Dr. Raymond V. Padilla (December 22, 1944 – April 17, 2023) was a devoted Chicano educator at ASU for nearly two decades. He worked as a professor for the College of Education (now Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College), as the director for the Hispanic Research Center, and as a co-founder of the Chicana and Chicano Studies department (now School of Transborder Studies). He focused his teaching and research on education policy, bilingual education, Latinos and Chicanos in K12 and higher education.
He impacted the lives of hundreds of students at ASU, sharing his learning experiences as an immigrant, migrant farm worker, Vietnam veteran, and Chicano academic with his students. He began his academic career at Eastern Michigan University before coming to ASU and then spent the last decade of his career at the University of Texas at San Antonio. In 2023, the ASU Chicano/Latino Faculty & Staff Association honored Dr. Padilla’s dedication and impact to the Chicano/Latino community at ASU by naming their first legacy award after him, the Dr. Raymond Padilla Legacy Award.