Dra. Alejandra A. Fernández Morgado is an Assistant Professor of Special Education at the University of Minnesota Duluth. She identifies as a Cuban American, multilingual, and first-generation scholar whose work is deeply rooted in the cultural, linguistic, and educational landscapes of Miami, Florida.

Her research examines access to advanced and gifted education for multilingual, multicultural, and multiply marginalized learners, particularly those who are twice- and thrice-exceptional. Situated at the intersection of special education, gifted education, and multilingual education, her work interrogates how systems of identification, assessment, and placement shape who is recognized as capable—and who is systematically overlooked.

Grounded in frameworks such as Gifted Critical Race Theory (GTCrit), LatCrit, and DisCrit, her scholarship centers equity, resistance, and the expansion of how giftedness and ability are understood. Methodologically, she engages testimonio, post-qualitative inquiry, and visual and narrative approaches to foreground the lived experiences of students, families, and educators navigating educational borders.

Her current body of work includes a multi-part research agenda examining disparities in gifted identification, a systematic review of multilingual learners in advanced education, and a post-qualitative testimonio study with Latina educators in special and gifted education. Across projects, she works collaboratively with educators and communities to surface knowledge that is often excluded from formal systems yet essential to understanding and transforming them.

Before entering academia, Fernández Morgado worked in K–12 education, where she taught and developed programming for students across general, special, and gifted education settings. Her professional experiences continue to inform her commitment to bridging research and practice, particularly through teacher preparation, community-engaged scholarship, and mentorship of future educators.

Across her teaching, research, and service, she remains committed to expanding access to advanced learning opportunities and to honoring the knowledge, language, and identities of the communities she serves.

Her work is shaped not only by academic training, but by lived experience, family, and community. She carries with her the histories, languages, and ways of knowing that have long existed outside of formal recognition, and remains committed to creating spaces where those ways of knowing are seen, valued, and sustained.