UEI Phoenix Instructor Named ‘Teacher of the Year’ by the Arizona Private School Association

Maria de Lourdes Reyes Lozano was busy teaching when the congratulations started pouring in.

UEI College Phoenix President Najibullah Sare reached out to say he had some exciting news to share, and colleagues were already sending messages about her well-deserved honor.

But Maria hadn’t yet seen the email announcement, so she wasn’t entirely sure what everyone was talking about.

“Everybody was like, ‘Congratulations, congratulations,'” she recalled. “And I’m like, ‘Well, for what?'”

It turned out that Maria, an instructor in UEI’s Medical Assistant and Medical Billing & Insurance Coding programs, had been named Teacher of the Year by the Arizona Private School Association (APSA).

And she hadn’t even known she was nominated.

“I cannot believe it, to be honest with you,” Maria said. “I never [got into teaching] to get something like this. I just did it because I love my job. I love what I do. I teach with love and passion, and I put my heart in my job.”

In nominating her for the honor, Najibullah emphasized that Maria embodies the core mission of career education.

“Maria represents what exceptional career education is truly about: high expectations, genuine compassion, and an unwavering commitment to student success,” Najibullah said. “She combines instructional excellence with compassion, persistence, accountability, and a true students-first mindset. She does not simply teach Medical Assisting; she invests in the people she teaches and helps them transform an educational opportunity into a pathway toward a better future.”

For those who work with Maria, however, the recognition was hardly a surprise.

In nominating her, Najibullah described Maria as an instructor who routinely checks on struggling students, helps them overcome challenges outside the classroom, and takes personal responsibility for making sure they graduate.

“Maria represents what exceptional career education is truly about: high expectations, genuine compassion, and an unwavering commitment to student success,” Najibullah wrote.

It’s an approach Maria has developed over more than three decades in healthcare and education, drawing heavily on her own experiences growing up in a large family and raising four children as a single mother.

A Teacher in the Making

Maria’s worked in healthcare since 1992. This includes 26 years with a medical practice where she handled front- and back-office responsibilities, managed two offices, and trained employees and providers.

She was good at her work, and more importantly, she enjoyed it. But teaching had always interested her.

As the youngest of 12 children, Maria grew up in a household where money was tight. Her father died when she was 11, and by age 13, she was working to help support the family.

Her parents had recognized her academic abilities early. She started kindergarten at age four, already knowing how to write the names of her brothers and sisters. Even then, she remembers teachers turning to her for help.

“Since I was in kindergarten, my teachers used to ask me to teach the other little kids,” Maria said. “That’s something that I think I was born with.”

Her father had also encouraged her to become a teacher someday. But that opportunity didn’t arrive until 2010, when a representative from Sanford-Brown College approached Maria about becoming an instructor.

At first, she wasn’t sure. Although she’d spent years training people in medical offices, she’d never taught in a classroom. But the college invited her to give a demonstration lesson, and she impressed the evaluators.

They immediately offered her a position.

“I think it was time for me to change careers,” she said. “I wanted to experience that [and] to see how I feel.”

Turns out, she loved it. So Maria continued teaching even after Sanford-Brown closed, eventually joining UEI in 2015. She’s been at the Phoenix campus ever since.

Understanding What Students Are Going Through

Maria’s students come from a wide variety of backgrounds. Some are young adults entering college for the first time, while others are returning to school after decades away.

Many are raising children, working jobs, struggling financially, or dealing with circumstances that make attending class difficult. Maria said she understands these challenges because she’s faced many of them herself.

As a single mother of four, she spent years juggling work, school, childcare, and the schedules of children at different grade levels.

“I had to do like five routes in the morning: kindergarten, elementary, middle school, and high school,” she said. “And I was like that for years, and then work.”

Those experiences influence how she responds when a student tells her they’re struggling.

Sometimes it’s a lack of transportation. Sometimes it’s money for gas or books. And sometimes, a student just needs someone who’s willing to listen.

“What makes Maria especially deserving of this recognition is her ability to understand the realities many of our students face outside the classroom,” Najibullah said. “Some of her students are single parents, experiencing housing insecurity or homelessness, working while attending school, or navigating significant financial and personal hardships. Maria does not lower expectations because of these challenges; instead, she provides the encouragement, accountability, and support students need to continue moving forward. She takes the time to listen, identify barriers, connect students with available resources, and remind them why they began their educational journey in the first place.”

Maria has arranged rides for students. She’s helped them find campus resources and offered additional instruction outside regular class hours. She also monitors attendance and assignments closely, contacting students who are falling behind.

“I understand my students [and] where they’re coming from,” she said. “I don’t get mad with them. I don’t yell at them. I have respect for my students, and the respect is mutual.”

She expects students to take their education seriously, particularly during the limited days they’re on campus for hands-on labs. But she also recognizes students learn differently and sometimes need individual attention.

In Medical Billing & Insurance Coding, that can mean sitting beside a student and walking through the coding process until they understand it. In Medical Assistant labs, it means making sure students get enough practice with clinical procedures before entering the workplace.

“I tell students, ‘My job is to make sure that you guys learn what I teach,'” Maria said. “‘Make sure that you guys know how to do it so you’re ready to go out and immediately start a new career.'”

Her commitment has made a difference for students facing particularly difficult circumstances.

Maria remembers a pregnant Medical Assistant student who had moved to Arizona from California and was struggling in an abusive relationship. The student had little local support and considered dropping out.

Maria encouraged her to continue. Along with helping the student keep up with assignments, she provided food when the student was hungry and rides home after evening classes.

The student eventually graduated and moved to Sacramento.

Years later, Maria still occasionally receives messages from her. Today, the former student has a son, a job in healthcare, her own apartment, and a car.

“She sends me an email and tells me how grateful she is,” Maria said. “And I said, ‘Well, it’s you. You did it, too.'”

Another student Maria remembers was an 89-year-old woman who completed the Medical Billing & Insurance Coding program. Maria worked closely with her throughout the program, and both were emotional when the student walked across the graduation stage.

“When I saw her on stage, we started to cry because she made it,” Maria said.

Recognition for a Career She Loves

Stories like those help explain why Maria continues to devote so much time to her students. She enjoys seeing their confidence grow and watching as they earn academic honors.

She also enjoys hearing from graduates who have found work in their fields.

She’s especially proud when students who once struggled begin earning better grades or complete programs they weren’t sure they could finish. That dedication was central to Najibullah’s nomination.

“Maria does not lower expectations because of these challenges,” he wrote of the obstacles her students face. “Instead, she provides the encouragement, accountability, and support students need to continue moving forward.”

Maria also credits the support she’s received from UEI’s leadership and fellow instructors. She says she’s continued learning throughout her time at the college and hopes to remain there until retirement.

The APSA award has been particularly meaningful to her family, Maria said. Her four children are proud of her accomplishment, as is her 89-year-old mother, who remembers the little girl who wanted to become a teacher.

And according to Maria, the recognition has given her even more motivation to continue doing the work she loves.

“After all these years of work, it makes me feel more motivated to give more of me to my students and my future students,” she said.

And while the Teacher of the Year award recognizes Maria’s accomplishments as an instructor, she remains focused on the accomplishments of the people sitting in her classrooms.

“I have this responsibility for my students,” she said. “I want to make sure that they learn and they graduate and get a job out there. I want them to be successful.”