Yojanna Cuenca-Carlino, Ph.D.

Dr. Cuenca-Carlino is a professor who serves as the Special Education Department (SED) Chairperson at Illinois State University. The Department serves over 850 students and offers three undergraduate teacher preparation programs in special education, leading to licensure and various graduate programs. In this role, she is responsible for managing the fiscal affairs of the Department, leading and coordinating curriculum development for enhancing offerings and creating new programs, leading the evaluation of faculty members for retention, tenure, and promotion, promoting excellence in instruction, scholarly and creative productivity, and service, supervising and evaluating staff (including advisors, clinical coordinators, office managers, business administrator, etc.), overseeing student success initiatives, and developing and maintaining partnerships with various stakeholders, including school districts and donors.

Prior to this position, she served for a little over three years as the Assistant Vice President for Faculty Development, Diversity, and Learning in the Office of the Provost at ISU. In this role, she led, expanded, and enhanced on-campus professional development programming for faculty and staff within Academic Affairs, bringing an equity, diversity, and inclusion lens in which she developed support systems for faculty and built inclusive and collaborative faculty communities. Dr. Cuenca-Carlino also coordinated data collection efforts to gather input about faculty/staff job satisfaction in the workplace to identify areas of growth and strength. She worked closely with the Provost and other team members on recruiting, advancing, and retaining a diverse and talented faculty workforce. 

This position also provides support to the Associate Vice President for Academic Administration in the areas of policy development and implementation, as well as support for administrator’s professional development. The Assistant Vice President for Academic Administration supports the Provost and other members of the Academic Affairs leadership team in efforts to enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion.