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Public Education Department PED Liaison for NMRECA

The NMRECA is excited to have been appointed a Public Education Department PED liaison. The NMRECA had a PED liaison many years ago. It was a nice position to have. The liaison provided a consolidation point for communication with different PED bureaus and also facilitated discussions on all types of topics. The Secretary of Education, Ryan Stewart, has assigned a Deputy Secretary to function as a liaison for the ten REC regions in New Mexico. We are fortunate to have been assigned Deputy Secretary Warninent. She will be in attendance at the Region 9 Coordinating Council meeting on March 18, 2020. We have invited the superintendents from the other school districts in our region, including Alamogordo and Socorro to come meet with Deputy Secretary Warniment on March 18, and would be proud to have you join us at 9:00 a.m. to meet our new liaison.

Gwen Perea Warniment, Ph.D.

Gwen Perea Warniment, Ph.D., Deputy Secretary of Teaching, Learning, and Assessment, serves as the Deputy Secretary for Teaching and Learning for the New Mexico Public Education Department (NM PED). In this role, she oversees three divisions: Educator Quality, Curriculum and Instruction, and Assessment. With a little over two decades of experience supporting public education, Dr. Warniment has taught across the elementary to post-secondary landscape, chiefly focused on bilingual STEM education.

Before joining NM PED, Gwen was the program director for the Los Alamos National Laboratory Foundation with a portfolio that included direct programming, advocacy, and grant making in support of public education. In this role, she directed various initiatives to support teacher retention in rural districts, socio-emotional support systems, and professional learning for educators, as well as a consortium designed to build educator capacity in inquiry science and the Next Generation Science Standards.

Gwen is passionate about student voice, culturally and linguistically sustaining instruction, and supporting educators in their reflective practice. She holds a doctorate in curriculum and instruction from New Mexico State University.

By Bryan Dooley