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Gloria Bonilla Santiago
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Gloria Bonilla-Santiago is Board of Governors Distinguished Service Professor, Graduate Department of Public Policy and Administration at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. She also directs the Center for Strategic Urban Community Leadership and is the overseer and Board Chair of the LEAP Academy University Charter School. Throughout her academic career, she has established a track record in coordinating large scale programs and private and public ventures that bring together external and internal stakeholders from a range of organizations, including government, business, non-profits and philanthropic sectors at the local, national and international levels.

As a leading scholar, researcher, speaker, and international cross-cultural training consultant, Dr. Santiago brings over 25 years of experience in program development, fundraising, strategic planning, and leadership training. She writes and speaks widely on the areas of community development, public policy, education, migration, diversity management and, organizational leadership. In 1993, she received the Warren I. Susman Award for Excellence in Teaching, the highest recognition for teaching given to Rutgers' faculty by the President of the University. In 2008, she received the L’Oreal Paris Women Of Worth award, a national recognition that honors 10 women for their exemplary and transcending service to communities.

Dr. Santiago’s record of service and the impact of her work on poor children / families, minorities, and community are exemplary by any standard. She is a passionate and enthusiastic educator, who has focused her professional acumen on helping people to be able to become self-reliant citizens through education and professional development. Her work on behalf of children and families has resulted in the development of a model charter school in Camden City that today serves 780 students in grades K-12 and has become a hub for serving the families of these children through a number of school based service centers. Santiago is now taking her vision to include children from Birth through age 5 through the Early Learning Research Academy.

Dr. Santiago’s work through the Center for Strategic Urban Community Leadership is broadening and deepening the leadership base in New Jersey’s communities and beyond. She spearheads a number of signature projects with local and national impact in areas of conflict resolution, diversity management, organizational behavior, leadership development and community development.

As a faculty member, Dr. Santiago’s agenda in the areas of research, teaching and service provide the impetus for her tireless efforts in developing programs and new approaches to tackle fundamental social problems. She has been successful in translating her research and empirical work into real policy strategies that have garnered a number of important contributions, such as charter school legislation in New Jersey; the enactment of important legislation impacting on women and the education of urban children.

Dr. Santiago is the author of numerous articles and two books: Breaking Ground and Barriers: Hispanic Women Developing Effective Leadership (Marin 1992) and Organizing Puerto Rican Migrant Farmworkers: the Experience of Puerto Ricans in New Jersey (Peter Lang 1988)

Blog Entries by Gloria Bonilla Santiago

Advice for Puerto Rico's New Governor

(8) Comments | Posted November 21, 2012 | 11:55 PM

Even after his election win, many of us in the United States still know very little about Alejandro Javier García Padilla, the new governor-elect of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, a self-governing territory of the U.S. Here is what is known: He is a Puerto Rican senator-at-large and the president...

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Sandy's Lesson for the Next Generation of Scientists

(10) Comments | Posted November 2, 2012 | 5:24 PM

You don't have to look much further than Hurricane Sandy to realize how important scientists are to society.

Over the past week, we went from heeding the predictions of meteorologists and oceanographers before the storm to post-Sandy concerns, such as how to clean up damage and eventually rebuild.

Could...

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Education and the Candidates

(1) Comments | Posted September 18, 2012 | 1:32 PM

So, Barack Obama vs. Mitt Romney. Winner takes the White House.

Hopefully, urban education issues aren't going to be kicked down the road to nowhere.

Education was saluted as an issue by both candidates on the primary trail, on the way to the conventions.

But, from here on in,...

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New Tenure Laws Make Good Sense

(24) Comments | Posted August 16, 2012 | 10:42 AM

N.J. Gov. Chris Christie's approval this month of new teacher tenure legislation should be applauded -- especially by student from poor backgrounds.

I was once that student -- a poor daughter of migrant farm workers. A history teacher named Mr. DiMarzio changed my life.

Gov. Christie's tenure reform...

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Parents Must Make the Grade on Involvement

(18) Comments | Posted April 12, 2012 | 5:47 PM

Last week, Louisiana State Rep. Joe Harrison introduced a bill in that state's legislature that -- if passed -- would grade parents on the level and quality of their involvement in their kid's education.

Focusing attention on the need for parental involvement is always a good idea....

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Passing Immigration Relief Can Make Dreams Come True

(71) Comments | Posted March 18, 2012 | 8:12 PM

If you can look a poor child in the eye and tell her that she can't attend the college of her choice -- a university to which her hard work and exceptional grades earned her admission -- then you might believe that immigration reform is not the answer.

But, if...

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No Child Left Behind: Not Too Late to Fix

(2) Comments | Posted January 24, 2012 | 11:56 AM

Earlier this month, the No Child Left Behind Act (NLCB) marked its 10th anniversary -- a milestone so inglorious a national journalist quipped that "no one feels like going to its party."

Only, for those of us who work around students each day, NCLB's shortcomings are no laughing matter. Especially...

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Urban Violence Is a National Crisis

(12) Comments | Posted December 28, 2011 | 3:29 PM

The phrase "Happy New Year" is ringing hollow for one family I know. These people are starting 2012 the same way they ended 2011: In mourning.

In early December, Miguel Almonte, a hard-working husband and father, was murdered. He was working in his grocery story one night when...

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Early Education Gives Poor Kids a Chance to Succeed

(10) Comments | Posted August 24, 2011 | 5:12 PM

Education -- most especially pre-school programs which have been on budget chopping blocks throughout the country -- is inextricably tied to the recovery of our nation's economy.

It's like the song "Dem Bones" that is taught in preschools to help children learn basic anatomy -- each part is connected...

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Language of Education Rings True -- in U.S. and Brazil

(2) Comments | Posted June 13, 2011 | 1:49 PM

The faces were the same -- just the continents were different.

That is the first thing I noticed when I saw the upturned faces of the poor children of Rio de Janeiro's favelas -- or slums. They looked just like the kids at my school in Camden, N.J. The glimmers...

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Star Science Students Aren't too Cool for School

(2) Comments | Posted April 14, 2011 | 1:40 PM

Camden, New Jersey -- A 17 year old from one of America's poorest and most dangerous cities has discovered just how cool science can be.

After being immersed in her school's intensive STEM program -- Science, Technology, Engineering and Math -- for just the past six...

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Pay by Performance Shows Merit

(18) Comments | Posted March 30, 2011 | 3:07 PM

You have heard the old saying about how hard it is to teach an old dog new tricks. Well, you can imagine then how much harder it is to sell a bunch of educators on a new idea -- in this case, the notion that a teacher should be rewarded...

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