supported by the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation, the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, the Social Science Research Council, the UCLA Center for Community Engagement, and the Latina Futures, 2050 Lab. Dr. Muñiz is a faculty fellow with the Center for Justice where she supports the Prison Education Program and ongoing efforts to create a bachelor's degree program in Justice Studies for students who are incarcerated. 

Dr. Muñiz is a proud first-generation borderlands scholar from San Ysidro, California. In 2021 with the support of her community and former classmates, she founded the San Ysidro Rising Scholar Award, a scholarship and mentorship program that supports first-generation college students who graduated from her alma mater–San Ysidro High School. Prior to graduate school, Dr. Muñiz served as a middle school academic counselor for TRIO Talent Search in Oakland, California, and GED co-instructor for the Adult Peer Education Project at San Quentin State Prison.