Claudia Espinosa (EdD ’23) Named 2026 Steinhardt Disruptor of the Year

Claudia Espinosa (EdD ’23, Leadership and Innovation) has been named 2026’s Disruptor of the Year as part of this year’s cohort of Spirit of Steinhardt alumni award winners. Dr. Espinosa sees this recognition as validation of an approach she has championed throughout her career: education must address the whole person.

Dr. Espinosa first earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in forensic psychology from the City University of New York. While enrolled in a master’s program in public administration at NYU Wagner, she founded Latinas On the Verge of Excellence (L.O.V.E.) Mentoring Program, a New York City nonprofit that empowers young women through mentorship and health education.

L.O.V.E. partners with New York City schools to provide mentorship and health education during the academic year and school day. Its curriculum addresses mental, reproductive, and physical health, as well as college and career readiness.

“I founded the organization to support young Latinas in particular,” says Dr. Espinosa. “Young Latinas in New York have the highest rate of suicide attempts, and because of that, they may not finish high school or pursue higher education. The mentorship at L.O.V.E. guides them to build a growth mindset, finish high school, and move into higher education or any other career path that inspires them.”

After graduating from Wagner and continuing to build L.O.V.E., Dr. Espinosa earned an EdM in School Leadership from the Harvard Graduate School of Education before enrolling in Steinhardt’s EdD in Leadership and Innovation (EDLI) program. Each degree, she says, has served a unique purpose. 

“Each step of the way with the schools and the degrees, I was thinking about what L.O.V.E. needed to become sustainable for the long term,” says Dr. Espinosa. “At Steinhardt, the EDLI program allowed me to connect academic research directly to the challenges of recruiting and retaining volunteers for our nonprofit.”

Dr. Espinosa’s doctoral dissertation focused on how organizations can better recruit, train and retain volunteers—an especially relevant question for an organization whose work depends on mentorship.

“The EDLI program is empirical,” says Dr. Espinosa. “It's about finding solutions for something that you're facing in your company or organization.”

L.O.V.E. helps young women recognize their strengths, develop a growth mindset and pursue their educational and professional goals. The work is rooted in Dr. Espinosa's belief that academic achievement cannot be separated from a student's social and emotional well-being. For Dr. Espinosa, being named Disruptor of the Year by her alma mater is meaningful precisely because it recognizes that philosophy.

“I think that NYU Steinhardt recognizes that what I've been doing is disrupting education,” she says. “You can't achieve academic success unless you look at education from a holistic perspective. If you’re not doing well socially and emotionally, you cannot achieve academically. For the young women that we serve, education needs to consider all aspects of a person.”

Today, as Dr. Espinosa continues leading L.O.V.E. and pursuing an MBA at Columbia University, she remains focused on expanding opportunities for young women and challenging conventional ideas about what education should look like.