Alumni Profiles

Romina Carrillo, Higher Education

Romina G. Carrillo is an assistant director for instructional improvement at the Boston Plan for Excellence in Public Education. She received her Ed.D. in June 2003 from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she also served as a member of the Harvard Educational Review's editorial board and received a Spencer Research Apprenticeship Grant. Romi earned her BA in liberal studies, with a bilingual emphasis, from San Diego State University and her master's in education from Harvard Graduate School of Education. Prior to attending HGSE, she taught in bilingual elementary classrooms in California and trained new teachers for Teach for America. Before joining the Boston Plan for Excellence, Romi taught at Brown University and was assistant superintendent for teaching & learning for Oakland Public Schools.

Romi's dissertation, "Teacher as Learner: Portraits of Professional Development," focused on the role of teacher learning for mentors who work with and learn from student teachers in high school settings. In her dissertation study, she explored how mentor teachers grapple with their own conceptions of what teaching and learning look like against their previous conceptions of teaching practice constructed from their past education and experience. Her choice of topic was influenced by her previous experiences as a mentor to student teachers and in her work with teacher education programs in California, Washington DC, and Rhode Island. Professors Linda Wing, Richard Elmore, and Sharon Rallis served as Romi's readers.

As an assistant director for instructional improvement with the Boston Plan for Excellence, Romi is working with principals, teachers, and coaches in the Boston Public Schools. She is coeditor of Acts of Inquiry in Qualitative Research (HER Reprint Series, 2000). Romi was born and raised in Calexico, California.