Christina Belton

I started my career in 2009, working in both teaching and social work, bringing together my passion for education and supporting vulnerable communities. I began as a post-secondary instructor at Eastern New Mexico University, Roswell, serving students with different abilities and all sorts of disabilities. After COVID, when we had a hard time picking back up with recruitment and low numbers affected the program, I moved over to the adult education department so I could still serve in the capacity of accommodations and instruction. Today, I teach English as a second language, high school equivalency to the general public in both English and Spanish, and high school equivalency to at-risk youth. My days are filled with instruction - I go straight from my English as a second language class into teaching my at-risk youth students. When I'm not in instruction during those small office hours I have, I'm counseling, advising, and mentoring students, and supporting students with disabilities in whatever accommodations they need. My primary role is advocacy, ensuring equal access and equal rights, and connecting people to resources. I work with vulnerable communities, and I think it's important because if we look back even 20 years ago, access is still kind of taboo. Today we've made a lot of legislation and advancements, but there's still hurdles that people don't see unless your life has actually been touched by disability - like where there's not a ramp to access, or the time limit is not long enough for somebody who has processing issues. Just knowing these things and being aware of these things allows me to be the advocate for people who just have different abilities.

• Master's Degree in Career Technical Education

• Master's Degree in Career Technical Education

• Coalition of Adult Basic Education (COABE)
• ENMUR Diversity
• Equity
• Inclusion Committee
• Leadership Fellows

• Disability Rights and Awareness