{"id":16158,"date":"2021-09-01T13:11:19","date_gmt":"2021-09-01T13:11:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/?p=16158"},"modified":"2021-09-01T14:48:52","modified_gmt":"2021-09-01T14:48:52","slug":"meet-gina-c-duarte-romero-president-of-the-fiu-alumni-association-board-of-directors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/2021\/09\/01\/meet-gina-c-duarte-romero-president-of-the-fiu-alumni-association-board-of-directors\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Gina C. Duarte-Romero, president of the FIU Alumni Association Board of Directors"},"content":{"rendered":"

FIU Alumni Association Board of Directors<\/a> President\u00a0Gina C. Duarte-Romero ’91, M.Ed. ’08 taught briefly in Miami-Dade County Public Schools\u00a0before purchasing\u00a0a preschool and later The Biltmore School. She\u00a0now\u00a0runs\u00a0The Biltmore School\u00a0and is\u00a0an adjunct professor\u00a0in FIU\u2019s School of Education and Human Development<\/a>, teaching\u00a0early childhood\u00a0education\u00a0courses.\u00a0Gina also chairs the FIU Parent & Family Council, which\u00a0connects\u00a0students\u2019 parents to FIU\u00a0and raises funds for student scholarships and other initiatives.\u00a0Gina and her husband,\u00a0Erlan\u00a0have been married for 23 years and have\u00a0two\u00a0children,\u00a0Sofia\u00a0and Diego, who\u00a0are both proud Panthers!<\/p>\n

How did your passion for education develop?<\/strong>
\nI wanted to be a teacher my entire life, but my passion\u00a0definitely comes\u00a0from the inspiration I get from my students, fellow faculty and family.\u00a0I love to make a positive difference in the lives of children and, as an adjunct professor at our FIU,\u00a0I\u00a0can\u00a0share my experiences with future educators.\u00a0I\u00a0love\u00a0to teach!<\/p>\n

When you were considering universities, what drew you to FIU?<\/strong>
\nWhen I was studying for my undergraduate degree,\u00a0FIU just made sense. The program for education was great,\u00a0and I wanted to stay local.\u00a0Later,\u00a0when it came time to get serious about a master’s degree, I connected with Dr. Angela Salmon,\u00a0and\u00a0when I saw\u00a0her passion, I\u00a0knew this was the place for me! It took me a while, but I got it done!<\/p>\n

Why do you choose to be so involved with FIU and the FIU Alumni Association?<\/strong>
\nFIU has been a part of me\u00a0for\u00a0my entire adult life.\u00a0I feel as if it is a family member. FIU is an incredible organization because of the people that put it together\u00a0\u2013\u00a0I love to feed\u00a0off\u00a0their passion! It is contagious!<\/p>\n

What was your most memorable experience from your time as a student,\u00a0and\u00a0what is your favorite memory as an FIU alumna?<\/strong>
\nI had many memorable experiences, but if I had to pick one as a student,\u00a0it would be the great friends that I made throughout the journey.<\/p>\n

As an FIU alumna, there have been so many experiences, I don’t even know where to begin! One organization very near and dear to my heart\u00a0is the FIU Parent\u00a0& Family\u00a0Council<\/a>.\u00a0This organization is spearheaded by Betty Newborn and is instrumental in supporting parents and connecting them to our FIU! I also love the football games, tailgate parties and just being part of our\u00a0transformational\u00a0FIU!<\/p>\n

Why do you think alumni should give back to their alma mater, no matter how\u00a0they choose to do so?<\/strong>
\nFIU is truly\u00a0transformational, but this would\u00a0not\u00a0be possible without the support of our alumni. As alumni, we have a lot to be proud of. FIU is no longer the little commuter school down S.W.\u00a08th Street.\u00a0Today,\u00a0we have multiple campuses,\u00a0we\u2019re\u00a0leaders in research, our medical program and law program are outstanding…\u00a0there are so many things to be proud of!<\/p>\n

And our\u00a0FIU\u00a0Alumni\u00a0Center will be a truly state-of-the-art addition to our already amazing campus. So, I would\u00a0definitely encourage\u00a0alumni to give back and continue making our FIU the very best university on the planet!<\/p>\n

What do you enjoy doing most outside of work?<\/strong>
\nWhat I enjoy the most is spending time with my family. I also love to travel and organize trips\u00a0\u2013\u00a0I even organize field trips outside of Miami for my students at\u00a0The Biltmore School. We have gone to Chicago, Washington, D.C.,\u00a0and\u00a0New York City,\u00a0to name\u00a0just\u00a0a few places. I love sharing my passion for travel,\u00a0history\u00a0and culture with my students.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FIU Alumni Association Board of Directors President\u00a0Gina C. Duarte-Romero ’91, M.Ed. ’08 taught briefly in Miami-Dade County Public Schools\u00a0before purchasing\u00a0a preschool and later The Biltmore School. She\u00a0now\u00a0runs\u00a0The Biltmore School\u00a0and is\u00a0an adjunct professor\u00a0in FIU\u2019s School of Education and Human Development, teaching\u00a0early childhood\u00a0education\u00a0courses.\u00a0Gina also chairs the FIU Parent & Family Council, which\u00a0connects\u00a0students\u2019 parents to FIU\u00a0and raises funds […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":16159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[369],"tags":[387,394,12,366,396],"class_list":["post-16158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni-spotlight","tag-alumni-association-board-of-directors","tag-college-of-arts-sciences-education","tag-fiu-alumni","tag-philanthropy","tag-school-of-education-and-human-development"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16158"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16158"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16164,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16158\/revisions\/16164"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}