Dr. Floralba Arbelo

Council Term: 2021-2024

Dean of Student Affairs and Associate Professor

I have over 15 years of administrative and faculty experience in higher education across various settings which include New York, Puerto Rico, Florida, Virginia, and Oregon. I have also collaborated at the community-based level to promote education, research, mentoring, and professional development of Hispanics in the U.S., Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Guatemala. My professional interests are focused on Hispanic student success, research, innovation in support and retention, student affairs, faculty development, and capacity building. I am an inaugural alumna of HACU's Higher Ed leadership institute and have successfully completed two Title V Developing HSI grants.

I have worked at my current HSI for almost 12 years and through experience, research, knowledge sharing, and collaboration with other HSI scholar-practitioners I understand that there has been a great increase of Latinx enrollment but as a community, we are still struggling with college completion rates, representation of Latina/os at the administrative and faculty levels, and confronting equitable practices that are sensitive to the particular needs of Latina/os. I also understand that HSIs provide great social mobility for Latinx, yet there is some work to be done to achieve servingness. It is an honor to serve as a council member with AHSIE.