Monica Montoya is a College Associate Professor and Project Director/PI for the Title IV_E Curriculum Grant/Child Welfare Scholar Program. She is a Ph.D. Candidate in Educational Leadership and Administration/TPAL in the College of HEST at NMSU. She has over 25 years of social work practice, specifically bi-lingual community-based mental health services with children and families at risk of entering or in the child welfare system. She has also taught SOWK practice, HBSE, Socio-Cultural, and policy courses throughout both the undergrad and graduate levels.

Her research interests include culturally responsive and anti-oppressive social work practice with Latino children and families, and the Integration of Artificial intelligence (AI) in Social Work Education. Additionally, she is a developing critical scholar in social work committed to social justice and equity for underserved populations in the borderlands, and her dissertation is focused on critically examining institutional oppression and equity issues that impact Latina Faculty Experiences and the Tenure Process in Hispanic Serving Institutions.