Lloyd International Honors College

Nodia Mena

Educational Leadership and Cultural Foundations

Nodia Mena has been a Lecturer of Spanish in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at UNCG and currently completing her doctorate in Educational Leadership and Cultural Foundations in the School of Education at UNCG. She has served as a cultural ambassador of Garifunas, African and Native American-descended people in the Caribbean and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Educational Leadership and Cultural  Foundations at UNC Greensboro. In addition to having taught Spanish, she has taught Honors Colloquia as well as a seminar on Garifunas. She is a co-founder of the Afro-Latin American/Latinx Studies Project in the African-American and African Diaspora Studies Program at UNC Greensboro and co-authored the article “Garifunas in the African Diaspora” for the Carolina Peacemaker. She has also worked with the Racial Equity team at UNC Greensboro and was recently featured with her son on NPR. Her 2019 TEDx talk on connecting with Garifuna culture may be seen here. In 2020 she received a Lloyd International Honors College Teaching and Mentoring Excellence Award.