Ana Roche Loebe
Birthday: 1954
Ana Roche Loebe, born October 4, 1954, is a native Tucsonan and University of Arizona alumnus. She attended St. John the Evangelist Catholic School and Salpointe Catholic High School. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education with minors in Spanish and Multicultural Education; master’s degree in Educational Administration, and doctorate degree in Educational Leadership. Her dissertation Educational Leadership for School Change-Stories by Six Latina Elementary School Principals received the Outstanding UA Doctoral Student in School Administration Award. She worked in Tucson Unified School District from 1976-1989. She taught fourth, fifth, and sixth grades; was a bilingual education resource teacher, Assistant Director of Bilingual Education, and Acting Director of Bilingual Education, African American Studies, and Native American Studies. She promoted the benefits of bilingual and multicultural education for all students during a time when a segment of the community was promoting English-only school programs, eventually shutting down bilingual education programs.
Ana began life as an adoptive mother of two sons in May 1989. Her sons were involved in religious education, sports, the arts, cultural events, and travel including a month-long adventure in Israel, Jordan, Sinai, and Egypt the summer of 2000. Life as an adoptive parent brought questions and challenges that led to learning about the impact of loss, abuse, and trauma. She was soon advocating for the needs of children with trauma and the support of parents navigating school, mental health, medical and judicial systems.
In 1991, Ana returned to the University of Arizona. She served as clinical professor of bilingual education teacher preparation; research assistant in the Educational and Community Change Project headed by Dr. Paul Heckman (1992-1995). Critical inquiry and dialogue were used to examine teaching and school practices to inspire indigenous reform by teachers interested in improved student learning. The findings of this work were published in the book The Courage to Change: Stories from Successful School Reform. From 1995 to 2005, Ana served in graduate assistant roles and as an adjunct professor in teacher training. These years strengthened her understanding of critical pedagogy, dialogue, and a phenomenological approach for problem solving and reform in any domain.
Ana became a foster care licensing specialist and foster care trainer at Arizona’s Children Association in 2006. In 2009, she was contracted by Casey Family Programs to develop and facilitate a family engagement process for kinship caregivers - Family Dialogue Circles. In addition, she designed a class for adoptive parents The Primal Wound-Impact of Separation from Mother. In 2010, she joined Child and Family Support Services serving families impacted by trauma. She returned to Arizona’s Children Association in 2015. She supervised kinship support services and was director of foster care, adoption, and kinship services. She created and taught additional classes for people raising other people’s children. In 2020, she became a family support specialist for Children’s Advocacy Center of Southern Arizona, where she teaches trauma-informed parent education classes. She received the agency’s Heroes without Capes Compassion Award on April 29, 2024.
Ana is published in two anthologies – Our Spirit, Our Reality-Celebrating Our Stories by Las Comadres de Sowing the Seeds and in The White Picket Fence-Stories of Individuality as Rebelliousness Collection. She enjoys time with grandchildren, her writing circle, and her husband Phil Loebe. She thanks God for life’s blessings.