BlancaTrejo
- Assistant Teaching Professor
- LEARNING SCIENCES & HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
I was born/raised on the traditional homelands of the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, hinono’eino’ biito’owu’, Tséstho’e and Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ and +48 Indigenous Nations, aka Denver, CO. My ancestral lineage is Mexica, Totonaca and Spaniard. I identify as Mexican-American, Xicana and Latina and use She/Her/Ella pronouns. I am first generation to hold U.S birthright citizenship; first gen to earn a BA, an MA and now a PhD.
Because of my personal and familial lived experiences, I am intimately aware of intersecting societal systems that marginalize and oppress BIPOC communities historically and contemporaneously. At age 15, I became involved in Youth Organizing, working on issues of educational justice and immigrant rights at the federal, state and local level. I have been a community organizer, non-profit leader, and a state employee charged with implementing state law won by grassroots campaigns.
I seek to decolonize and re-indigenize the field of youth organizing and engage BIPOC youth in healing, power building, and collective action. I believe in the power of intergenerational imagination to usher us toward a future of abundance, liberation and relationships of balance with human and more-than human relations.
Re-Indigenizing Youth Organizing; Ancestral healing practices and advocacy; Civic engagement of BIPOC youth in urban spaces
LEAD 1002: Becoming a Leader- Intro to leadership theories. Core course for first year undergraduate students in the Leadership and Community Engagement Major.
EDUC 3013: School and Society- Undergraduate foundations course in the School of Education; also part of university core curriculum.
LEAD 4500 and 4502: Leadership Major Capstone- Culminating course for senior undergradu1te students in the Leadership and Community Engagement Major.
EDUC 2500: Strategies for Social Change- Serves as core course for undergraduate students across the university, especially for Leadership and Community Engagement Majors and Leadership Minors
Pre-Collegiate Summer Institute- Identity, Stories & Testimonios: Who we are, where we come from and why it matters. A course for high school students enrolled in the pre-collegiate program.
Pre-Collegiate Summer Institute- College essay applications writing course for high school seniors enrolled in the pre-collegiate program
Latine Education Advisory Council - Denver Public Schools
School Advisory Council - Denver Center for International Studies at Fairmont Elementary School
Alumni Comadre - Pi Lambda Chi Latina Sorority Inc. Epsilon Chapter at the Թ of Denver
Union Member - United Campus Workers
Trejo Aguilera, Blanca E. (2024). . Թ of Colorado at Boulder ProQuest Dissertations & Theses. 31769604.
Peer Reviewed Articles
Teeters, L. P., Shedro, M., Alvarez, A., Schultz, K., Gleason, E., Zigarelli, J. C., & Trejo, B. (2023). . Ethnography and Education, 18(4), 356–375.
Teeters, L. P., Trejo, B., Gleason, E., Zigarelli, J. C., Shedro, M., Alvarez, A., & Schultz, K. (2022). . Journal of Latinos and Education, 22(5), 2151–2163.
Book Chapters
Hunter, A., Kirshner, B., (2025). Encyclopedia of Social Justice in Education – Language, Literacy, Youth and Culture. Vol. 6. Bloomsbury.
Trejo, B., Kirshner, B., & Salazar, B. (2023). (D. Fisher, A. Garcia, & E. Gargroetzi, Eds.). Routledge.