SWIDA Board of Directors
Board meetings are held on Saturdays. SWIDA members are welcome to attend these board meetings as observers. Call the SWIDA office (505-255-8234) if interested. Some of our hardest working Board Members were guests who came to volunteer their services.
Would you like to be considered for a Board position in the future? If so, please CLICK HERE for a Nominee Information form.
The ballot for electing a new slate of Officers and Board Members will be emailed to all SWIDA members on November 1.
Board of Directors – Executive Committee
Amy Miller, MA, MFA, CALP
SWIDA Board President
Amy Miller, MA, MFA, ICALP is founder and Executive Director of May Center for Learning in Santa Fe, New Mexico(www.maycenter.org). Amy is a nationally Certified Instructor of Academic Language Practitioners (ICALP) for Dyslexia Intervention. She has provided professional development for thousands of teachers across New Mexico through reading science modules she designed for the New Mexico Public Education Department and other professional development courses. She also works closely with school districts, schools, and non-profit organizations across the state, focusing on best practices for students with learning differences, the science of teaching structured reading and writing, and the importance of structuring the learning environment to improve executive functioning skills. Amy is currently President of the International Dyslexia Association—Southwest Branch. Amy also founded Dyslexia Justice League, a community that connects students with dyslexia with adult mentors through superhero stories and artistic expression as a vehicle for learning about self-advocacy and their own personal strengths. Where I Come From, a book that Amy co-authored with May Center students, won the 2014 New Mexico/Arizona Young Adult Book of the Yea
Christine Quesada
SWIDA Board Vice-President
Christine Quesada is a resident of Rio Rancho, New Mexico and former Rio Rancho Public Schools teacher. She has over twenty years of experience in education, thirteen of which were
in the classroom and seven years as an instructional coach and coordinator. Christine is currently the Assistant Director of the Literacy and Humanities Bureau with the New Mexico
Public Education Department. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Language, Literacy and Sociocultural Studies from the University of New Mexico, a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics and International Studies from Texas A&M University, and is currently a Reading
Science Doctoral Student at Mount St. Joseph University. Christine is married and has three children. She is a passionate advocate of the science of reading and professional learning for
teachers so all students can have equitable and effective instruction in reading.
Dr. Tanya Ramos
Nominating Committee Chair and Board Secretary
Dr. Tanya Ramos is a bilingual (English/Spanish) licensed clinical psychologist and Autism Evaluation Provider (AEP) specializing in evaluation and therapeutic intervention with neurodiverse children and families. She is also the mother of two incredible dyslexic daughters. As a member of the SWIDA Board, she has served on the Community Engagement and Scholarship committees and also serves as the Nominating Committee Chair and Board Secretary.
She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Romance Languages & Literatures from Princeton University, and her Master’s Degree in the Psychology of Bilingual Children and Doctorate Degree in Psychology from Fordham University in New York. She completed her APA-approved pre-doctoral internship at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, with a specialization in early childhood developmental evaluations and therapeutic treatment, as well as a post-doctoral fellowship at the UNM Center for Development & Disability.
Dr. Ramos has over 15 years of experience practicing in a variety of hospital and outpatient settings in New Mexico, including Southwest Neuropsychology & Behavioral Health, UNM Hospital Young Children’s Health Center, Indian Health Service, and UNM Departments of Psychiatry and Pediatrics.
Cammie Archuleta
Recording Secretary
Cammie Archuleta graduated with a double major: a bachelor’s degree in Accountancy and a bachelor’s degree in Hotel, Restaurant, and Tourism Management from New Mexico State University (NMSU). While at NMSU, she was awarded the 2005 SWIDA college scholarship. For four years she worked for a public accounting firm in the auditing department. She currently lives in Las Cruces where she has been a grant Senior Accountant for NMSU since 2016.
Amy Stanton
Board Representative
Amy Stanton is the Director of Curriculum and Instruction at the May Center for Learning in Santa Fe. Amy is a Certified Academic Language Practitioner, CALP, and is a nationally certified multi-sensory language teacher for the IMSLEC accredited SEE Multi-Sensory Language Teaching Program. With a Master’s Degree in Recreational Therapy, Amy previously worked with children, teens and adults with mental health disorders. After eight years, she earned a teaching certificate and taught first grade. The opportunity to become a SEE Multi-Sensory Language teacher showed her that children with dyslexia needed a different instruction model to help them learn.
