Elizabeth Ortiz

Elizabeth R. Ortiz served as a Media & Communication professor for nearly two decades. With master’s degrees in both Media Studies and Education, her work looks closely at race, gender and representation in the media and the limited roles that these diverse characters play. Ortiz is currently pursuing a PhD in Teaching Learning and Technology at Lehigh University where she is researching how Black and Latina girls navigate media and negotiate mediated representations of girls and women like them.
The increasing need for our youth to be media literate is at the forefront of her coursework and community work as she strives to encourage girls and women to analyze media content and reject images that limit their potential. She is also interested in social media and how it influences every aspect of communication and gives us the opportunity to become engaged in social media for the social good. That is, how can we use our voices online to make the world a better place? The work continues in her own home as the mother of 3 girls ages 9, 12, & 15.
Ortiz is driven by service to the Lehigh Valley and currently serves on the boards of the Boys and Girls Club of Allentown Foundation and The Rising Tide Community Loan Fund. She has been named a Woman of Influence by Lehigh Valley Business, Lehigh Valley’s Finest by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and Board Member of the Year by the Boys and Girls Club of Allentown. Just this year she was awarded the Cedar Crest College Alumnae Award for Teaching Excellence.
She and her husband founded and own Cactus Blue Mexican Restaurant in Bethlehem, PA, the Cactus Blue Food Truck and a new Emmaus, PA location opening late summer 2022. She likes to bring chips, pico de gallo and queso wherever she goes – because nourishment makes for a stronger community.