Victoria M. DeFrancesco Soto is an experienced Political scientist and Adjunct professor at The University of Texas at Austin.

From 2006 to 2010, Victoria was an Assistant professor & Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. In 2010-2011, she worked as a Director of communications at Latino Decisions. Currently, Victoria is an Adjunct professor at LBJ School of Public Affairs and University of Texas Center for Mexican American Studies. She is also a regular Contributor to MSNBC, NBCNews.com and Telemundo.

Victoria has previously provided on-air analysis for CNN, Fox TV, PBS, Univision, NPR and has appeared on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher. Most recently Victoria was a featured expert in the PBS documentary of the Civil Rights Trailblazer, Willie Velasquez in, Your Vote is Your Voice. Victoria is also published in both academic and popular outlets such as Politico, Talking Points Memo, and Perspectives on Politics.

Victoria holds a B.A in Political science and Latin American studies from University of Arizona and M.A in Political science from Duke University. In 2007, she received a PhD. in Political science from Duke University.