POSITION: Co-director
FAVORITE MOVIE: Must Love Dogs
FAVORITE HOBBY: Walking
FAVORITE VACATION SPOT: Caribbean Islands
PROFESSION WOULD LIKE TO TRY: Commissioner of Education
NEVER LEAVE HOME WITHOUT: Cell phone /
One student at a time” is the motto of Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center. For Nancy Diaz Bain, The Met School’s co-director, it’s also the focus of a career that has grown along with the school.
Diaz Bain began volunteering at The Met while studying toward her bachelor’s degree in secondary education. She credits her personal background, as a young Latina from Providence, with making it easier for her to relate to the school’s diverse student body.
She joined the staff after graduating from Providence College in 1998, becoming a teacher and a mentor to a core group of 15 students. Diaz Bain helped her students prepare for college, taking them on field trips every month. “I set out to make sure they were not only prepared academically, but also ready to be outstanding community leaders, respecting diversity in everything that they do,” she wrote in her 40 Under Forty application. Four years later, she was named The Met School’s principal.
Meanwhile, she continued her own education, and in 2003 was awarded a master’s degree in school administration by Cambridge College in Massachusetts.
Today, as The Met’s co-director, Diaz Bain supervises project-based learning programs and acts as a mentor to more than 100 teachers and staff.
And she continues to seek out experiences that will make her a better leader.
“Knowledge is power – the power to succeed, inspire and educate,” she said. •
