Olivia Flores, M.A.T. is a dynamic educator and leader of over a decade from the Chicago area and a proud transplant of six years to the Kansas City community. A multiethnic, non-native Spanish speaker, Olivia’s trajectory changed when she received the Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship that funded her own Spanish immersion in Argentina.

Olivia dedicated herself to teaching English Language Arts on Chicago’s Southside before completing a Fulbright grant in Colombia. The Green Fellowship brought Olivia to Kansas City where she founded the Kauffman School’s AP Literature and Composition course where her students achieved a 78% pass rate on the College Board exam. Olivia then moved to Kansas City Public Schools where she championed the region’s first 7th-12th Dual Language Spanish Immersion Program as Paseo Academy’s Spanish Literacy teacher and advocated for equitable options for the Latine community as a member of the Board of Education’s Hispanic Development Committee.

Today, the program serves over 100 bilingual students, is completing its 4-year dual credit pilot with UMKC, manages a $10,000.00 BeGreat Together grant, and continues to offer bilingual education to students of proud African American, Afro-Latine, Indigenous, Latine, and Caucasian backgrounds.