Dr. Portillos joined the UCCS Sociology Department in the 2004-2005 academic year and is currently the graduate program director for the department

He completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Colorado Boulder and graduate work at Arizona State University. Research interests include youth gangs, police-community relations in Latino/a communities, Chicano pedagogy and issues of gender, race/ethnicity, and crime. Dr. Portillos has also worked as an expert witness for capital murder cases. Some recent publications include:

• 2013,  Peguero, Anthony, Edwardo Portillos, Jun S. Hong, Juan Carlos Gonzalez, Lindsay L. Kahale, and Zahra Shekarkhar. “Victimization, Urbanicity, and the Relevance of Context: School Routines, Race and Ethnicity, and Adolescent Violence.” Journal of Criminology. Volume 2013 (2013), Article ID 240637, 14 pages.
• 2012,  Portillos, Edwardo, Juan Carlos Gonzalez and Anthony Peguero. “Crime Control Strategies in School: Chicanas’/os’ Perceptions and Criminalization. Urban Review. 44(2) 171-188.
• 2012,  Gonzalez, Juan Carlos and Edwardo L. Portillos. “Teaching from a critical perspective/Ensenado du Una Perspectiva Critica: Conceptualization, reflection, and application of Chicana/o pedagogy.” International Journal of Critical Pedagogy. 4(1) 18-34.
• 2009,  Dukes, Richard, Edwardo L. Portillos and Molly Miles. “Model of satisfaction with police, 2002-2005.” Policing and Society 32(2), 297-318.
• 2009,  Solis, Carmen, Edwardo Portillos and Rod Brunson, "Latino/a youths' experiences and perceptions of negative police encounters," The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. 623, 39-51.