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Fabio Hurtado ’24Ed.D.

Fabio Hurtado's experiences, including his pursuit of a doctorate in educational leadership at UNCW, have shaped his approach to fostering independent thinking and critical analysis in his students.
Fabio Hurtado's experiences, including his pursuit of a doctorate in educational leadership at UNCW, have shaped his approach to fostering independent thinking and critical analysis in his students.
Courtesy: Fabio Hurtado

Education has always been a cornerstone of Fabio Hurtado’s life. With his parents being teachers, one might think his path was clear, yet Hurtado initially planned to attend law school.

“I applied, and I was ready to go,” he recalled, “but I fell in love with service during summers in college, and so I accepted an invitation to spend one year doing service in inner-city Baltimore with the plan to go to law school. I was placed as a fourth-grade teacher. After that year, I fell in love with teaching. I have been an educator since.”

Hurtado began teaching in 1994 at Rosa Parks Elementary in Baltimore, Maryland. He currently serves as an administrator at Cannon School in Concord, North Carolina, focusing on developing and innovating curricula, which led him to pursue formal studies in education.

“I wanted to study what had become my life’s work,” Hurtado said.

His desire to hone his craft led him to UNCW’s Watson College of Education, where he earned a doctorate in educational leadership in December. He was drawn to the program’s structure, its affordability and the opportunity to incorporate his love of stories and storytelling.

Writing has been a vehicle for Hurtado to connect his personal history with his professional endeavors. Born in La Habana, Cuba, one of the most significant influences on Hurtado’s academic and professional life has been his experience living under a one-party system, where he witnessed his parents’ persecution for their beliefs. This experience instilled the importance of fostering independent thinking and critical analysis, he said.

At age 10, his mother and stepfather left Cuba for Elizabeth, New Jersey.

“I was raised by immigrants who arrived in the U.S. in 1981 with nothing but a small suitcase,” he said.

His book, Masticate and Swallow, documents his life in Cuba in the late 1970s as well as his immigrant experience growing up in the U.S. It began as a series of stories penned during idle moments while proctoring exams at a high school in Miami where he was teaching. Initially intended for his children, the stories evolved into a book in 2018.
The father of seven published a second memoir, How to Destroy an Eclipse and Other Tales of Redemption: The Jersey Years, in 2022.

His experience as an Ed.D. student has allowed Hurtado to become a “better thinker, a stronger researcher and a more thoughtful practitioner,” he said.

“I have an interest in education, leadership and scholarship that I did not have prior to the program,” Hurtado continued. “The program rekindled my love of education.”


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