MAY 29, 2020 — When Marisa Perez-Diaz M.Ed. ’16 was sworn into office as Texas’ State Board of Education District 3 member in 2013, she knew the goal for her new role was to build an equitable education for all students.
And it’s something she’s been working toward ever since taking her seat on the board, which she won against the incumbent with 67% of the vote.
Perez-Diaz’s passion for child advocacy began when she worked as a social worker for the state Department of Family and Protective Services.
“I had some interesting experiences when I was with CPS and working in schools,” Perez-Diaz said. “I remember one time I was moved to anger at an experience that I had in a school, and it made me realize that I needed a bigger platform.”
After working in and out of several public schools Perez-Diaz realized there was an existing gap between child welfare and public education, particularly for kids who had experienced trauma.
“Without the ability or a network to cope through that, somebody needs to be an advocate for these students on the education side,” she said. “I was tired of seeing students that were always marginalized. There are disproportionate numbers of children of color that are in the child welfare system.”
After taking office Perez-Diaz felt if she was going to serve to her fullest, she needed to embrace what it means to be in education and to understand what teachers and administrators go through. Perez-Diaz started the in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies graduate program at UTSA under Encarnacion Garza.
“After going through my grad program my mindset shifted about how to approach the work,” Perez-Diaz said. “We need to humanize education. It can’t be about the numbers and the scores on a test. Before we efficiently and effectively educate a student we have to know our kids. We have to know what their experiences are and what they’re dealing with. That was the real driver for me.”
In her eight years on the State Board of Education Perez-Diaz has had the opportunity to play a role in making a positive impact on the field of education.
In 2018 she helped spearhead the passing of a Mexican American studies course with District 2 board member Ruben Cortez.
“In Texas, about 63% of the student population in K–12 identify as Latino. When I joined the board, there were only three Latinos represented on the board of 15,” Perez-Diaz said. “When Ruben and I got to talking about what this could look like, we were like, You know what. This board is not representative of the students that are in our schools and our classrooms. And we thought about our education and everything that we knew about our histories was all anecdotal.”
Perez-Diaz and Cortez worked with their districts and many scholars, historians and activists to bring the course to fruition.
“I think at the very end of the day the work we did to ensure that [a Mexican American studies program] was passed was done with respect to all of our communities,” Pere-Diaz said. “That provided the foundation for getting to where we are today. Just a few weeks ago we voted on African American studies as a second course for high school credit—which is historical. No other state in the country has formally endorsed two ethnic studies courses for high school credit. It’s just a matter of really bringing the community together and understanding that all of us have contributed to the construction of our country.”
Most recently, Perez-Diaz has been working to help develop an indigenous studies course.
“We’re in a very preliminary stage right now, but Grand Prairie ISD is working on creating an innovative course,” she said. “They are utilizing the [Mexican American studies] curriculum, and now the African American studies curriculum to derive their curriculum for this indigenous studies course. So I don’t even know that the committee that’s working on it has agreed on a title just yet, but it’s really exciting. This is going to be different. I mean, they’re all different and they’re all beautiful in their own ways.”
The hope is that by next year Grand Prairie ISD will have something to present to the Texas Education Agency in the form of an innovative course, at which point the State Board of Education can move to utilize that foundational framework for a high school credit course.
For Perez-Diaz, being able to serve in her role means she’s doing her part to create a policy for all children including her own.
“I think about the education that I want for them. The education that they deserve and that I want for them is not anything different than what I want for all our kids,” she said.
Perez-Diaz, who is currently working toward her doctorate in educational leadership at UTSA, strives to continue making a difference.
“I feel like I’m just at a point in my life where I recognize that I’m in a unique position, right? I can directly impact policy,” she said. “I want to use all that I’m learning to make policy decisions that challenge the status quo and put our people in spaces where we have opportunity and access for a very long time.”
UTSA Today is produced by University Communications and Marketing, the official news source of The University of Texas at San Antonio. Send your feedback to news@utsa.edu. Keep up-to-date on UTSA news by visiting UTSA Today. Connect with UTSA online at Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Instagram.
In this hands-on workshop, participants will learn to setup an EndNote library, save references and PDFs, and automatically create and edit a bibliography. Attendees are encouraged, but not required, to have EndNote already installed on a personal computer.
Virtual EventJoin this annual community celebration of Mexico’s independence sponsored by the Avenida Guadalupe Association. UTSA’s Westside Community Center—located at the parade’s starting location at Guadalupe and Brazos Streets—will be open to visitors for the duration of the event.
UTSA Westside Community Center, 1310 Guadalupe St, San Antonio, TX 78207Don’t mind the writing but hate formatting citations and bibliographies? Working on your thesis or dissertation, or even a long paper this semester? Citation managers such as Zotero® can help you store and organize the citations you find during your research. Take part in this session about using Zotero®.
Virtual EventDid you know the library offers much more than books and study spaces? Our librarians can also support your research and publishing and strengthen your instruction. Join us for a one-hour workshop about all that UTSA Libraries offers.
Virtual EventAre you interested in learning more about incorporating digital methods into your research? This workshop will introduce you to approaches and tools that can help support your research. Through hands-on activities, you will learn about text analysis and digital mapping and how these methods can enrich your projects.
Group Spot B, 2.01.22, John Peace LibraryLearn to use the simple but powerful features of EndNote®, a citation management tool. In this hands-on workshop, participants will learn to setup an EndNote library, save references and PDFs, and automatically create and edit a bibliography.
Virtual EventAproduction of the Gudalupe Cultural Arts Center, Rio Bravo showcases the vibrant music and dance traditions of the Texas-Mexico border region. Featuring the Guadalupe Dance Company and Mariachi Azteca de América, the performances will be filmed live both nights, courtesy of UTSA's College of Liberal and Fine Arts.
UTSA Downtown CampusThe University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.
To be a premier public research university, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.
We encourage an environment of dialogue and discovery, where integrity, excellence, inclusiveness, respect, collaboration and innovation are fostered.
UTSA is a proud Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) as designated by the U.S. Department of Education .
The University of Texas at San Antonio, a Hispanic Serving Institution situated in a global city that has been a crossroads of peoples and cultures for centuries, values diversity and inclusion in all aspects of university life. As an institution expressly founded to advance the education of Mexican Americans and other underserved communities, our university is committed to promoting access for all. UTSA, a premier public research university, fosters academic excellence through a community of dialogue, discovery and innovation that embraces the uniqueness of each voice.