Anne-Marie Núñez employs sociological approaches to explore how multiple social identities (e.g., racial, ethnic, class, linguistic) shape educational opportunities in college outreach programs, different higher education institutional types, and other sociopolitical contexts. 

She has focused on three areas in higher education: social stratification and equity, institutional diversity, and inclusive organizational cultures. In the first, her research has focused on the higher education experiences and trajectories of Latinx, first-generation, English Learner, working, and migrant students. Her synthesis of research in Latinos in higher education and Hispanic-Serving Institutions: Creating conditions for success has provided a framework for serving Latinx students in higher education. In addition, she co-edited Hispanic-Serving Institutions: Advancing Research and Transformative Practice, an International Latino Book Award winner and the first book to focus on HSIs as organizations. Educational Researcher, American Educational Research Journal, and The Journal of Higher Education are among the high visibility outlets that have published her research. 

Having served on several editorial boards, she currently is an Associate Editor for the Diversity Section of Higher Education: Handbook of Theory and Research. Núñez has also collaborated on several NSF grants with budgets totaling over $15 million to build inclusive environments in geoscience and computing disciplines and received a Spencer Foundation Mid-Career grant to learn sociocultural approaches to education inquiry. 

An engaged public scholar, she has been named in Education Week’s Edu-Scholar Public Influence Rankings as among the top 200 scholars in the U.S. influencing educational practice and policy. Widely recognized for her outstanding scholarship and leadership, she has been elected as an American Educational Research Association Fellow and a National Academy of Education member.