Mariette Ayala, PhD

Mariette is the Director of Curriculum and Instruction for TGH. Mariette Ayala served as the Director of the Urban and Off Campus Support Services at University of Massachusetts Boston from 2020 to 2023. In tandem with her work supporting students with food and home insecurities at UMass Boston for the past eight years, she has worked as a Research Consultant for the New York University Metro Center for Transformation in Urban schools from 2018-2022. During her undergraduate career at UMass Amherst, she studied at Shanghai University where she received a certificate in Advanced Chinese and Business. She completed her MA in Student Affairs and Higher Education at Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 2013 and her PhD in Urban Education, Leadership and Policy at the University of Massachusetts Boston in 2019.

She enjoys working as an advocate for underrepresented youth in her community and she hopes for her research to support them and their families. Dr. Ayala has published articles on Urban-Serving Institutions and Youth Activism. Her research focuses on technology, social justice art, the Haitian Diaspora, family engagement, and urban education policy.