Victoria Maria DeFrancesco Soto is an American political scientist and academic administrator. She is dean of the Clinton School of Public Service at the University of Arkansas.[1] She was previously the assistant dean for civic engagement and a senior lecturer at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs.[1]
She researches immigration, women and politics, political psychology, and campaigns and elections.[1]
DeFrancesco Soto was born to Victoria and Joseph DeFrancesco in Southern Arizona.[1][2] Her mother is from Sonora.[1] She is of Italian, Jewish, and Mexican descent.[3] She completed a bachelor's degree in political science and Latin American studies at the University of Arizona.[1] She earned a master's and Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Duke University.[1] Her 2007 dissertation was titled, Do Latinos Party All the Time? The Role of Shared Ethnic Group Identity on Political.[2] John Aldrich was her doctoral advisor.[2]
DeFrancesco Soto is the first Latina dean of the Clinton School of Public Service.[4]