Dr. Paul Ortiz He/Him

Paul Ortiz is a professor of history and director of the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program at the University of Florida. He is a National Archives Distinguished Fellow in Latinx History. In the fall semester of 2024, he will begin an appointment as Professor of Labor History at Cornell University.

Paul is a PEN-award winning writer. He is a consultant and featured narrator for John Leguizamo’s American Historia docuseries on Latino history that will air on PBS in 2024 with the permission of the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild. Paul was a consultant and narrator for Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s The Black Church: This is Our Story. This Is Our Song, which premiered on PBS in 2021.

He is a third-generation military veteran and a first-generation college graduate. Paul served with the 82nd Airborne Division and 7th Special Forces Group in Central America where he served in multiple combat zones. He received the US Armed Forces’ Humanitarian Service Medal for meritorious action in the wake of the Nevado del Ruiz stratovolcano eruption in Tolima, Colombia in 1985.