Delia Garcia honored by Miami-Dade school board

The School Board of Miami-Dade County honored Delia Garcia this week for fostering more than four decades of community engagement between FIU and Miami-Dade County Public Schools.

Garcia was a long-standing member of FIU’s Department of Leadership and Professional Studies in the College of Education and served as dean from 2010-2016, prior to the merger with Arts & Sciences. Garcia continued to teach in the College of Arts, Sciences & Education and retired in 2020.

FIU education faculty attended the board meeting with Superintendent Jose L. Dotres, where the school board passed a resolution honoring Garcia’s efforts to forge university-school partnerships that addressed challenges faced by local communities. During her time at FIU, she secured federal, state and foundation grants to address the preparation of teachers in urban schools and family literacy efforts. She helped generate tuition scholarships for graduate degrees and expanded professional development opportunities for teachers from Miami-Dade County Public Schools.

She also developed a national family literacy model that served more than 3,000 minority families in Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties and was recognized by the United States Department of Education as an Academic Excellence project. As a researcher, Garcia focused on family involvement, teacher and parent efficacy, and urban teacher preparation. She developed curriculum guides for teacher education in home-school relations, adult literacy and English as a Second Language.

Garcia started her career as a high school Social Studies teacher in Miami-Dade County Public Schools. She completed a doctoral degree in educational administration and supervision from FIU and a bachelor’s and master’s in curriculum and instruction from the University of Miami.