Meet the Open Texas Committee Members: Ariana Santiago (Promotion & Assessment)

Name: Ariana Santiago

Preferred pronouns: she/her

Where do you work?

University of Houston Libraries

What do you do there?

Open Educational Resources Coordinator

Where did you go to school?

University of Central Florida (B.A. and M.A.) and University of South Florida (M.A. in LIS)

Where is your hometown?

Inverness, FL

What might someone be surprised to know about you?

For over ten years I performed in and then taught competitive drumlines. I still enjoy going to drum corps shows when I get the chance and have a YouTube channel for drumline videos.

How did you get involved with the Open Texas Conference?

I was fortunate to be able to attend the Texas Statewide OER Summit in 2018 and then was asked to serve on the planning committee for the inaugural Open Texas Conference in 2021. I gladly volunteered to be involved in planning for the 2022 conference, this time on the Promotions and Assessment Committee.

The interest in open education seems to be growing. Why do you think that is?

I think the supportive community around open education is contributing to the growing interest. This community does incredible work to raise awareness around the need for open education, and community members are quick to help each other out by sharing information, advice, and other resources. This growing interest in open education feeds back into the strength of the community that supports it.

What would you tell someone who is thinking about presenting or attending Open Texas?

Attending Open Texas will be a great opportunity to learn from people with a variety of perspectives and experiences with open education. If you have an idea that may be interesting or useful to share, I hope you’ll explore that idea and consider developing it into a presentation proposal; and you may be able to find collaborators with similar interests to co-present with. When it comes to attending or presenting, I also recommend paying attention to your personal bandwidth, which is low for many these days, and making sure you do what you need to take care of yourself.