Lee Delaino, MTS, has 20 years of experience in community and state colleges working in equity and access programs, with an emphasis on student development, advising, teaching and coaching. She earned her B.A. in English Literature from the University of Florida and her Masters in Theological Studies from the University of Toronto (Trinity College). She is currently a Ph. D. candidate in Higher Education Administration at the University of Florida.
Lee has always worked to support and create greater access for underrepresented students in higher education. She began her career working Developmental Education, teaching reading, writing, and ESL classes. She also taught ESL for two years in Budapest, Hungary. At George Brown College in Toronto, ON, she began working as a job coach for a culinary arts program specifically designed for students with mental health and addiction challenges. This put her career in access in high gear, and she continued to work in various access programs, creating new programs geared towards students accessing trades education while also upgrading their academic skills. She participated in a project researching how to improve the learning skills of students who had experienced violence, under the Leadership of Jenny Horsman, author of Too Scared to Learn: Women, Violence, and Education. For the past 8 years, she has worked at Santa Fe College in her hometown, Gainesville, Florida, as the Coordinator of Academic Advising and now as the Learning Commons Director.
