Academic Dean for Tier 1 Athletes
Member of the Tutoring & Academic Support for Student Athletes Committee & the Bascom Headen Palmer Literary Prize Committee
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About me
I was born in Puerto Rico and was almost five years old when I moved with my parents and two older brothers to North Carolina. The experience of starting kindergarten in an entirely different place and having to learn English at the same time shaped me as a learner, a future teacher, and more broadly, as a person. In 2001, I graduated from Duke with a BA in psychology. I continued my education at UNC Wilmington when I decided to earn my K-6 teaching license. I taught second grade for several years and then went back to school to earn a Master's degree in K-12 Reading, which I did at Winthrop University. During my time at Winthrop, I was a graduate assistant in the Dean's Office of the College of Education, and I had the opportunity to guest lecture in a professor's class, guiding college students to reflect on the role of language in our everyday lives. From there I went on to earn my Ph.D. in Language, Literacy, and Culture from the University of Pittsburgh. While at Pittsburgh, I taught education courses as a TA and supervised teaching interns. In 2017, the same year I completed my doctoral degree, I worked as a mentor in the Duke Athletics Academic Department, and in 2018, began working as the Men's Basketball Academic Coordinator. In the Fall of 2021, I also began to teach with the FOCUS program in the American Experiences Cluster, for which I developed an Education course called Culture, Language, and Purposeful Discomfort in American Classrooms. In my free time, I enjoy being with my husband and our two sons and our dog who thinks she is human--doing anything active, playing cards and board games, and watching movies.