Martin Guerra-West

I am 58 years old starting my second academic year as a PhD student in Composition & Rhetoric at Texas A&M University Commerce. If I complete this program, I will be the first in my family to complete a terminal degree, and this includes all my cousins on both sides of the family.
I was born and raised in Corpus Christi, TX, and completed a 2-year associates degree at Del Mar College. I then transferred to the University of Dallas in Irving, where I earned a BA in English Literature and followed up with a master’s degree in Humanities. Along the way, I earned graduate credits in Linguistics, Theology, and English. With these credentials, I was hired as the first full-time faculty instructor of English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) at Mountain View College (now called Dallas College), and I was the lead instructor for ESOL Writing & Grammar. In 2016, I became the Dean of the Arts & Communications division and started teaching English Composition. Due to restructuring at Dallas College, I was laid off in January of 2021, but I had enough years of service to take early retirement, and I decided to use my new-found time to pursue a PhD.