Thelma Rios, MBEd, pHCLE

Thelma Rios worked for more than 25 years in public education teaching bilingual education, writing and editing curriculum, mentor training, delivering presentations; the last 16 years were spent in the human resources area.  While in Human Resources she worked directly with the head of the department in project development and management, contract distribution, management of immigration processes, work authorizations, compensation and directly supporting the head of Human Resources on special projects.

During her tenure in Human Resources, she worked in two Texas public school districts participating in multi-department projects.  Highlights of the major projects include: (i) facilitating the visa and permanent residency processes of more than 250 international teachers; (ii)conducting an internal audit of I-9 forms and ensuring work eligibility of all employees; (iii) successfully distributing and ensuring receipt and acceptance of employment documents of more than 7,000 employees; (iv) managing districtwide compensation processes and; (v) coordinating the successful fingerprinting of more than 20,000 school district employees per State of Texas guidelines and requirements.

Working with these various projects provided Ms. Rios the opportunity to efficiently communicate with staff, lead and participate in interview processes of staff at all levels, develop new processes while enhancing existing ones, interface with staff districtwide,  work with outside immigration counsel to address the immigration needs of staff, and work with various district departments for project completion. Most recently Thelma has been working as an English/Spanish interpreter.

Ms. Rios holds an undergraduate degree in Sociology and graduate degree in Social Psychology from Universidad del Valle de Guatemala and a Masters Degree in Bilingual Education from Southern Methodist University.