About me
Dr. Lupe Peña de Martínez is a native of San Diego de Alejandría, Jalisco, México. She has been a proud Arkansan since 1998. Her husband, Adelso, is a native of Belize and they have a beautiful, blended family, together they have an energetic ten-year-old son and an additional four children brought to the marriage and two foster children (ranging from 10 to 29-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, Dr. Peña de Martínez served at DESE as Director of Student Support Services for five years. Prior to this, she served as principal of East End Middle School in Sheridan School District. Additionally, she worked for Little Rock School District for 16-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, Dr. Peña de Martínez has stepped back from much of her community involvement; she is currently serving as Treasurer of the Helping Hand of Little Rock Board and is an active member of the Ladies Auxiliary of the Knights of Peter Claver. 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 and the Arkansas State Library Board. 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 her responsibility and privilege to pay this blessing forward.
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