On April 20, FIU faculty members congratulated one of their own as Elizabeth Baquero became one of the inaugural Rewarding Excellence in Teaching Incentives (RETI) recipients for her class, Fundamentals of Communication (COM 3714). This award recognizes faculty members who work to create learning-centered, inclusive classroom experiences while also providing other faculty members the opportunity to build their teaching excellence portfolio.
Besides teaching communications at FIU, Baquero works full-time at Weill Cornell Medicine as the company’s research program manager on multiple health programs that are funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). There, she focuses on improving health education, health equity, and reducing health disparities. She also runs her own company, Elizabeth Baquero Consulting Inc., where she offers one-on-one coaching on the navigation of higher education and how a student can work on entering the job field. Her team leadership and communication skills, and her motivation to work toward the greater good, led to her receiving this prestigious award. However, she couldn’t have earned this award if it weren’t for the help and support of her mentors Dr. Maria Elena Villar, whom she worked with when she was in grad school and Hugo Ottolenghi. Congratulations to Ms. Baquero on this wonderful accomplishment!
