Meet Our Staff

Terrie graduated from the University of Texas-Pan American with a Bachelor of Social Work and a Master of Education Guidance and Counseling.

Terrie’s first employment with the University started in 1985 as an office aide for the Human Resource office.  She was employed part -time under the work study program. She started working as a full time employee with the Educational Talent Search program in 1991, she was an Academic Advisor for GED and Adult Re-entry students. She transitioned to Counselor Specialist I, Counselor, and she currently is the Talent Search College Readiness Coordinator for La Joya High School and La Joya Juarez-Lincoln High School working with Talent Search participants in grades 9^th – 12^th .  Terrie has over 30 years of experience and she enjoys working with the students and their families. 

Terrie loves running into her former students and seeing that they are giving back to their community as teachers, doctors, nurses, entrepreneurs, police officers and many more  careers.  She likes to remind students to pursue a career that will keep them happy and feel a passion for their calling.

Terrie was the first in her family to pursue a college education, it continued with her middle sister, an elementary teacher and her younger sister, a registered nurse.  Growing up in a home with 3 girls, her parents always stressed the importance of completing a college degree.  Terrie enjoys traveling and spending time with her family.

Juan Yanez, Jr. joined the College Access and K-12 Partnerships as a Learning Instructional Specialist for Upward Bound Rio Grande City in 2018.  Juan later joined the Academic Advising Center as an Academic Advisor in 2021.  He decided to follow his passion of helping students fulfill their dreams of becoming college students and rejoined the College Access and K-12 Partnerships in August 2022 and will be serving Mission High School students as a College Readiness Coordinator for Mission CISD. Juan has been in education for more than 20 years. He started his education career as a Bilingual/ESL Elementary teacher and later taught Art and Spanish at the junior high and high school levels.  

As a first-generation student himself, he wants to provide opportunities for his students to pursue a college degree.  Being a Limited English Proficient (ESL) student throughout his high school years, Juan had many challenges, but with the help of his teachers and one particular counselor, Juan was able to graduate high school and be admitted to the University of Texas at Austin. Because of the dedication of his teachers and his counselor, Juan decided to pursue his career in education and come back to the Rio Grande Valley upon his graduation and give back to his community as a Teacher and help his students achieve their dreams of one day attending and graduation college just as he did.

Juan graduated with his bachelor's degree in Fine Arts from the University of Texas at Austin and a master's degree in Educational Administration from The University of Texas Pan American. Juan is a resident of Mission, Texas and is happily married and is very proud of his three children.  He enjoys spending time with his family and being involved in his children’s extra-curricular activities: Band- he has two high schoolers playing the tuba.