Ortiz earned his Ph.D. from the School of Education’s Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, and now serves as the associate dean of arts and sciences at Madison College, as well as the vice president of the dual-language charter school Nuestro Mundo.

Prior to receiving his Ph.D., Ortiz attended UW-Whitewater as an undergraduate. He remembers his mentor, John Dominguez, an economics faculty member, who looked and talked like Ortiz. He cites this as a powerful experience that raised the bar for him in terms of the expectations for academic rigor.

Originally planning on entering the corporate world, Ortiz soon realized his knack for administrative work and his appreciation for programs that have the ability to transform lives. Ortiz says he sees education as a path to upward mobility.

Read more about Ortiz here.