BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Christal Burnett Sánchez is the Director of the Rice Education Department in the Glasscock School for Continuing Studies. She brings nearly two decades of experience working in the field of education as a bilingual teacher and university faculty. Before joining Rice University, Dr. Burnett Sánchez served as an Associate Professor of Bilingual Education at the University of Houston-Downtown (UHD). During her 15 years at UHD, she also served as department chair, assistant chair, and the principal investigator for DAIR (Diversity Access Inclusion Representation) to Teach, a program designed to diversify the teaching field by providing an accessible, inclusive path to teaching that increases the recruitment, retention, and support of diverse teacher candidates. Dr. Burnett Sánchez serves on the Board of Directors for SMART Family Literacy and for the Texas Chapter of the National Association for Multicultural Education (TXNAME). Dr. Burnett Sánchez’s research interests include improving family and community collaboration with schools and increasing educational equity and opportunities for marginalized populations. Dr. Burnett Sánchez holds a Doctor of Education in International Education Development from Columbia University, a Master of Arts in Education from Stanford University, and a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from Carnegie Mellon University.