Jacqueline Pena

I've been in education for 28 years now, and in my current position as President and CEO of Empowerment Through Education for 6 and a half years. My consulting firm is a 100% remote flex schedule organization that I officially launched January 1st, 2020. On a typical day, I work on grant writing and grant evaluation projects, implement student success programs, and provide professional learning for faculty, administrators, and staff. I check in with my small team's caseloads, connect with clients at least monthly, and work very much in the community, often on events with our commissioner focusing on women and children in Miami-Dade County, where I handle a lot of the educational component. I still teach remotely and asynchronously for Indian River State College because I love students but need that flexibility. I review our project management boards, social media content, and MailChimp newsletters before they go out, making sure we're communicating about student success and what we call the student success blueprint. My most notable achievement is being able to say that I've somehow impacted, in some academic way, at least a million students. At ETE, we're at about 400,000 in just 6 years through all our programming, virtual exchanges, and training. I'm now thinking about impact in terms of the people we've touched rather than just the grants we've brought in or evaluated, and I'm constantly bumping into amazing students from New York, Massachusetts, and Florida who reach out to share the wonderful lives they've been able to build.