Betty Aguiar-Perez

Betty Aguiar-Perez’s extraordinary career working with children and specializing in early childhood education spans over 25 years. She obtained her master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling with dual specialization in Marriage and Family from Barry University, a Bachelor of Arts of Psychology from Florida International University, and Associates in Arts in Psychology with Specialization Training in Early Childhood Education from Miami-Dade Community College.

Betty began her career in children and family mental health counseling. Her exceptional education provides her a solid foundation in understanding the young developing minds of children and how interactions with their peers and families influence their overall development to better prepare children so they can reach their full potential.

Betty’s passion for education continued as she became a teacher at the Sylvan Learning Center, private tutor, educational consultant, and program coordinator to provide educational and therapeutic activities for the youth to ensure academic success.

Her career has led her from being an IMPACT Mentoring Coach and Voluntary Pre-K Standards Trainer to Program Coordinator at Florida International University. Eventually moving on to become the Director of Education at Miami Children’s Museum.

Betty advanced the Miami Children’s Museum Early Childhood Institute from a pilot half day camp to an institution that joined the ranks of the prestigious nationally accredited National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) in addition to acceptance and accreditation by NAEYC the Miami Children’s Museum Early Childhood Institute garnered extremely high marks at the initial and subsequent renewals while under the leadership of Mrs. Aguiar-Perez. As the Director of Education at the museum she managed and balanced approximately $1.5 million budget and oversaw educational programming including incorporating educational components and evaluating exhibit areas meet the Florida Standards for early childhood children from Birth to 8 years of age during the initial Master plan renovations.

In her role as the Director of Education at the museum she played pivotal roles in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) partnership programs between NASA’s Florida Afterschool Network/the Astronaut Memorial Foundation and the Miami Children’s Museum SMART Afterschool Program. The collaborative partnership allowed the museum to become a regional STEM hub providing professional development training for the afterschool community. Teaching leaders in afterschool, summer and expanded learning programs focusing on topics as to why STEM is important, how to incorporate STEM into their programming, and implementing STEM curricula in afterschool settings. Betty also continued to work hard to expand funding for the Safe Multicultural Artist Recreational Teaching (SMART) program to children ages five to eleven throughout her tenure. Betty is proud of the continued success that the SMART afterschool program has done as, it serves children from the underserved communities in four elementary schools.

For over 10 years, She was the museum representative liaison who had overall responsibilities of bridging the Miami Children’s Museum Charter School and the Miami Children’s Museum in collaboratively working together with goal of enhancing children’s learning in a museum setting while meeting Core State standards.

She also maintained several years of partnership with the Community Action Agency to leverage the continuation of a 10-year contracts to implement art and music enrichment programs to approximately 340 children from Early Head Start and Head Start centers every year. She continued to write scope of services and provide budgetary guidance to secure foundational and grant funding for multi-funded programs for children, families, and Early Childhood educators in the community.

With her vast knowledge in early childhood, she has been interviewed by local news outlets in print, radio and television segments as well as, asked to speak at national and local conferences including,

• 2019 Children’s Music Network Annual Conference Presented “Go Get a Grant Workshop”

• 2019 & 2018 The Neighborhood Place for Early Head Start Teachers Professional Development Days presented “STEAM Integration Workshop”

• The 2016 Young Audiences Arts for Learning 63rd Annual National Conference: Growing Up with the Arts where she presented “Don’t Sit Still! Wiggles for Learning and Growth

• 2015 Early Learning Coalition’s Children First Conference: Literacy is a Family Affair, presented “Use of Object-based learning to build Language”

• 2014 Early Learning Coalition’s Children First Conference: Envisioning Our Future , presented “Use of Object-based learning to build Language”

• 2010 Association of Children’s Museum Interactivity Conference, presented “The Pros, Cons, and Process for Opening a Museum School”

In addition to her speaking engagements, she was invited to be part of the 2016 Early Childhood Director Teachers Advisory meeting with Scholastic Reading Club Corporate at their headquarters in New York, served a year as the community representative on the Head start Advisory Committee meetings for United Way Center for Excellence’s Head Start program and in addition served several years as a Guardian Ad Litem representing abused and neglected children in legal court proceedings by advocating for their rights and needs throughout their time in the judicial court system.

Professional Memberships

• Member of National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) & Affiliates: South Florida AYC

• Member of Children’s Music Network

• Member of High Scope with completion of the (LTTP) Lead Teacher Training Program – 4 week intensive training

•Member of the National Afterschool Association

• Member of Council for Exceptional Children