Dr. Rene Rocha is Herman J. and Eileen S. Schmidt Chair, Professor of Political Science, and Director of the Latina/o/x Studies Program at the University of Iowa. He received a Ph.D. in Political Science from Texas A&M University in 2006.

Dr. Rene Rocha is Professor of Political Science at the University of Iowa and a leading scholar of immigration politics and policy. He has published in The Journal of Politics, Political Research Quarterly, Social Science Quarterly, Policy Studies Journal, American Politics Research, State Politics & Policy Quarterly, Urban Affairs Review, and Review of Policy Research. His research on immigration and welfare policy received the 2014 Phi Sigma Alpha award from the Western Political Science Association. His research on racial and ethnic inequality across the US states, published in 2011, received the Lucius Barker Award from the Midwest Political Science Association.

Dr. Rocha is also a Senior Faculty Affiliate in the U Iowa Public Policy Center, a collaboration which has  included participation in a symposium on "The Politics of Immigration."  In 2019-21, he was Co-Director (with Dr. Ariana Ruiz and Dr. Darrel Wanzer-Serrano) of the Mellon Sawyer Seminar, Imagining Latinidades.  He is a frequent contributor to media programs, such as Iowa Public Radio's River to River, for which he provides political analysis.

At U Iowa, he has taught courses on the politics of race, and immigration politics.