Macario Hernandez

Dr. Macario Hernandez joined UNT Dallas in 2022 as the university’s first Chief of Staff. He holds a B.A. from the University of North Texas, an M.A. from Texas Woman’s University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Hernandez served as a bilingual teacher, school administrator, and community leader for more than 25 years in Dallas, with the majority of his tenure spent in his hometown neighborhood of Oak Cliff. Under his leadership, Trinidad “Trini” Garza Early College High School was recognized with the National Title-I Distinguished School Award in 2018 and received the 2021 National Blue-Ribbon Award by the United States Department of Education. The high school continuously earned all seven distinguished distinctions from the Texas Education Agency for outstanding educational performance every year of his tenure. Hernandez credits these accomplishments to a bottom-up approach that involved stakeholders in the decision-making process through authentic relationship building meetings. In 2019, Dr. Hernandez received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Mountain View College in recognition for his commitment to the school community.

Dr. Hernandez serves as a public education advocate, a board member of the National Latino(a) Education Research and Policy Project and past local president of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC 272). As principal at Trinidad Garza Early College High School, Hernandez partnered with UNT Dallas and 826 Dallas Project, a chapter of 826 National, to publish a book, Faceless: Untold Side Effects of Culture, Race, & COVID-19, which is a collection of anecdotal stories and poems that shed a light on the lived experiences many urban youths endured during this global pandemic.