Dr. Mercedes Gutierrez Ed. D. '15 Educational Leadership, PreK-12 Spec.

It was June 2022. Negotiations for a new contract between the Cerritos College faculty and the district were not going well. Mercedes Gutierrez had been on the job at Cerritos for two weeks when the president/superintendent asked her to meet with the faculty association’s president to try to resolve some issues.

“The faculty were already preparing to strike,” Gutierrez says. “I had to navigate quickly.”

Gutierrez and the association president developed a rapport, and together resolved the more contentious disagreements. Two weeks later, they agreed to try mediation a second time. After a 16-hour mediation, a contract emerged and was approved by both sides.

Employee relations is an important aspect of human resources, so Gutierrez – who had several years of experience in the field and a doctorate in educational leadership from Cal Poly Pomona -- was fully prepared to meet that challenge as well as others.

“Cal Poly Pomona gave me the ability to gain insight and conduct research in my area of study,” Gutierrez says. “The degree helped me with moving forward with professional growth.”

It was not an easy path. Gutierrez worked full-time and took care of her family while she studied.

“The three-year EdD program was enticing in that it was designed for working professionals and took place every other weekend,” she says. “But in addition, there was homework and writing papers. It was a bigger commitment than I thought.”

Support and encouragement came from friends and family members as well as other members of the cohort. “We enjoyed giving each other pep talks and sharing our lives,” Gutierrez says.

She was one of the 15 to graduate with doctorates in 2015, the program’s first cohort.

Gutierrez frequently returns to Cal Poly Pomona to give lectures to the first-year students, and has taught within the doctoral program.

“I want to inspire students in all programs to find motivation within, to find a support system,” she says. “Women of Color have many challenges. They need to know that others have taken the same journey.”