Annual Conference

Lupe Peña de Martínez is a native of San Diego de Alejandria, Jalisco, México. In July, she celebrated her 25 years as an Arkansan, having moved to the Natural State in July 1998 by way of Escondido, California. Her husband, Adelso, is a native of Belize, and they have a beautiful blended family; together, they have an energetic seven-year-old son and an additional four children brought to the marriage (ranging from 13 to 26 years old). She shares that parenting is an amazing journey, and it is very helpful to have kiddos at every “stage” because one can see that no matter what is happening with one child – it too shall pass! On a professional level, July 26 celebrated her two-year anniversary at DESE as Director of Student Support Services. Prior to this, Lupe served as principal of East End Middle School in Sheridan School District. Additionally, she worked for Little Rock School District for 15 years as Assistant Lead Learner (Assistant Principal) at Forest Park Elementary, a decade in the ESOL Department as the Secondary ESL/SIOP® Instructional Specialist, working with teachers of English Learners, and before this as a classroom teacher at Chicot Elementary.  In recent years, with a house full of children, Lupe has stepped back much of her community involvement but was recently appointed by Governor Hutchinson as a board member on the Arkansas State Library Board and is also in the midst of her final term as Treasurer of the Helping Hand of Little Rock. She has formerly served as a board member for the Central Arkansas Library System and as a Commissioner on the Arkansas Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission.  A favorite activity is providing English/Spanish interpretation services on a volunteer basis, especially during the Salvation Army’s annual Angel Tree Project – sharing that innumerable people helped her family when they first arrived in this country, and it is her responsibility and privilege to pay this blessing forward.