Cindy Cruz is an associate professor in the Teaching, Learning and Sociocultural Studies Department in the College of Education at the University of Arizona and a member of the editorial collective of Frontiers: A Journal of Women’s Studies. She received her Ph.D. from UCLA, was a postdoctoral fellow at Cornell University, and faculty at UC Santa Cruz. Her research centers the narratives of homeless queer and trans*youth in Los Angeles, California. Her theoretical foundations center the work of U.S. feminists of color and Latinx and decolonial feminist theory. In a previous life, she was a high school English teacher and HIV counselor and this experience greatly influences her research and pedagogy. Her current projects include gentrification, mobility, surveillance, and the use of geo-spatial applications amongst homeless youth. She is also concerned with the pedagogy of feminist writing and youth research and ethnography. Dr. Cruz has been honored with several academic prizes, including the Antonia I. Castañeda Prize, the Golden Apple for Teaching Excellence, and AERA's Queer Special Interest GrouArticle of the Year.