Victoria Maria DeFrancesco Soto was born in 1978  to Victoria and Joseph DeFrancesco in Southern Arizona on the U.S.- Mexico border and that is where she grew up.  She is of Italian, Jewish and Mexican descent.

She describes herself as a student council nerd beginning in middle school who, by the time she reached college, realized how much she enjoyed political science and that she could, in fact, do this as a profession.

DeFrancesco Soto earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Arizona's W.A. Franke Honors College.  Then she applied to and was accepted by Duke University as a graduate student.  She graduated in 2007 with a Ph.D. in political science under the mentorship of Dr. John Aldrich and Dr. Paula McClain. 

While completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Rutgers University and an assistant professorship at Northwestern University, she discovered a passion for applied careers in political science. In particular, Victoria became deeply interested and involved in civic engagement and bridging the community and university realms.  She was appointed assistant dean at the Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ) School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin, while serving as a contributor at NBC News and Telemundo. Following her time at the LBJ School of Public Service, she became dean of the Clinton School of Public Service at the University of Arkansas.  Victoria is the first Latina dean at a presidential institution and is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administrators.

An award-winning professor, Victoria is deeply passionate about the intersection of curricular and community-based learning and cultivating dynamic classroom environments that are responsive to our real-world context. As the dean of the Clinton School, Victoria grounds her passion to support the next generation of public service leaders in the expansion of diversity, equity and inclusion inside and outside the classroom.

Victoria has served on the board of Mi Familia en Acción and Forward Arkansas, and she has been active in the Volcker Alliance Dean’s Summit. She was recognized as one the 100 Women of Impact by the Arkansas Women’s Foundation and received the Las Primeras Award by MANA.

She enjoys sharing her experiences in careers in political science and mentoring the next generation of scholars.