Gilarie Vale Figueroa is a distinguished Director of Operations and Academic Affairs with over a decade of experience in higher education. Her career is marked by a steadfast commitment to enhancing the teaching and learning process, aiming to develop competitive citizens equipped for the labor market and society. She possesses extensive expertise in project management, operational planning, strategic planning, accreditation, and assessment. Her experience includes direct collaboration with executive leadership in academic institutions, formulating work plans, setting goals, and implementing effective strategies. Gilarie is also well-versed in research on educational approaches, instructional design models, learning technologies in higher education, and learning consulting.
In 2024, Gilarie assumed the role of Director of Institutional Academic Affairs and Development of Special Projects at Dewey University. In this capacity, she participates in developing and executing the institution’s strategic plan, aligning its educational mission and vision with academic objectives and long-term goals. She monitors and evaluates compliance with key performance indicators related to educational quality and institutional growth. Her responsibilities also include collaborating in formulating academic policies and making decisions that promote the sustainability and advancement of the educational mission. She supervises and coordinates the development of academic programs, ensuring their alignment with educational quality standards and accreditation requirements. Additionally, she leads the evaluation and review process of academic programs, fostering continuous improvement of the educational offerings. Gilarie encourages the professional development of the teaching staff by planning training sessions and workshops that foster pedagogical excellence. She also designs, coordinates, and implements special projects that support growth and innovation within the institution.
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Before her current role, from 2022 to 2024, Gilarie served as the Director of Campus at Dewey University. She developed strategies and work plans focused on ensuring the profitability and economic stability of the educational institution. She established necessary strategies to achieve objectives in areas such as new and continuous student enrollment, net income, retention, educational organization, operating costs, and placements. She planned and directed recruitment efforts for new students, ensuring compliance with enrollment objectives. Gilarie managed the institution’s development plans and goals, established projections of income, expenses, and funds, and ensured their faithful compliance. She coordinated and supervised work related to the institution’s operations, implemented and ensured compliance with regulations governing administrative and academic processes, and guided the creation and development of administrative, academic, and student committees. She also presented statistical data on the progress and behavior of the institution’s development indicators, coordinated work related to visits from accrediting agencies, self-studies, and audits, and established links with the communities where the institution is geographically located. Gilarie promoted active and ethical interrelations with corporate, commercial, and community societies.
From 2021 to 2022, Gilarie held the position of Academic Associate Director at Dewey University. She was responsible for implementing the institution’s educational model at both the certified program and academic levels. She prepared academic programming and assigned courses to faculty based on their specialties, supervised faculty to ensure compliance with academic policies and procedures, and evaluated faculty performance, designing corrective action plans when necessary. She organized and offered training for the professional development of the faculty and supervised and evaluated Program Coordinators, Leading Professors, the Registrar’s Office, the Center of Resources for Learning (Library), and Student Affairs. Gilarie developed certificate and undergraduate programs in line with the institution’s goals, ensured compliance with academic program objectives, monitored students’ academic progress, created retention plans, and developed strategies to maintain a retention level of 75% or higher. She addressed and resolved situations presented by students and faculty, including referrals, identification and determination for the assignment of academic supplements and tutorials, among others.
In addition to her roles at Dewey University, since 2021, Gilarie has served as the Doctoral Committee Chair in the Department of Distance Education at the Inter American University of Puerto Rico, Ponce Campus. She convenes official meetings between students and committees to discuss, clarify doubts, make decisions, and offer feedback related to mentoring. She supports students in developing work plans, resolves disagreements or differences in viewpoints to achieve consensus on recommendations and requests, and verifies throughout the process—from proposal preparation to research development and dissertation writing—that students meet academic standards and applicable ethical and legal requirements. Gilarie advises students during the writing of research proposal chapters and the final doctoral dissertation document, actively participates in assessing students’ research capacities and skills during oral defense processes, monitors data collection, analysis, and management, coordinates the selection of readers for the Oral Defense Committee, and notifies academic leadership of any matters related to students’ academic progress.
