Minerva Muñoz

About Minerva

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.

Professional development

Presentations

• "Class and Classism in Higher Education,” John Tate Academic Advising Conference, University of Minnesota, Co-presenter with Kirsten Collins, 2014
• "Understanding Class, Classism and Poverty,” Student Services Unit, College of Education and Human Development, 2013 and University Libraries, Co-presenter with Kirsten Collins, 2013
• Keynote Address, “Paso al Futuro” Latino Student Graduation Ceremony" Office for Equity and Diversity, 2011
• “Online Communication Strategies,” Annual Mid-America Association of Education Opportunity Program Personnel, Annual Professional Conference, 2007
• "The Intersection of Race and Welfare on Child Maltreatment,” McNair Scholars Conference, San Juan Puerto Rico, 2001 Awards/Achievements

Awards

• Social Justice Training Institute Graduate, Long Beach, California, 2013
• New Career Excellence Award, College of Education and Human Development, 2013
• Gross Family Management and Leadership Award, Humphrey Institute, 2009
• MacArthur Interdisciplinary Graduate Fellowship Recipient, Graduate School, 2003 – 2005
• Community of Scholars Program Participant, Graduate School, 2003
• Ronald E. McNair Post-baccalaureate Achievement Program Participant, 2001