Dr. María Cioè-Peña earned her PhD in the Urban Education from The Graduate Center - City University of New York, where she was also an Advance Research Collaborative fellow and a Presidential MAGNET Fellow. She is a former elementary school teacher whose passion for children and social justice in education pushes her to fight for equity and full inclusion for children of diverse backgrounds and abilities.

With a B.A. in English and a M.S.Ed. in teaching urban students with disabilities, Dr. Cioè-Peña’s research focuses on bilingual children with dis/abilities, their families and their ability to access multilingual learning spaces within NYC public schools. Her interests are deeply rooted in language practices and dis/ability awareness within schools and families. Dr. Cioè-Peña was recently awarded first place for 2019 Outstanding Dissertation of the Year by the National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE).

Intersectional and touches on the following areas: Disability Studies, Inclusion, Special Education, Bilingual Education, Translanguaging, Urban Education, Latinx issues, Mothering/Motherhood, Immigrant issues and Descriptive Inquiry