Dolores Durán-Cerda

Dolores Durán-Cerda, Ph.D.
Instructor, Spanish Language and Latin American Literature, Downtown Campus

Look in on Dolores Durán-Cerda's Spanish language classroom and you may see students dancing while their popular instructor strums her guitar and sings. This is Durán-Cerda's innovative method for teaching students Spanish names for body parts. "Anyone who wants to learn Spanish, can. It isn't hard," she says.

Durán-Cerda, the daughter of a Chilean university professor and a Mexican-American migrant mother who worked her way through the University of Arizona to become a Spanish educator, clearly has education in her DNA. "Teaching is my passion," she says, "especially teaching here. Pima is very dedicated to recruiting and retaining students from all backgrounds, ages, ethnicities. We have our own little international community. I thrive on that. The students learn from each other. Non-traditional students want to be here; they are very inquisitive. They make the class alive."

• B.A., University of Iowa (Phi Beta Kappa); M.A. and Ph.D. in Latin American Literature, University of Arizona
• On Pima Community College faculty: adjunct, 1995-2001; full-time faculty, 2002-present. Professor of the Year, Arizona International College at Univ. of Ariz., 1999-2000; Downtown Campus "Gem Award" (For Outstanding Services And Commitment), 2004, 2005
• Other teaching positions: University of Arizona
• Favorite activities: reading poetry; listening to and playing music (guitar, clarinet); singing; playing with puppy, Alma; documenting Tucson murals; creating miniature items for doll houses.