22 Facts About Maria Guajardo

Maria Guajardo Lucero was born on 1959 and is an American educator and advocate for children and the Latino community.

Maria Guajardo served as dean of the program from 2013 to 2016, when she was promoted to vice president of the university.

Maria Guajardo is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, and was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2010.

Maria Resendez Guajardo was born in 1959 to Mexican immigrant parents who were migrant workers in California.

Maria Guajardo grew up in migrant camps in the San Joaquin Valley and attended three different elementary schools.

Maria Guajardo's parents placed a strong emphasis on education, and took their children to the library to encourage reading.

Maria Guajardo pursued her interests in children and education through extracurricular activities such as tutoring in an African-American high school and volunteer work at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Maria Guajardo earned her bachelor's degree in psychology and social relations at Harvard in 1982.

Maria Guajardo received her master's degree in clinical psychology at the University of Denver in 1985, followed by a doctorate in clinical psychology from the same institution in 1988.

Maria Guajardo's dissertation led to her hiring as the Dropout Prevention Coordinator at the Colorado Department of Education from 1988 to 1991.

Maria Guajardo traveled to international conferences to discuss the improvement of living conditions for children in developing countries.

From 1992 to 1997, Maria Guajardo was executive director of the Latin American Research and Service Agency, a Latino political advocacy and community development organization.

In 2003, Mayor of Denver John Hickenlooper tapped Maria Guajardo to become executive director of the Mayor's Office for Education and Children, a position she held for eight years.

Maria Guajardo helped promote a Denver preschool bill which provides access to high-level preschool options for four-year-old children from low-income families, and implemented the 5 by 5 Project, which provides children enrolled in the Head Start program with "five formative cultural experiences by the time they are 5 years old".

In 2013, Maria Guajardo moved to Tokyo, Japan, to develop a new degree program in international liberal arts at Soka University.

Maria Guajardo was the first non-Japanese dean in that institution.

Maria Guajardo was a contributing editor to the US Surgeon General's 2000 Report on Status of Mental Health of Minority Populations.

Maria Guajardo has been a member of the board of trustees of Soka University of America and the University of Denver, being the first Latina on both these boards.

Maria Guajardo was a board member and past board president of the Mental Health Center of Denver, Children's Hospital Colorado, the Denver Foundation, and the Veterans of Hope Project.

Maria Guajardo was honored by a Congressional Commendation for Education in October 2005.

Maria Guajardo was inducted into the Colorado Women's Hall of Fame in 2010.

Maria Guajardo has been a student and teacher of tai chi since 1983.