Maria Uribe Henriquez

Duplin County Schools

Maria Uribe received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Foreign Languages from Universidad del Atlántico in Barranquilla, Colombia, her home country. Maria came to the United States with Participate Learning, a foreign teacher exchange program, in 2009. She started working at James Kenan High School as an ESL teacher. In 2013, Maria earned a Master of Arts degree in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). That same year, she started working as the ESL Lead Teacher for Duplin County Schools. In this position, she’s had the opportunity to provide professional development to all certified staff in the district. She has also provided coaching to classroom teachers and assisted ESL teachers with lesson planning and curriculum alignment.

Maria has participated in multiple English language development professional groups in the state of North Carolina. Most notably, she was a part of the creation of the EL Lead Teacher Collaborative under the supervision of the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. She has also created professional development courses for the NCDPI Canvas platform.

Maria has been a presenter at several national language teaching conferences such as the TESOL Conference. As of April 2022, Maria has joined the Migrant Education Program in the role of program coordinator. Her current appointment as ESL/MEP/Family and Cultural Engagement Coordinator has expanded her responsibilities to include cultural and parent engagement.

As a PLA fellow, Maria seeks to improve her overall leadership skills such as relationship-building, conflict management, adaptability and innovation. She also desires to gain a deeper understanding of what it takes to be a truly effective leader in order to continue serving the Duplin County Schools community.