OELA Announces new Acting Assistant Deputy Secretary and Director

Montserrat Garibay headshot
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Industry news

Montserrat Garibay is the new Acting Assistant Deputy Secretary and Director for the Office of English Language Acquisition. Ms. Garibay is a National Board-Certified teacher and served our English language learners for eight years as a bilingual prekindergarten teacher for the Austin Independent School District. In addition to her teaching career, Ms. Garibay served as Vice President for Certified Employees with Education Austin, a merged local union with the American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association, and the American Federation of Labor Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO). Just before coming to the U.S. Department of Education, she was the secretary-treasurer of the Texas AFL-CIO. 

An activist for education and immigration issues, Ms. Garibay came to the United States from Mexico City as an undocumented immigrant and became a citizen 20 years later. She has been instrumental in promoting opportunities for all students, including those from immigrant families. She promoted passage of the Texas version of the DREAM Act and comprehensive immigration reform. Ms. Garibay is a graduate of the National Labor Leadership Initiative with the Worker Institute at Cornell University. She is fluent in Spanish and is a University of Texas, Austin graduate with a master’s degree in Bilingual Education and bachelor’s degrees in Spanish Language Teaching and Applied Learning and Development. 

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