Meet the Vice Provost

Jorge F. Figueroa Flores, Ph.D. is the inaugural Vice Provost for Curriculum and Strategic Initiatives.

He provides leadership for curriculum development and management, undergraduate education, core curriculum, transfer agreements, and university scheduling. He supervises the first-year seminar, college readiness (TSI), and compliance with state and university policies for undergraduate education, the undergraduate council and the university curriculum committee, and the university course inventory. He also facilitates academic partnerships that support the university's strategic mission. Prior to the Vice Provost role, Figueroa Flores was the Associate Dean for Research, Inclusion, and Innovation for the College of Professional Education, where he supervised all research, inclusion, and innovation activities, facilitated international agreements, and developed and managed the COPE Emerging Leaders Program. He is a Professor of Bilingual and ESL Education in the department of Teacher Education and Affiliate Faculty in the department of Literacy and Learning.

Before joining TWU, he worked at Universidad del Este (now UAGM-Carolina) in Carolina, Puerto Rico, where he served as an Associate Professor of English and ESL in the Department of General Studies in the School of Social and Human Sciences and as Founding Executive Director of the Student Leadership Institute. Over his 25 years in higher education, he has worked as adjunct faculty at the University of North Texas-Dallas, Penn State University, Walden University, and Universidad de Puerto Rico, and trained multiple pre-serve and in-service teachers in the United States, Latin America, and Europe.

Figueroa’s research focuses on the intersection between emergent technologies and emergent bilinguals/second language acquisition with emphasis on extended realities (XR), gamification and game-based learning, culturally responsive/sustaining teaching, and critical pedagogy. His research has appeared in Contemporary Educational Technology, Educación XX1, Edmetic,  International Journal of Technology and Educational Innovation, and Expert Systems, among others.

As part of his leadership training, he has completed several higher education executive fellowships, including the New Leadership Academy at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, the Executive Leadership Academy at UC-Berkeley, and the Academy for Innovative Higher Education Leadership at Arizona State University/Georgetown University. He is a member of Cátedra ESCALAE at Universidad de Málaga in Spain.

Figueroa holds a BA in Social Sciences from Universidad de Puerto Rico-Cayey, an MA in TESOL and Bilingual Education from The University of Findlay, and a PhD in Professional Studies in Education from Capella University. He did a post-doctoral research fellowship at Universidad de Córdoba in Spain.