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This year, the CU Boulder School of Education welcomed our newest faculty members, who bring a variety of experiences and enhance our community of educators and learners. Learn more about them below, and please join us in continuing to welcome them to our school and community.

Adria Padilla-Chávez is an assistant teaching professor in equity, bilingualism and biliteracy and elementary education. 

She grew up in various neighborhoods throughout and around Denver, eventually graduating from Denver Public Schools. She received her BS in bilingual elementary education from the University of New Mexico in 2002, and an MA in culturally and linguistically diverse education from the BUENO Center in 2005. Padilla-Chávez has taught in public schools situated in immigrant, Latinx and Chicanx communities for more than 20 years, from Pre-K to 12th grade. She has dedicated her career to advocating for the cultural, linguistic and educational rights of her students. This advocacy led her to the PhD program at CU Boulder in learning sciences and human development. Her dissertation, “Buscando la Luz: Children’s Expressions of Dignity in a Co-designed Workshop,” explored a social design-based experiment co-designed with child-partners, her former kindergarten students. Through ethnographic observation and micro-interactional analysis, her study revealed the children’s collaborations, brilliance and critiques of schooling. Addressing the intentionally blurred line between researcher and participant, she reflected on her role as designer and teacher, navigating her own learning and unlearning in the workshop. Padilla-Chávez’s work emphasizes how affirming dignity in learning environments fosters new forms of worldmaking, highlighting children's capacities for coordination and care.

What are you excited about this upcoming year?  

“I chose CU Boulder and the School of Education because I have worked 30 years for this opportunity. When graduating from high school from Denver Public Schools, I did not have the merit to apply to CU Boulder for my undergraduate degree. Feelings of intellectual incapability engulfed me throughout my childhood and teens. Consequently, my merit reflected those feelings. Fortunately, in my undergraduate studies, I had professors that guided me in finding the light—feelings of intellectual capability. Since then, it has been my life’s work to provide the same for my students.  

Along the way, I met (CU Boulder professor emerita) Kathy Escamilla at La Cosecha, a bilingual education conference in New Mexico. When I heard her speak, I knew I wanted to study with her. The experience in the master's program through the BUENO Center with Dr. Escamilla as my advisor was one of the most transformational experiences of my life, so much so that I wanted to continue with my doctorate. Fifteen years later, I returned to CU Boulder in the School of Education to pursue a PhD in Learning Science and Human Development, yet another transformational experience where I grew in ways I did not know was possible. You see, choosing CU Boulder has always been my choice. I am grateful to all my professors, mentors and advisors who believed in me, and I am grateful to myself for never giving up on me. It is where I belong, and now I can remind that 18-year-old girl back in 1997 that she does, too.”

What are you excited about this upcoming year?

“I am excited to live my dream as a college professor. I am excited to connect with those who have had a similar journey as me and who come from similar backgrounds and remind them that they too belong here. I am excited to help prepare future teachers to see and recognize the brilliance of their students, affirm their dignity and provide opportunities for the actualization of their potential in trusted communities of love and care.”

What’s a fun fact about you?  

“I have been a dancer since the movie Breakin' came out in 1984. I was poppin' and lockin' with my older brother, Jojo, before I could tie my shoes. I danced Mexican Folklórico and flamenco as a teen and young adult. Now I dance anything Latin (Zumba, salsa, bachata, etc.) and hip-hop. Dancing is when I feel most free. It is important to find those things in life that enable you to feel free.”

What do you like to do on a day off?

“I cannot think of a better day than spending it with my family—my husband, Joe, and our two sons, José and Vicente, who are usually schooling us on life as they are both so wise, so insightful and so smart. They have been my greatest teachers.”

Lindsay Romano is an assistant professor in equity, bilingualism and biliteracy. 

Her research examines how systemic oppressions, such as racism, ableism and linguicism, impact the educational trajectories and outcomes of secondary students experiencing multiple marginalizations. She is particularly interested in how teachers play a role in perpetuating and disrupting inequities in their instruction and how critical and contemplative pedagogies may be used as tools for social justice in the classroom.

Why did you choose CU Boulder and the School of Education?

