At 15, Debra Duardo was already the mother of a baby with a birth defect that required nearly a dozen surgeries in his first fragile year of life. Her future seemed limited to the Kentucky Fried Chicken where she worked after dropping out of high school.How she turned her life around to become a Ph.D. candidate in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies and the executive director of health and human services in the Los Angeles Unified School District after serving as a director of dropout prevention and recovery is the theme of her compelling life story.
In recognition of her many achievements, Durado, who received her M.A. in social work in 1998 from the School of Public Affairs, was recently named UCLA Luskin’s Department of Social Welfare Joseph A. Nunn Alumna of the Year.
Read her story here.
