Dr. Cecilia Navarrete is an education consultant specializing in the design and evaluation of educational programs (grades K-16). Beginning in 1973, Cecilia acquired a bachelor’s degree in elementary education at the University of New Mexico (UNM) and began her career as a bilingual kindergarten teacher in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She then attained a master’s degree in early childhood education at UNM and worked as a migrant education teacher for a K-8 developmentally-based math-science enrichment program.

To expand her understanding of student learning and achievement, Cecilia continued her studies at Stanford University where she acquired a doctorate in curriculum and teacher education with an emphasis on program design and evaluation in 1985. Between 1985 to 2000, she focused her career to the improvement of education programs relating especially to students from poor backgrounds and who speak languages other than English. Cecilia has extensive experience with federally funded technical assistance centers. She began as a research assistance for the Multi-Education Regional Center (Portland, OR), Southwest Comprehensive Regional Assistance Center (Albuquerque, NM), and Title VII Evaluation Assistance Center (EAC)-West. Cecilia eventually became an associate director and then director for EAC-West. In these capacities, Cecilia assisted state and local education agencies in the design and implementation of classroom assessments and evaluation of federal education programs. She and her staff at EAC-West produced several publications based on the assessment and evaluation of education programs served across the 22 States in the region.

From 2000 to 2003, Cecilia worked as a research coordinator at NMHU assisting the university in building a research infrastructure through grant writing efforts and assisting new faculty on how to write and manage grants. She was directly responsible for acquiring millions in funding for the university. In 2003 to 2005, Cecilia continued her efforts in building educational outreach programs for young students (K-12) at the New Mexico Institute for Mining and Engineering in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Cecilia has consulted with META Associates in designing strategic plans and evaluating education programs across the nation. Most notably, she was involved in the Binational Migrant Education Program (1999 and 2000) and the evaluation of the Lower Kuskokwim Bilingual Education Programs (2000), which received an honorary reward from AERA. As an independent consultant, Cecilia has been directly responsible for building technology education programs for the Bernalillo Public Schools.