Juliana Urtubey

2021 National Teacher of the Year
Juliana Urtubey

Juliana Urtubey is the 2021 National Teacher of the Year and Nevada's 2021 Teacher of the Year. She is a bilingual hybrid teacher and special education instructional strategist in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In this two-part interview with Colorín Colorado, she discusses the challenges and opportunities of teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic, offers some ideas for engaging multilingual families from a distance, and shares her own personal story about coming from Colombia as a child to the U.S.

Articles by Juliana Urtubey

Biography

L. Juliana Urtubey teaches at Booker Elementary in central Las Vegas and is the 2021 Nevada Teacher of the Year.

Previously, she taught at Crestwood Elementary in downtown Las Vegas, where she was warmly known as Ms. Earth due to her work in beautifying the school with gardens and murals. Her activities there included the development of the outdoor garden classroom, a weekly garden club, and leveraging the garden as a welcoming space for families.

Juliana holds a bachelor's and master's Degree in bilingual general and special elementary education and is a National Board–certified teacher (ECYA Exceptional Needs Specialist, 2018). Juliana is a National Board for Professional Teaching Standards teacher fellow, an Understood Mentor Fellow, a Teach Plus fellow, a member of the NVDE Superintendent Teacher Advisory Committee, and a professional learning facilitator with the Nevada National Board Professional Learning Institute. She is a 2018 Roger’s Foundation Heart of Education winner, a recipient of the 2019 CPLC Esperanza Latina Teaching Award, and a recipient of the HEAN Teacher of the Year (NV).  

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