Kimberly S. Navarro, M.L.A.


Kimberly S. Navarro, M.L.A.

Director, Office of Academic Support and Instructional Services

Ms. Navarro has had the honor of working at Notre Dame Seminary since 2017, first as an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher, and now as Director of the Office of Academic Support and Instructional Services (OASIS). She is a native of Missouri, but even though she has spent the majority of her adult life in New Orleans and has wholeheartedly adopted this city as her home, her “Yankee” accent is still detected by locals.

Her first dream was to become an actress, so she majored in theater at the University of Missouri and spent a semester in London studying with instructors from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. However, she eventually transferred to Drury University and changed majors, earning a BA with Honors in English. She later undertook her graduate studies at Tulane and received an MLA centered on linguistics, rhetoric, and the English language.

She began her teaching career in Tokyo and was fortunate to work with a diverse range of students, ages 3 to 83. Afterward, she moved to New Orleans and opened her own language school, New Orleans Language Academy (NOLA – before “NOLA” was all the craze), where she and her team of international instructors taught English, Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese. She was also a private tutor for a number of consuls and international executives. A few years later, she closed the school and moved to Brazil, where she served as the Coordinator of Language Services in Rio de Janeiro. After returning home to New Orleans, she worked for several years as the Coordinator of the Intensive English Language Program at the University of New Orleans, taught English at Delgado Community College, and served as the President of LaTESOL (Louisiana Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages).

She is the proud mother of a son and a daughter, both of whom, despite being born and raised in New Orleans, have inherited her Yankee accent.

Contact

Phone: (504) 866-7426 ext 108

Email: knavarro@nds.edu