Barika Barboza

Barika Barboza is an Academic Director at ACUE. She was drawn to ACUE because of its mission to ensure student success and equity through quality instruction. Her connection to student-centered learning and equitable outcomes was established early through her educational experiences as a Bennett Belle and as a graduate student at New York University (NYU).

Ms. Barboza believes in the promise of higher education and its ability to advance student success for all through well-designed learning environments. She sees ACUE’s programming as an opportunity to impact student learning at scale.

Before coming to ACUE, she served as the Director of Learning and Program Evaluation at Miami Dade College (MDC), where she advanced the outcomes assessment process through collaboration, capacity building, and transparency. She also worked with faculty and student support professionals to strengthen teaching and learning through robust assessment methodology. These processes and practices were recognized by the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) in 2020 when MDC received the Sustained Excellence in Assessment Award (EIA).

Additionally, Ms. Barboza designed and implemented MDC’s Competency-Based Education (CBE) framework as a mechanism for closing equity gaps for learners. As a result of her work in Competency-Based Education, she was named an ACT College and Career Readiness Champion in 2019. Ms. Barboza also serves as a Higher Learning Commission (HLC) Assessment Mentor, an Association of General and Liberal Studies (AGLS) Board Member and an American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Institute on General Education and Assessment (IGEA) Faculty Mentor as well as a founding member of the Creating Wicked Students Collaborative. Ms. Barboza started her journey as a reflective practitioner in higher education at Hostos Community College in the South Bronx.

Ms. Barboza holds a BA in Psychology from Bennett College and a MA in Psychology from NYU. She hopes to serve as a facilitative practitioner to those moving through their professional learning journey.