Virginia Ledesma obtained her Bachelor of Arts in History and Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies from legacy institution UTBTSC Brownsville in 2012. She is a proud first-generation college graduate and has over ten years of experience in higher education. She has worked as a Learning Instructional Specialist for a UTRGV federally funded TRiO program. TRiO provides support services to first-generation college students with limited resources, as well as students with a documented disability to remove obstacles to higher education and help institutions increase retention and graduation rates.
As the Learning Specialist, she hired, trained, and evaluated academic tutors to provide tutoring services to 275 participants. Virginia also served as an Academic Coach charged with coaching program participants in the areas of course selection, FAFSA renewal, study skills development, graduate programs, career development, financial literacy, and cultural engagement, among other support services to enhance their learning and help students graduate with their bachelor's degree.
Virginia joined UTRGV SOM in 2022 as a medical student academic advisor. She is responsible for facilitating individualized academic advising and academic support services to School of Medicine students. Virginia’s role also allows her to collaborate with the SOM community, staff, and faculty members to coordinate academic support services for SOM students.