Dahlia Quintanilla

Dahlia Quintanilla is a first-generation Mexican-Indigenous educator of Rarámuri lineage who is reconnecting with ancestral wisdom to transform how we learn, heal, and belong. With more than a decade of experience in education—as a classroom teacher, reading specialist, impact coach, and curriculum designer she founded Liberated Learning to create the kind of education the system often fails to offer: learning rooted in liberation. Through The Liberated Learning Model™ and the Learning Spirals framework, Dahlia supports educators, parents, and healers in co-creating spaces where bodies are welcomed, emotions are honored, and learning unfolds in natural cycles.

Grounded in a Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on Community Engagement and certification as a Somatic Activated Healing practitioner, Dahlia weaves Indigenous pedagogical traditions with somatic practice. Her work asks powerful questions about what becomes possible when learning is no longer forced, but guided by right relationship—with ourselves, with one another, and with the wisdom of the body. As a somatic movement healer, she creates spaces where people can come home to their bodies, process what has been held, and reconnect with their humanity.

Through the Acosta Institute Fellowship, Dahlia is excited to be in community with others exploring healing-centered leadership and liberatory education. She looks forward to weaving connections, collaborations, and new possibilities with fellow educators, healers, and visionaries. Her hope is to continue deepening the work of uncolonizing education—recognizing that transforming our systems begins with the courage to transform ourselves.