She has taught at several Universities, including Old Dominion University in Virginia; Southeastern Louisiana University in Hammond, LA; the University of Louisiana at Lafayette; and the University of Texas at Brownsville.

Dr. Rita has authored five books on character development and positive discipline. She is the recipient of several awards. At Southeastern Louisiana University, she received the Merritt Endowed Chair, the Students’ Nominee for Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers, the President’s Award for Excellence in Research, and the Chancellor’s Teaching Award. At the University of Texas at Brownsville she received the Student Council for Exceptional Children award; and early in her career she was awarded the Foreign Language Award for Excellence in French at Dominican College.

She has published extensively in refereed journals and presented at multiple regional, national, and international conferences. Her research interests are in special population issues, behavior management, character development and on-line teaching and learning.
She has written multiple grants and she has been involved in implementing numerous grants at various universities, the latest one being the Title V grant at the University of St. Thomas.
She has served as counselor for Kappa Delta Pi, and the Council for Exceptional Children at Southeastern Louisiana University. She was involved with Campus Ministry in planning the travel of UST students to the 2009 Youth Day in Sydney, Australia.

As Director for the Center for Faculty Excellence, Rita is dedicated to continue the mission of the Center to “provide faculty with resources and services that foster and support their success in teaching, research and service throughout all stages of their careers.

The directors and participants of the Center for Faculty Excellence seek to develop a community of teachers and scholars to work collaboratively with all sectors of the University to accomplish that mission.”