Directors-at-Large
Nereida Antúnez Gamon
Nereida is a District Literacy Specialist for K-6 in the Gadsden Independent School District. She has been an educator for fourteen years supporting English learners as a lower grade classroom teacher and Instructional Coach. She earned her Bachelor’s (2007) and Master’s (2011) degrees in education from New Mexico State University specializing in Bilingual Education. She is National Board Certified (2013) in the content area of English as a New Language-Early/Middle Child. She has co-presented at multiple conferences including La Cosecha and NMABE. After going through the LETRS Professional Learning in her district, Nereida has become an advocate for building teacher knowledge of the Science of Reading to provide students with quality instruction.
Angelica Cuevas-Duran
Angelica Cuevas-Duran has been employed with Rio Rancho Public Schools for seventeen years. Prior to becoming a Director for Rio Rancho’s Special Services Department, she served as the Child Find Coordinator, Bilingual Educational Diagnostician, Bilingual Coordinator, and Classroom Teacher. Before coming to RRPS she was a bilingual teacher in Albuquerque, NM, and Houston, TX.
Angelica holds a Bachelor’s degree in General Education with a focus on Bilingual Education from the University of Houston along with a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership from New Mexico Highlands University. Her Educational Diagnostician Licensure coursework was completed at the University of New Mexico. Angelica was awarded the First Year Teacher of the Year Golden Apple Award and most recently served on the team that developed the NM TEAM Identification of Dyslexia Supplemental Narrative and Worksheet for the New Mexico Public Education Department, Special Education Division.
Victoria Pando
Victoria Pando is the Director of Special Education Compliance at Gadsden Independent School District. She has more than 27 years of experience in education and professional development. Before starting her doctoral studies at New Mexico State University, Victoria spent over 10 years teaching bilingual special education and multi-age students. She also spent over 6 years as a national consultant and district literacy specialist where she was involved in the initial development of House Bill 230, relating to special education students and requiring interventions for students displaying characteristics of dyslexia. Through her doctoral dissertation work, Victoria focused on identifying key leadership issues to support the diverse educational needs of English learners with dyslexia.
For the last 8 years, Victoria has been an adjunct professor at New Mexico State University preparing future student leaders and school psychologists. Victoria also served as a national educational consultant for the Institute for Multisensory Education. She has experience and expertise in teaching, evaluating, and providing professional development to support English learners with dyslexia or learning differences. She is a CALT (Certified Academic Language Therapist) and her motto we can’t Stop “Until Everyone Can Read”.
Dr. Sunaina Shenoy
Dr. Sunaina Shenoy is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Special Education at the University of New Mexico. She earned a Ph.D. in Special Education from the University of California, Berkeley and completed her post-doctoral work at the Florida Center for Reading Research at Florida State University. She teaches in the Educational Diagnosis Certificate Program at UNM, specializing in courses related to the assessment and identification of students with disabilities. Her research interests are in assessment; early identification of reading disabilities in bilingual and multilingual populations; reading acquisition and dyslexia; bilingual special education; second language acquisition; and international special education.
Dr. Toby Soderberg
Toby Soderberg, PhD, is a native of New Mexico. He holds a MA in Educational Leadership from Western New Mexico University, an MA in Education with an emphasis in Reading/TESOL from Eastern New Mexico University, and a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction, with an emphasis in Educational Learning Technology from New Mexico State University. He is an adjunct professor for WNMU and NMSU. He currently serves on the board for the Southwest International Dyslexia Association, and is an educational consultant. In his role at the Southwest Regional Education Cooperative, he partners with the New Mexico Public Education Department and school districts around the state of New Mexico, to ensure teachers are supported in providing high quality instruction and all students in the state receive an equitable education.
Tawnya Yates
Tawnya Yates has worked as a reading interventionist in the public schools, serving students with dyslexia in both general and special education settings. She supports teachers in observing students’ reading behaviors and analyzing assessments in order to determine appropriate instructional next steps. Tawnya currently supports special education teachers, helping them apply knowledge of reading acquisition as they individualize instruction for students with disabilities. She also assists teachers in appreciating the value of rich complex text and how to make it accessible to students with word recognition difficulties. Tawnya is also a LETRS facilitator.
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