Diana Lee Santamaria | 2024 Latina of Influence
Hispanic Lifestyle is pleased to honor award-winning Latinx children’s author and educator, known for her bilingual learning series, DLee’s World Diana Lee Santamaria as a Latina of Influence. Ms. Santamaria will be recognized for her leadership in our community during Hispanic Lifestyle’s Connecting Latinas of Influence | New Jersey to be held on September 26, 2024.
Diana Lee Santamaria is an award-winning Latinx children’s author and educator, known for her bilingual learning series, DLee’s World. Born and raised in New York City and New Jersey, Diana’s childhood experiences and struggles with illiteracy and social identification inspired her to create a series that promotes literacy, diversity, and fun.
Diana holds a Master’s Degree in Early Childhood Education and has 13 years of teaching experience. Drawing from her education and professional background, she has designed DLee’s World to incorporate preschool common core objectives, diversity, playful verbiage, and developmentally appropriate learning strategies. Her goal is to increase reading comprehension and overall learning among children.
DLee’s World features a character that mirrors Diana’s childhood image, and the storyline incorporates her experiences as a child, adult, and educator. Each character in the series represents various ethnicities that are underrepresented in today’s children’s literature. Diana believes in the importance of representation and aims to provide children with characters they can relate to and learn from.
One of the unique aspects of DLee’s World is its bilingual nature. The series includes both English and Spanish translations of the story on the same page, making it accessible to a wider audience. Diana hopes that her books will serve as tools for children and families to learn a new language or strengthen their knowledge of the English language, particularly for English Language Learners (ELL).
In addition to her writing and educational work, Diana has partnered with the Community Media of Staten Island to bring a Storytime for children to life, encouraging early literacy. She is passionate about promoting literacy and education and believes that every child deserves access to quality learning materials.
Diana Lee Santamaria’s dedication to promoting literacy, diversity, and fun through her DLee’s World series has earned her recognition and awards. She continues to inspire children and families with her engaging storytelling and commitment to making learning enjoyable and accessible for all.
