Debbie Hansen
Director, Community Education Center
Yesenia Quintana is the director of the Community Education Center at Weber State University, where she guides the strategic direction of center’s community-based learning programs. Her goal is for the center to be a welcoming, dynamic hub where people can find meaningful educational opportunities and build pathways toward a better quality of life.
The Community Education Center’s programs include Building Puentes, which provides bilingual and Spanish-language pathways to higher education; English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL); community computer classes; the College Exploration Hub; and other rotating programs that support lifelong learning.
Yesenia brings over a decade of experience partnering with local nonprofits, school districts, and anchor institutions to design and evaluate programs. She has contributed to place-based initiatives such as Ogden United and the Ogden Civic Action Network. She has received recognition for her evaluation and research efforts for Ogden United Promise Neighborhood and a college-prep STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) program, and for the impact of Building Puentes. Previously, she served as a community research and program evaluation supervisor in the Office of Community Research and Evaluation and as a college access advisor and data specialist at State GEAR UP.
Yesenia holds a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Weber State University and a Master of Education in Measurement, Evaluation, Statistics, and Assessment from the University of Illinois at Chicago.