Lasell’s faculty is widely diverse for such a small school so it is no surprise to have professors from all over the world teaching classes daily. Luis Lopez-Preciado originally grew up in a rural town in Mexico. “I grew up in a very, very rural setting. I actually grew up in a very small town that does not even appear on a map. It was 12 by 15 streets, it was a perfect grid. And right across the middle we had the main street. One day the south side of the town would have running water and the other day the other would because we really had only well for the entire community,” he said.
He grew up in a farming village that raised cattle and spent ample time at his grandparents farm. “My grandparents farm had every possible farm animal you could imagine. I would spend my weekends and a lot of my breaks there. I don’t know how else to say it other than it was devoid of worries,” he said.
After graduating, he decided it was time to move up and went on to attend the Universidad del Valle de Mexico in Queretaro, Mexico where he chose to study communication. “I actually did not exactly chose it, it was chosen for me by guidance counselors. I actually took several tests and everything always said my field should be psychology or communication. I looked into both, psychology was an extra year,” he said. The Mexican education system is different with majors varying in the amount of time spent in school and it would have taken him six years to achieve his degree in psychology.
But soon after declaring his major, Lopez-Preciado realized he liked communication. “At first my disappointment was I didn’t feel I was challenged enough because it was something that wasn’t very difficult for me to comprehend. It came very natural to me and ultimately I realized well that’s why I’m not so challenged and suffering and struggling like other classmates,” he said. He minored in three different areas, graphic design, advertising, and psychology. In school he fell in love with advertising and pursued the career path.
After receiving his B.A in communication, he proceed to attend the University of Texas at Austin and enrolled in their advertising program. “Back when I was there it had the number one advertising program in the world, it accepted 120 students out of which over half were international students,” he said. With over 50,000 students on 40 acres, it was a densely packed campus thriving with life. “It was a very exciting academic community and Austin, I mean live music capital of the world, you have, there was so much going on. It was a great experience.” Attending the school taught Lopez-Preciado not only about advertising but also that academia is a career path that can be followed. “It showed me something I had never understood, had never seen because back home the idea of having a career in academia is something that’s in addition too{another career},” he said.
However, after graduating with his M.A, he followed his career into advertising and created his own consulting firm back in Mexico. But he couldn’t help but miss academia and so in 2010 went back to school at the University of Miami where he got his his Ph D. in communication. After receiving his Ph D. he went back to Texas to teach at the university in Dallas but felt unfilled with his lack of connection with students and hated the heat felt year round. “I was at a school that placed a strong emphasis on becoming a Research I institution and just felt as if I was not getting everything I wanted out of my interest in academia. I felt as if I was being pulled in a direction that was different than what I wanted to do,” he said. He felt a disconnect with the students because he had over 200 students a semester.
After looking around for a new job, he came across Lasell and felt as if it were a great fit. “I left a tenure track position to come to a non tenure granting school to just be happier with what I do,” he said. He now has a roster of 11 classes, teaching four a semester and some summer courses. And he has found the happiness he was searching for.
“I think the biggest perk about teaching at Lasell is the freedom. The freedom that comes with being able to teach what you want, being able to do research, you have support,” he said. Since accepting his position at Lasell, he has published and remained active in the research sect of academia.