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An education historian’s return to roots

Maestro Miguel López (right) and
 his son, Teodoro López (left).
Courtesy of Dr. Jennifer Pacheco.

Derek LeFebre has been haunted by a question from his dissertation defense: “While I’m celebrating all these Mexican- American educators and influential educational leaders in New Mexico, one committee member challenged me: ‘Are you one of those leaders? Are you like them?’ 

It was a fitting question for someone whose research, leadership and life are interconnected. 

LeFebre grew up in Denver but was always curious about his family’s roots in New Mexico. Before attending graduate school, he taught in Greeley Public Schools, where he loved working with students but was troubled by the myths whispered to his students who, like him, come from largely Latine backgrounds. As he pursued principal licensure, he kept returning to bigger questions about inequities and how his own history fit into the story.

That search led LeFebre to the work of Rubén Donato, ��ñ���� professor emeritus and a nationally renowned education historian whose groundbreaking research documents some of the untold histories of Mexican Americans’ fight for education rights. Plus, ��ñ���� is within driving distance of Greeley. 

“I went to CU to better understand my work as an educator in Greeley with our Latine population here and what it means for me to be a Latine educator in my community,” LeFebre said. “Studying with Rubén was a chance to answer that question. As an emerging leader, I wanted my leadership to come from a place of historical awareness.” 

LeFebre’s research examines how New Mexican communities fought for education and land rights after the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which ended the Mexican-American War and ceded Mexican territory across today’s southwest U.S., including New Mexico and Colorado. The treaty also stated that former citizens of Mexico were now U.S. citizens, and they had the right to keep their land-grant property. However, most of those former Mexican citizens and their descendants lost their land by 1904, which is a part of LeFebre’s own family history. 

His research documented exhaustive primary sources—land records, school materials, personal effects and family records from Mexican-American educators of the time—that show how local educators and leaders used land and education as tools of survival, resistance and cultural continuity.

“As an educator in Greeley, my research gives me a stronger historical awareness of who we are as a Latine community and where we’ve come from,” LeFebre said. “It debunks many of the stereotypes that I’ve grown up hearing, not only as a student, but also as a teacher: that Mexican Americans may not value education at the same level as other Americans. 

“That’s wrong. There are great examples in the past of how Mexican Americans really struggled for education because they knew how it was tied to their labor and their value as laborers but also tied to their land and their rights to shape their own lives.” 

In May 2025, LeFebre returned to Greeley schools as assistant principal and athletic director at James Madison STEAM Academy, his neighborhood school, which serves a majority Latine, multilingual community.

Though that question from his defense still echoes, LeFebre feels more ready to lead from within the school while continuing to publish research that amplifies important histories. His journey—like those finally being documented in educational research like his—is about using education not only to teach but to carry forward legacies of struggle for community well-being.