Board

Dania Vazquez has been the Headmaster of Margarita Muniz Academy since July 2011. Prior to joining the Academy, Ms. Vazquez was the Associate Executive Director at the Center for Collaborative Education in Boston, where she focused on a number of key initiatives including principal preparation, leadership development, curriculum development, and school governance. She helped lead whole-school transformation efforts in Boston and throughout the state. In addition, she coordinated a range of services for the Boston Pilot Schools/Horace Mann Network including leadership coaching, professional development, and project coordination as well as Pilot Network advocacy with the district and community.

As an educator and practitioner, Ms. Vazquez has diverse experiences serving grades K-12 as a bilingual special education teacher, staff developer, facilitator, and principal of small schools primarily in New York City for over 21 years before coming to Boston. She is a co-founder of The Essence School, a successful middle school located in Brooklyn, New York. She served as principal in a small alternative art school serving grades 6-12 and principal of a K-8 elementary school, both in New York City. Her areas of expertise include ESL, language development, literacy, curriculum development, organizational development, and school transformation.

She has an M.S. in Bilingual Special Education from Bank Street College and an Ed.D. with a focus on organizational development and school leadership from Teachers College, Columbia University.

For the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, Ms. Vazquez serves on the Grants Policy & Program Committee and Organizational Measurement Committee.