College of Arts and Letters

president’s medal for distinguished service
rhonda ríos kr avitz
Sacramento State Alumnus and Dean, Emerita, Sacramento City College
Dr. Rhonda Ríos Kravitz is an activist dedicated to fighting for social
justice, educational, political and economic equity, immigrant
rights, and an end to this nation’s history of erasure, exclusion, and
oppression. Born in San Francisco to a Mexican mother and Jewish
father, she was raised predominantly with her mother’s family and
self identifies as Chicana. She earned degrees from Sacramento
State, Simmons College, and the University of Southern California.
In 1987 Dr. Ríos Kravitz became the Ethnic Services Consultant for
the California State Library, where she worked on grant programs
to support community development and advocated for library
collections, services, and programs that accurately and authentically
reflected the cultural perspectives of diverse communities. In 1990,
she joined Sacramento State as a Library faculty member and was
recognized as a leader in diversity and equity issues. From 2007
to 2014, she served as dean of the Learning Resource Center at
Sacramento City College and eventually retired to pursue work on
equity, diversity, and immigration issues full time.
Dr. Ríos Kravitz has held numerous professional leadership roles,
including service as president of REFORMA, National Organization to Promote Library Services to the Spanish
Speaking, and chair of the National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies. Her equity and social
justice work has earned her many awards, including the Dolores Huerta Activist Award from the Freedom
Bound Center, the Faculty Excellence Award from El Concilio Estudiantes de Sacramento, and the I Love
My Librarian! 2011 Award sponsored by The Carnegie Corporation of New York and the New York Times, an
award bestowed upon outstanding nationally renowned public, school, and academic librarians. She is also
the recipient of Doris Matsui’s Women’s Appreciation Award for her work with Dreamers. Dr. Ríos Kravitz
also worked on the documentaries We Are Not Strangers to this Land: Untold Stories of Dreamers, and The
Sacramento Chicano Movement: From Voiceless to Empowered (2017). She was awarded the 2020 Colibri Award
from the Sacramento Latino Democratic Club and the 2023 Rick Bettis Community Champion Award for her
community activism in the fields of social justice and civic engagement.
17

Paperturn flip book