Dr. José Luis Santos is the Department of Higher Education’s Senior Deputy Commissioner and Special Advisor. He provides strategic and tactical management across internal and external teams of the Department to help advance the critical mission and key priorities of the DHE and BHE. As Senior Deputy and Special Advisor, Dr. Santos provides leadership and expertise on efforts that promote systemness, enhance the Department’s research and publication capacity efforts to make it a national leader, and advance stewardship, coalition building, and advocacy at the regional, state, and national levels.

Dr. Santos is an accomplished higher education equity-centered professional with extensive experience leading innovative projects and teams across the education technology, public policy, nonprofit, and academic sectors. He has held positions at several prestigious higher education institutions, including the University of Texas, Austin, Pepperdine University, UCLA, and the University of Arizona. Dr. Santos also led the higher education portfolio for The Education Trust, a public policy advocacy organization in Washington, DC, where he provided leadership in policy priorities strategy, student success, and advocacy with the White House and Congress.

Dr. Santos is a first-generation post-traditional college student who is the son of migrant farmworkers who immigrated to the United States from México. He is also a Veteran who served honorably in the U.S. Marine Corps as a Corporal and Naval Midshipman 1st Class (Marine Corps Option) while in college. Dr. Santos served aboard the USS Comstock (LSD), where he participated in Operation Fiery Vigil – a humanitarian effort to relieve the devastation of the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in the Philippines. He also served during Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm. Dr. Santos earned his B.A. in Mexican-American Studies, M.A. in Educational Psychology: Measurement & Research Methodology, and Ph.D. in Higher Education Economics and Finance Policy: Econometrics and Measurement & Research Methodology at the University of Arizona.