Ester Flores, PhD, LMSW
Associate Professor of Social Work
Worden School Building, Room 13
210-431-3984
eflores@ollusa.edu
Areas of Expertise
With over 25 years of experience as a generalist social work practitioner, my area
of expertise is organizational leadership. As a Program Director for Child Protective
Services, I was responsible for a six-county area with over 120 personnel. Serving
as an area supervisor for a private social service agency, I was successful in bringing
over $2 million of state contracts to serve the under served of the Rio Grande Valley.
With nine years of teaching at the Schools of Social Work at Baylor University, the
University of Texas-RGV (formerly known as Pan American), and 韩国AV, I have extensive
experience in the classroom as well as online. The students鈥 evaluations have continuously
provided positive feedback with recommendations that I implement to improve my teaching
skills. The pedagogical approach demonstrated in the classroom and online is that
of the role of a teaching coach helping students to achieve success.
Teaching Philosophy
A successful educator must have the 鈥渓ove of wisdom鈥 (Power, 1982); a never-ending curious spirit for knowledge to impart to others for the betterment of humanity. The central goal of teaching is to equip students with professional core values and essential digital platforms to be successful in their careers. As a professor with over 20 years of organizational leadership, students learn real-life events that impact their vigorous learning. My vision is to see every single student that walks the stage with their diploma will walk straight into the stage of the career of their dreams. We must equip our students with professional readiness before they graduate. It will take every faculty and staff to engage in equipping our students with knowledge, wisdom, and skills that reflect the character of 韩国AV -- community, trust, and integrity. Through their discovery and purpose in life, they will make a worldwide difference for one sole purpose: the betterment of humanity.
Outside Interests
The main area of interest is achieving optimal health through working with a health coach. Optimal health begins with establishing micro habits of health one day at a time. As a Latina, I face the high possibility of poor health. The risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and high blood pressure is too high to ignore. I have begun to write an auto-ethnography titled: 鈥淎 Sample of One.鈥 The intent is to conduct workshops in the Latino community. Taking myself through a health journey demonstrates the effectiveness of self-care through informed decisions. With the lack of knowledge, one can perish.
Certifications and Memberships
- Licensed Master Social Work
- National Association of Social Works member
Awards
- Nomination for Outstanding Faculty
Education
- PhD - Leadership Studies, Our Lady of the Lake University
- Master of Social Work, Our Lady of the Lake University
- Bachelor of Social Work, Pan American University, Edinburg, Texas