Mandi Torrez is a 2020 Teach Plus New Mexico Teaching Policy Fellow. She is a third grade teacher at Placitas Elementary School in Placitas, New Mexico. Mandi puts an emphasis on culturally and linguistically responsive instruction, encouraging students to bring their lives into the classroom. Mandi was named as the New Mexico Public Education Department’s 2020 Teacher of the Year and was the 2019 Teacher of the Year for Bernalillo Public Schools. She earned her BS in Journalism from the University of Colorado and her MS in Integrated Elementary and Special Education from Boston’s Wheelock College.
