Francisco Jose Najera Martinez is a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago and an adjunct lecturer at Riverside City College, Norco College, Chaffey College, and Crafton Hills College. 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY and a first-generation college student, Francisco attended the George School in Pennsylvania through the Oliver Scholars Program and then Stanford University in Stanford, CA on an academic scholarship. He graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in Political Science and Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CSRE). Following graduation, Francisco was a member of the selective Teach for America corps. He taught Spanish to middle-school children in the New York Public Schools. Based on his work in the classroom along with study abroad and research experiences in Central America and Mexico, he decided to pursue non-profit work in Latinx and Chicanx communities in New York, Los Angeles, Texas, and Chicago. Francisco worked for Directions for Our Youth (DFOY), Puerto Rican National Forum (PRNF), Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), and the Hispanic Scholarship Fund (HSF).

Following years of work at various Latinx community non-profit organizations, Francisco is currently working on his PhD in United States and Latin American History at the University of Chicago. He holds a Master’s Degree in History, specializing in Immigration, Social Movements and Human Rights from the University of Chicago. His research interests center Latinx transnational narratives with a focus on social movements and immigration histories of Central Americans during the 1970s and 1980s.

His teaching mirrors his interests in Latinx community organizing and social movements. At various California community colleges, Francisco teaches courses such as Chicana/o/x History, Introduction to Chicana/o/x Studies, History of Mexico, and History of Latin America. Demonstrating his commitment to community activism and education as a source of transformative social justice, he encourages students to engage in their communities to better understand and embrace what they are learning as a way of accessing and understanding communal knowledge.

His community involvement has focused on equitable education and public history. Francisco spent two years working as an educator for the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, helping Latinx middle school and high school students and their families find pathways to higher education. Prior to this work, he worked for MALDEF as a national trainer and community educator for the Parents School Partnership Program.