About me
Dr. Janelle Taylor Garcia
Proudly born and raised in the Southwest Valley of Albuquerque, Dr. Janelle Taylor Garcia brings more than thirty years of experience in education, spanning roles as a teacher, administrator, professor, and academic researcher. She also worked in the private sector with Hewlett-Packard (HP) as an education sales representative and onboarding trainer, broadening her perspective on technology and education partnerships.
Dr. Garcia has extensive experience in education policy and legislative analysis. She served as lead analyst for the New Mexico Senate Education Committee and as a program evaluator with the Legislative Finance Committee (LFC). In these roles, she led and contributed to evaluations on topics including childcare assistance effectiveness, cybersecurity, implementation of the Indian Education Act, bilingual and multicultural education program effectiveness, pandemic impacts on learning, and prekindergarten quality and outcomes. A manuscript she co-authored on prekindergarten quality in New Mexico was published in the International Journal of Child Care and Education Policy in 2023. Currently, Dr. Garcia serves as Manager of the Communications Bureau with the New Mexico Public Education Department. She also serves as a part-time Assistant Professor with New Mexico State University and teaches a course on educating bilingual learners.
Dr. Garcia's doctoral research focused on educational leadership in the U.S.–Mexico border region, focusing on Hispanic female public school administrators. She was selected as a Kellogg Fellow with the Hispanic Border Leadership Institute at New Mexico State University and was a recipient of a dissertation fellowship through the University of New Mexico's Center for Regional Studies.
Dr. Garcia holds a B.S. in Elementary Education with a minor in Bilingual Education and an M.A. in Multicultural Education—emphasizing the education of Native American students—from the University of New Mexico. She earned her Ph.D. in Educational Administration from New Mexico State University, making her proudly both a Lobo and an Aggie.
Dr. Garcia is married to James A. Garcia, an educator with the Rio Rancho Public Schools. They have two sons, David James and Brian Alexander.
