Pilar Holtrop

West Regional Director

pholtrop@niet.org

Pilar Holtrop serves schools and districts in the West for NIET as West team director. She is passionate about supporting educators in making a difference students’ lives.

While she officially started with NIET in 2020, Pilar has been a part of the NIET family since 2000 at Horizon Community Learning Center in Arizona, as one of the first pilot TAP schools in Arizona. Pilar started her career as a classroom teacher and naturally rose into roles of K-12 leadership, such as mentor teacher, master teacher, and ultimately administrator. She taught, coached, and supervised elementary grades in the Los Angeles Unified School District, Roosevelt School District (Arizona), and Horizon Community Learning Center.

Pilar solidified her passion for coaching peers as a regional master teacher under Arizona State University's (ASU) federal Teacher Incentive Fund grant, the AZ Ready-for-Rigor Project, which supported the implementation of TAP across the state. Following the grant, she became chief talent officer overseeing human resources at ASU Preparatory Academies. She currently serves on the Horizon school board.

An ASU alumna and loyal Sun Devil, Pilar obtained her bachelor's degree in elementary education with an emphasis in language arts, followed by a Master of Education in educational leadership.

Pilar Holtrop

Who is your favorite teacher?

My favorite teacher was Mrs. Cook in third grade. In the 1970's it was not a typical practice to let students work in small groups on projects, but Mrs. Cook did. Our desks were placed in rows, looking straight ahead. I remember a pilgrim project that we had to work on as a team of four. We were allowed to move our desks around and work together. We each read, researched, and wrote about a part of pilgrim life and then presented it to the class. I remember how proud I was of my work, but especially our group's accomplishment. Great strategies stand the test of time.

What do you do in your free time?

When I have free time, I like to do yoga, hike, and enjoy the outdoors. We love to spend time at our mountain cabin in Flagstaff, Arizona, all year long, but especially during the hot summers in Phoenix. We enjoy entertaining with our children, our "village" of friends, and spoiling our darling granddaughters.