iCED Appoints New Directors At North, Kendall And Wolfson Campuses

Miami Dade College has appointed three new Institute for Civic Engagement & Democracy directors. 

Maria Villalobos will serve at North Campus, Kiki Mutis will lead the Wolfson Campus efforts and Dominique Adam will be based at Kendall Campus. They started on Nov. 1.

The trio will ensure that students are engaged in service learning and civic engagement and will lead changemaking efforts for students and faculty.

Villalobos, 28, has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Florida State University and a master’s degree in college student personnel administration from Illinois State University.

After college, Villalobos participated in the Teach For America program where she worked with science students in the 6th through 8th grades in the Miami-Dade County Public School System for two years. After that, she was a 5th-grade science teacher at a KIPP school in California. Then, in 2017, she was the character and leadership development coordinator for the Boys & Girls Club in Central Florida. Most recently, she was the career services coordinator at Florida International University.

“I’m really hoping to build a relationship with faculty, department chairs and make sure that they understand the idea of changemaker education, ” Villalobos said.

Mutis, 49, has an associate’s degree in biology from MDC,  a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies and a master’s in environmental science from FIU.

For the last three years, she was the operations and volunteer coordinator for the Pelican Harbor Seabird Station rescuing and rehabilitating native wildlife. Before that, she worked as the community outreach coordinator at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden for 13 years creating professional development programs for Miami-Dade County Public School teachers and working with special needs kids.

“Students have the power to guide how we want this great community of Miami-Dade County to look like,” Mutis said. “There is always something for someone to be interested in.” 

Adam, 43, earned her bachelor’s degrees in creative writing and Latin America and Caribbean studies and a master’s degree in public administration and policy from FSU.

She previously worked as the special assistant to the Deputy Borough President of Brooklyn and director of community outreach at the Maimonides Medical Center. For the past five years she oversaw the writing lab at Palm Beach State College. 

“I am excited to work with students [and motivate them] to be game changers to empower them to deepen their commitment to succeed within courses and pathways while further energizing them as powerful changemaking leaders,” Adam said.