Faculty Directory
Victor Hernandez-Gantes
He received his doctorate in Educational Research and Evaluation from Virginia Tech and for several years he worked as Associate Researcher at the Center on Education and Work, University of Wisconsin-Madison. He later served as Associate Professor at Florida State University where he supported the Vocational Education and Educational Leadership programs. Prior to joining the USF faculty, he served as Senior Educational Researcher in the Center for Educational Technologies (CET)—a center sponsored by NASA—at Wheeling Jesuit University.
Hernandez-Gantes joined the USF faculty in 2004 and was instrumental in transforming the Ph.D. in Career and Workforce Education (CWE) to online format. The Ph.D. in CWE is the only doctoral program in Florida and one of the first online programs in the country. At the onset of his tenure at USF, he embraced the role of doctoral program coordinator and for many years he also served as Director of the Career and Workforce Education (CWE) program including a Master of Arts in Career and Technical Education and a Ph.D. in CWE. Additionally, Hernandez-Gantes served as Interim Department Chair during the 2020-2021, which represented an unprecedented challenging year in the college history, amid pandemic developments, search for a new college dean, urgent planning for college restructuring, drastic budget cuts and USF’s consolidation of three separately accredited institutions.
In the area of research, Hernandez-Gantes’ contributions have focused on advancing a shared understanding of how career and technical education programs operate with emphasis on career academies. Specifically, he has explored the design, implementation and evaluation interface of educational strategies connecting curriculum, teaching and learning in work contexts to maximize career-oriented learning for all students. His scholarship has resulted in over a hundred publications including books/monographs, refereed articles/chapters, papers in conference proceedings and project reports. His work has been published in flagships journals in the field of career and technical education and journals with production oversight by world-leading publishers such as Routledge, Sage Publications and IGI Global. Also, from 2014-2024, he served as Co-Editor of the Journal of Career and Technical Education, one of two flagship journals in the field. In addition, his research work has been recognized with grant funding and contracts as external consultant for over $6.7M, including awards from external and internal sources during his tenure at USF.
Moreover, Hernandez-Gantes has also developed a consistent record of dissemination with presentations in international, national and state/regional forums. To broaden his work, Hernandez-Gantes has collaborated with organizations and faculty at several universities nationally and internationally. Building on these synergistic activities, he led the establishment of partnerships with Stockholm University in Sweden and the University of Bremen in Germany, to advance the global outlook of the career and workforce education program at USF.