Chancellor’s Committee on Status of Latinos recognizes notable members
Summary
The Chancellor’s Committee on the Status of Latinos (CCSL) Recognition Awards celebrated individuals at the University of Illinois Chicago whose work has made significant contributions to the Latine community through leadership, scholarship, advocacy, mentorship, and public service. In addition to honoring faculty, staff, and students across multiple categories, the 2025–26 awards also recognized one individual with the CCSL Lifetime Service Award for a career dedicated to advancing Latino communities at UIC and beyond.
Among the honorees was Dr. Teresa Córdova, Director of the Great Cities Institute and Professor of Urban Planning and Policy at UIC, who received the CCSL Lifetime Service Award in recognition of her decades of community-engaged scholarship, institutional leadership, and commitment to equity and social justice. Córdova is the director of UIC’s Great Cities Institute, whose mission is to link its academic resources with a range of partners to address urban issues by providing research, policy analysis and program development. Tied to the UIC Great Cities Commitment, the institute seeks to improve the quality of life in Chicago, its metropolitan region and cities throughout the world. She is also a professor of urban planning and policy in the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs. Córdova received her PhD in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1986.
As an applied theorist, political economist and community-based planner, Córdova approaches her work as a scholarship of engagement in which research, pedagogy and service are integrated. Throughout her career, Córdova has engaged with communities in and outside the university and is an expert in community/university partnerships and methodologies of engaged research. In addition to strategies for community and economic development, her work focuses on global/local dynamics and the impacts of global economic restructuring on local communities, including impacts of resource extraction. She has already written extensively in the fields of Chican@ and Latin@ Studies.
Córdova’s work reflects a deep commitment to meaningful university-community partnerships and applied research that responds directly to community needs. Throughout her career, she has served in numerous leadership roles at the national, state and local levels, influencing policies with tangible impacts across Chicago and beyond. Her legacy is reflected not only in institutions and policy, but also in the generations of students, scholars and community leaders she has mentored. Córdova’s work exemplifies the mission and values of the Chancellor’s Committee on the Status of Latinos.