Nieto, Sonia

Sonia Nieto is a Professor Emerita of Language, Literacy and Culture at the School of Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she focuses on the field of multiculturalism. She has won several awards in her field, including the 1997 Multicultural Educator of the Year award from the National Association for Multicultural Education, the 2005 Educator of the Year Award from the National Council of Teachers of English, and honorary doctorates from Lesley University (1999), Bridgewater State College (2004), and DePaul University (2007). Nieto was raised and attended public school in Brooklyn, New York. She later attended St. Johns University, where she received her B.S. in Elementary Education. Later, she studied in Madrid, receiving her M.A. in Spanish and Hispanic Literature. In the following years she taught in Brooklyn and the Bronx until moving to Massachusetts and receiving her doctorate in curriculum studies with concentrations in multicultural and bilingual education, from the University of Massachusetts in 1979. In May 2017, Nieto delivered the commencement address for the Graduate School of Education at St. John's University in New York City. An autobiographical account of Nieto's intellectual development is available in the "Acquired Wisdom" section of "Education Review".