Faculty & Dean's Office Staff


	Belinda Deneen Wallace, PhD Director of Liberal Arts & Integrative Studies For LAIS Advisors contact and scheduling information please visit this page

Dr. Belinda Deneen Wallace (she/her) earned her PhD from the University of Maryland at College Park. She is the Director of the Liberal Arts and Integrative Studies Program and an Associate Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature, where she also serves as the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies in English. Dr. Wallace teaches classes on Critical Literary Analysis, Global Black Speculative Fiction, Contemporary Caribbean Literature(s), Experiential Learning, and Queer, Intersectional, and Black Feminist Studies. Strongly dedication to student success, Dr. Wallace has extensive expertise in student mentoring, curriculum development, college prep/summer bridge programs, boasting a proven history of empowering students to excel academically. In terms of research, Dr. Wallace is a postcolonialist whose research is rooted in intersectionality, new historicism, and cultural semiotics. Her writings have appeared in a number of journals, including PMLA, Small Axe, Cultural Dynamics, Journal of Canadian Studies, Caribbean Quarterly, and Radical Teacher. She is the recipient of the 2022 Canadian Committee on the History of Sexuality Best Article Award.


	Erika K. Nielson, PhD Lecturer III For LAIS Advisors contact and scheduling information please visit this page
Dr. Erika K. Nielson earned a Doctor of Philosophy in Postsecondary Student Success (focus in literacy) from Texas State University, a Master of Arts in Reading Education from The University of Texas of the Permian Basin, and a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from Texas A&M University. Previous to her time at UNM, she taught at Texas State University in San Marcos for 12 years. She teaches courses in the Liberal Arts & Integrative Studies Program and First Year Experience courses at UNM. She has been an educator for over 33 years, whose focus and knowledge in educational research through qualitative and quantitative analysis of data provides practical application to benefit students, employees, and industry leaders. She designs and delivers customized and specialized programs, tailored to specific needs and audiences, using traditional and non-traditional methods. Skills: Creation of instructional materials, Editing/Revising, Educational Writing, Team Collaboration, External and internal communications, Copywriting, Strategic Planning, Yoga Instruction Research Interests: Common Experience and Reading, Yoga, Mindfulness, and Self-compassion practices for students, educators, and other professionals, LGBTQIA+ training for professionals, Critical Reading, Use of pop culture for increased reading comprehension


	Angel Poling, MS Lecturer III For LAIS Advisors contact and scheduling information please visit this page


	Debarati Dutta, PhD Senior Lecturer II For LAIS Advisors contact and scheduling information please visit this page

Dr. Debarati Dutta (she/her/hers) is a multilingual and transnational literacy educator with 20+ years of teaching across multiple disciplines and institutions. At University College, Debarati presently teaches courses on college readiness, critical reading, first-year research, student success and wellbeing, among others. She also engages in a variety of scholarly and public-facing activities to promote disability justice and nurture youth leadership in immigrant and marginalized communities. Debarati values curiosity, compassion, humility, and open heartedness. Her professional portfolio is shaped by non-western worldviews; cripistemology; and antiracist, decolonial, feminist & indigenous theories of education. She designs cooperative learning ecologies that foreground joy, mutual aid, risk-taking (and failure) & wellbeing; foster attention, critical thinking, linguistic & discursive diversity and place-based commitments; and seek collective liberation and wellbeing. In her classes, students not only develop skill-based practices and subject expertise but also the ability (and commitment) to collaborate with others across various axes of difference for the greater good. Debarati loves to read, write, cook, drink tea, decorate, walk, and take power naps. She is a custodian of memories with an abiding love for conversation, stories (and storytellers), fragrant flowers, handcrafted textiles, & travel.


	María Bernadette Tafoya Senior Operations Manager For LAIS Advisors contact and scheduling information please visit this page

	Syrus Chavez Administrative Assistant 1 For LAIS Advisors contact and scheduling information please visit this page

Faculty & Dean's Office Staff

Belinda Deneen Wallace, PhD

Erika K. Nielson, PhD

Angel Poling, MS

Debarati Dutta, PhD

María Bernadette Tafoya

Syrus Chavez

For LAIS Advisors contact and scheduling information please visit this page