ABOUT THE PRESIDENT

Dr. Zayira Jordán Conde holds a BA in Journalism, MA in Anthropology with a minor in Women’s Studies and a PhD in Human Computer Interaction all degrees from Iowa State University. She was selected for the Public Policy Fellowship from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute in 2003, where she worked in US Congress and the Smithsonian Latino Center. Dr. Jordan has published research on education, technology, and solutions for survivors of gender violence.

For over ten years, she taught and directed user-centered design capstone projects for HCI, Computer Science and Computer Engineering programs in the US and Puerto Rico, taught and collaborated on projects in cybersecurity education. She started GuardDV, Inc., a domestic violence survivor-centered company with the mission to address their safety needs in 2018. As an entrepreneur, she has made it her goal to promote entrepreneurship among young people in Puerto Rico and has obtained numerous grants and awards at the local and national level. She coordinated efforts at establishing a mentorship program to increase the number of undergraduates who pursue graduate studies.

On 2020, Dr. Jordan Conde ran to become Puerto Rico’s representative in Congress, an experience she highly values because of the opportunity she had to learn about economic development for Puerto Rico and the definition of the island’s political status. She served as president of Atlantic University from August 2023 to June 2025. In July 2025, she was appointed president of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), where she promotes the institutional mission while leading the community toward new paths for collaborative institutional development, with a focus on innovation and student success.