Dr. Ximena Nájar, a Pueblo native, recently graduated from the University of Colorado Denver with the a Doctorate of Education with a concentration in Leadership for Educational Equity. In addition to her doctorate she also earned her Principal Licensure.
Dr. Nájar graduated from South High School in 2002 where she had completed 67 college credits. She was the first Chicana and person of color to have successfully earned that many college credits while in high school. She then finished her bachelors degree and graduated from Colorado State University Pueblo in 2004. In 2006, at the age of 21, She graduated from New Mexico Highlands University with her masters in Clinical Social Work.
Dr. Nájar moved to Denver in 2006 and began her career as social case worker, working on behalf of children ages 0-18 at Denver Human Services. After 5 years, Dr. Nájar obtained her Special Service Provider License through the Colorado Department of Education to begin her lifelong goal of working in an educational setting where she could have a greater impact in her work with students of color. Dr. Nájar has been a school social worker for the past 13 years with Denver Public Schools.
She looks back on her own life and educational journey where she started to face real life experiences with race, class and gender as early as third grade. She states that even now in education there is no such thing as “equal opportunities” for all students because students of color are still very much overlooked. Within her introduction of her dissertation she stated “educators, statistics and society told me that because I was a little brown girl that I was destined to fail before my journey had even begun…students of color like me were not dumb, we just learned differently.” She explains she was only exempt from falling through the cracks because her mother was an educator and she knew how to navigate the system and refused to let educators exclude her from opportunities that were meant to be for all students.
Because of her mother, Angelina Najar, both she and her sister Xochilt went on to receive higher education, both received their bachelors, masters and Principal licenses. “There was not one teacher, counselor, or administrator that put us on that path to success, not one. It was our mother.”
These experiences are why Dr. Nájar says she has remained in education for the past 13 years as an educator and social worker so that she can utilize her voice to advocate for all students who have been “silenced, pushed out, or have fallen through the cracks because they look and sound different.” Dr. Nájar is a strong advocate for both her current and past students and has been a valuable asset to her school community and the students that she serves.
“My students and alumni are so proud to now call me “Doctor or Doctora” on their own and I am still adjusting to the formality of it all. But I am deeply honored to be seen as their “role model and hero” as it’s very humbling to be reminded of how much my students value the role I play in each of their lives. It’s truly a blessing to share our wins with one another as a community. I’m looking forward to where my work will lead me in the future.”
