J-Higher Education
Theresa Montaño, a professor of Chicano Studies and Education at California State University, Northridge (CSUN), is the voice of the California Faculty Association and the Community College Association on the CTA board. Montaño is serving her first three-year term on the Board, which expires June 25, 2013. Although she is the newly elected higher ed representative, her many years of experience as a middle and high school teacher in Los Angeles and Denver, CO, gives her a special understanding of issues facing educators in California’s public schools.
An active unionist, Montaño was also on the staff of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), where she worked in professional development and as an area representative for nine years. Montaño’s commitment to social justice and to broadening access to higher education for marginalized students led her to pursue her doctorate in education at UCLA. Her areas of interest as a professor of education at CSUN include Teacher Activism, Latino Educational Equity; Critical Multicultural Education; Bilingual/ELL education.
Montaño wants to bring even more collaboration between higher education faculty and K-12 members to focus on commonalities that include privatization, inadequate funding and broadening access to educational opportunities for all students.
She previously served for six years as an NEA board director. She was also president of her local faculty association until her election to the CTA board in June, and remains on the board of the California Faculty Association
Montaño lives in Los Angeles. Email her at tmontano@cta.org.