“I love the interdisciplinary nature of the school and its commitment to social justice and equity. In my own program, equity, bilingualism and biliteracy, I was particularly excited to work alongside colleagues who are not only researching issues of inequities for multilingual learners and learners with disabilities but also engaging in activism to enact change in partnership with local school communities.”

What are you excited about this upcoming year?  

I am excited to embark on a new research project here in Colorado as well as to get to know students and faculty in the School of Education. I am excited to begin collaborating within and across programs in the school and to deepen my knowledge of the Colorado education context.

What do you like to do on a day off?  

On my days off, you can find me with my family spending time outdoors, whether it be going to a park, exploring a new neighborhood, or going on a hike. I also love meditating, painting and writing!  

Anything else you’d like to add?  

I am really excited to be here and excited to meet students and faculty in the School of Education this year.

Blanca Trejo is an assistant teaching professor for the Leadership and Community Engagement major and the Multicultural Leadership Scholars program. 

She was born and raised on the traditional homelands of the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ, hinono’eino’ biito’owu’, Tséstho’e and Núu-agha-tʉvʉ-pʉ̱ Nations, aka Denver, Colorado. Her ancestral lineage is Mexica, Totonaca and Spaniard, and she identifies as Mexican American, Latina and Xicana. She is among the first generation of her family to hold U.S. birthright citizenship and  to earn a BA, an MA and a PhD. Trejo is intimately aware of societal systems that marginalize and oppress BIPOC communities in the U.S. At age 15, she became involved in youth organizing, working on issues of educational justice and immigrant rights. She has been a community organizer, nonprofit leader and a state employee charged with implementing state law won by grassroots campaigns. As an academic and organizer, her research centers on a reconnection to Indigenous knowledge and medicines that helps all people heal from the generational traumas inflicted by white supremacy. She seeks to decolonize and re-indigenize the field of youth organizing and engage BIPOC youth in healing, power building and collective action. She believes in the power of intergenerational imagination to usher us toward a future of abundance, liberation and relationships of balance with human and more-than-human relations.  

Why did you choose CU Boulder and the School of Education?

My U.S. passport has stamps from over 24 different countries from five continents (I have yet to visit Australia or New Zealand, and I do not plan to visit Antarctica for environmental justice reasons). I have had the honor and the privilege to visit numerous towns and cities across the U.S. and the world. Ultimately, I have made choices to stay in Colorado because this is my home. I have lived, attended public schools and college and worked my whole life in Colorado. Like the yucca (indigenous to Colorado and the U.S. Southwest), I have a taproot that goes deep into these rocky, sandy soils. Attending graduate school and now working at the CU Boulder School of Education has allowed me the space and time to deepen my community relationships and extend my reach to the wonderful undergraduates who have enrolled in my courses over the past five years. I chose CU Boulder because of the relationships and community that exist on and off campus.

What are you excited about this upcoming year?

So many elements of my life are shifting and changing at this time. My “doctora” title is still fresh, and I am still assessing what this PhD means for me, my family and my community. While I am unsure how long I will hold the title of “Assistant Teaching Professor” with the School of Education, one thing is certain: I am not going to work very far from home. I’ll be in Denver, in the historic Baker neighborhood, with my kids (human and furry) and my partner (Anthony) and our garden. Whatever the winds of change bring this coming year, I feel rooted, centered and confident that we (a collective WE) will weather these social, political and economic storms together and come out the other side ready to rebuild a world of abundance and balance for generations to come.

What do you like to do on a day off?

On my days of rest, you will find me getting my hands full of soil and leaves and worms. Fall is my favorite season. I adore the changes that arrive with the fall winds: leaves changing color, flower petals changing to seeds, and temperature changing from sunny mid-day to brisk in the evening. I tend to carry small paper envelopes during this time of year to collect seeds from the generous plants that grow all around me: on the side of a building; through the cracks in the concrete sidewalks; tucked clandestinely in an alley way. I love how the plants around us are a constant reminder of the beauty and abundance that exist in our world.

Anything else you’d like to add?

I am not an ardent social media savant. However, should anyone wish to stay in touch, please feel free to find me at LinkedIn: Dr. Blanca E. Trejo Aguilera; Instagram and Threads @dr_blancaelena; Blue Sky @DrBlancaElena.bsky.social; and my website BlancaElena.PhD.