The Aspen Institute

Dr. Richard D. Pineda is the Chair of the Department of Communication at The University of Texas at El Paso, where he also serves as the Director of the Sam Donaldson Center for Communication Studies. A native of El Paso, Dr. Pineda grew up a few short blocks from the university where he now teaches and is a proud product of Eastwood High School. A successful high school speech and debate competitor, Pineda continued debating for the vaunted Glenn R. Capp Debate Forum at Baylor University, where he earned his undergraduate degree in Political Science. Returning to El Paso after graduation, he started the graduate program in the Department of Communication at UTEP. While working on his MA in Communication, he was selected to be on the US National Debate Team and toured the United Kingdom and Portugal. Upon graduating, Pineda attended Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan where he earned his PhD in Communication, writing his dissertation on the political rhetoric used in the 2000 presidential election aimed at swaying Latina/o voters. Dr. Pineda returned to UTEP after a brief stint in California, intent on making a difference for his community. After sixteen years, he has compiled a strong trajectory of professional accomplishments. He is a highly skilled classroom teacher and instructional mentor whose academic research focuses on politics, media and Latinidad. He has written a great deal on immigration as a public controversy framed in popular culture. In addition to his published works, Pineda is a highly sought-after commentator for regional and national media on issues related to politics, popular culture, and Latina/os in the United States. Over the course of the last decade, he has worked with a variety of community organizations and enterprises to develop their leadership structures as well as their strategic communication efforts. Pineda is married to Victoria, an educational fundraiser, also born and raised in El Paso and they are proud to be raising their precocious daughter Francesca Rose in the city they love.  Selected to participate in the 2021 Socrates Summer Seminar, Crisis Communication in a Pandemic and Securing the Public’s Trust.