Dr. Virella joins the Department of Educational Leadership after receiving her Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut in July 2021. Her research interests include education reform, school leadership, principal preparation, urban educational leadership, and critical policy analysis. She has published four peer-reviewed articles, six book chapters, and has other manuscripts under review. Her dissertation titled “Nùmero 85: The Intersection of Public Policy, The Principalship, and Crisis” was an extensive examination of the potential of education policy as transformative for historically marginalized populations as well as the interaction between power and discursive law and media practices to reify or exacerbate inequities in Puerto Rico. During her doctoral studies, she served as the managing editor of the prestigious Educational Administration Quarterly. She is a UCEA Jackson Scholar, a Clark Scholar, as well as a Mellon Foundation Fellow.