40 Education Sciences Building
TRIO Main Line: 612-625-0772
munoz008@umn.edu
Minerva officially started her journey with TRIO in 2000, when she was hired as an office assistant for the TRIO programs office. TRIO quickly became an extremely valuable community throughout her educational and career journey. In 2001 Minerva participated in the TRIO Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Scholars Program at the University of Minnesota. In 2002, she started working for TRIO Upward Bound as a teaching assistant over the course of three summers. Minerva completed her bachelor of arts in sociology from the College of Liberal Arts in 2003. In 2005, Minerva joined the Upward Bound professional staff as the TRIO Upward Bound Advisor and Project Coordinator.
Minerva left TRIO UB for a brief period to serve as the Assistant Director for the Bridge to Academic Excellence program out of the Office of Equity and Diversity from 2008-2010. Minerva earned her master of public policy degree from the Humphrey Institute, University of Minnesota, with a specialized emphasis in collective action and policy change. Minerva rejoined TRIO Upward Bound to serve as the program director in 2010 and became the director of TRIO Student Support Services in 2016. Minerva is dedicated to advancing equity and social justice in education. As program director, her goal is to lead a program where students are self-empowered to succeed in higher education and become leaders in the world.