Maria de Jesus Ortiz

Affiliation

University of Colorado Denver

Biography

María de Jesus Ortiz (ella/she/her) is a proud first-generation Latina, bilingual educator, and doctoral student dedicated to advancing equity, healing, and culturally responsive education. With over a decade of experience in dual-language and bilingual classrooms, María currently serves as a Bilingual Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Instructional Specialist for Denver Public Schools. In this role, she supports schools across the district in implementing transformative SEL practices that center multilingual learners, honor cultural identity, and promote healing-centered engagement. Rooted in her lived experience as a simultaneous bilingual growing up in a low-income community, María is passionate about affirming students’ full linguistic and cultural selves. Her work focuses on creating inclusive, identity-affirming learning environments that prioritize social-emotional development alongside academic achievement. She leads professional development, facilitates coaching, and collaborates with school leaders to ensure SEL and equity are deeply embedded in school systems. María is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Critical Studies in Education, where her research explores translanguaging and SEL as tools for healing intergenerational trauma and disrupting deficit narratives about multilingual and historically marginalized communities. She views language and identity as powerful sources of strength and resilience in the classroom and beyond. Her mission is to create systems that affirm, protect, and uplift the voices of students and families who have long been left out of educational decision-making. María believes that through love, language, and justice-driven education, we can build more compassionate schools and liberated futures.