Biography
Dolores Sandoval was born in Montreal, Canada, on September 30, 1937 but moved to Gary, Indiana, at age seven. She attended college at Indiana University’s Gary Campus, the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and the University of Michigan, where she received a B.S. from the School of Architecture and Design in 1960. After graduating, she worked for a national personnel firm in New York City and Los Angeles and as an elementary teacher in Gary, Indiana. In 1966, she returned to Indiana University to continue her education, receiving a masters degree and a PhD in Education by 1970.
Dr. Sandoval taught briefly as a reading and language arts consultant at SUNY Buffalo before joining the faculty of the University of Vermont in 1971. Her teaching at UVM specialized in Third World Studies, African Studies and Arts in Education. In 1972, she was appointed Assistant to the President for Human Resources at UVM. She was also a member of both the Governor’s Commission on the Status of Women in 1972 and the Governor’s Task on Women in 1974. Additionally, she served on various other regional committees and boards and worked as a consultant on topics related to education and civil rights.
In 1988 and 1990, Dr. Sandoval ran for the U.S. House of Representatives from Vermont. Sandoval was thought to have been the first African-American to seek federal elective office from Vermont. In 1988, she ran in a four-way primary for the Democratic nomination in which she finished fourth. Paul Poirier won the primary but lost in the general election to Peter Smith. In 1990, she won a three-way race for the Democratic primary. Her opponents in the primary included Peter Diamondstone, who ran again in the general election for the Liberty Union, and write-in candidate, Bernie Sanders, who eventually won the general election as an Independent. Sandoval received 3% of the vote compared with 56% of the vote for Sanders.
She retired from UVM in 1999 and moved to Montreal where she taught at McGill University and established the DaCosta-Angelique Institute for societal change and worked towards creating an immigrant museum.Education
BS, University of Michigan (1960)
MA and PhD, Indiana University (1970)Occupation
Professor
College Administrator