📋 ESTHER D. MANZANO – AI & Education Portfolio (until April 2026)

AI Learning Specialist | AI Content Auditor | K-8 Instructional Leader |  Microsoft Certified: AI Transformation Leader

🎯 The Hook

“30 Years of Pedagogical Mastery meets Enterprise AI Governance. I don’t just build AI; I ensure it is safe, accurate, and educationally sound.”

🏆 Currently #1 on K21 Academy Leaderboard – AWS AI/ML/GenAI Job-Oriented Program (as of March 2026)

📞 Contact & Links

• Phone: 505-488-7777
• Email: esric544@gmail.com
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/esther-d-manzano
• GitHub: https://github.com/esric544-dev

👤 Professional Profile

I am an AI Learning Specialist and K–8 instructional leader transitioning into AI, automation, and instructional design. I bring 30+ years of experience in curriculum design, learner support, and teacher leadership, combined with hands-on AI evaluation expertise in remote, global environments.

Core Specializations:

• 🔍 AI Evaluation & Auditing – Ensuring AI safety, accuracy, and pedagogical soundness
• 🛠️ Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) Workflows – Building expert review systems for AI outputs
• 📚 Learner-Centered Design – Creating materials aligned with industry AI/ML standards
• 🌍 Equitable Access – Simplifying complex AI concepts for diverse educators

Target Roles: AI Content Auditor | AI Evaluator | AI Learning Specialist | Subject Matter Expert | Instructional Designer (AI/EdTech) | Curriculum & AI Governance Specialist | Quality Assurance Specialist | Learning Engineer | Solutions Engineer | Product Manager | AI Prompt Engineer | AI/ML Engineer

💼 Featured Roles & Impact

🤖 AI/ML Evaluator (Contract) – Outlier, Micro1 | Remote | 2025–Present

• ✅ Completed complex multi-speaker video annotation and reasoning tasks with 98% accuracy, strengthening AI model understanding and educational content relevance
• 🌐 Collaborated with global teams (Kosovo, Argentina, Philippines) to align quality standards, reducing annotation errors by 20% and improving consistency of AI outputs
• ⚡ Performed emotion tagging, timestamp-accurate labeling, and structured reasoning, reducing processing time by 15% through optimized workflows
• 📊 Evaluated AI-generated educational content for accuracy, clarity, and instructional quality, contributing to 10% increase in model performance in writing and problem-solving tasks
• 📈 Optimized evaluation workflows and documentation, reducing review time by 30% and enabling faster, higher-quality feedback loops

🎓 Educator & Instructional Designer – Various Schools & Programs | 1990–2025

• 📖 Designed and delivered standards-aligned instruction for diverse, multilingual K–8 learners, leading to 20% increase in course completion and higher engagement in virtual/blended environments
• ✏️ Created curriculum, assessments, and differentiated learning materials with 95% student satisfaction in feedback surveys
• 👥 Facilitated training sessions, workshops, and small-group instruction, sustaining 90%+ engagement rates in virtual settings
• 🎯 Mentored students and educators with individualized support, contributing to 15% improvement in student performance metrics
• 💻 Integrated digital tools and LMS platforms to design accessible, interactive lessons for remote and hybrid learning contexts

📊 Portfolio Projects & Case Studies

Bridging Pedagogy & MLOps

I. 🔐 GOVERNANCE & AI SAFETY

Project: Executive Audit Report – Quantlix Runtime Stress Test

• Goal: Evaluate enterprise AI governance effectiveness in K-12 data privacy
• Approach: Conducted “black-box” stress test on Quantlix Control Plane using simulated PII to identify compliance gaps
• Outcome: Identified critical leakage in standard enforcement packs; drafted “Student Privacy” blueprint for hard-blocking PII
• Relevance: Proves expertise in FERPA/COPPA compliance and technical risk management
• 📌 Posted on LinkedIn | [Link here]

II. 📈 MACHINE LEARNING & PREDICTIVE ANALYTICS

Project: University Admission Prediction – Amazon SageMaker Canvas

• Goal: Forecast admission probabilities using historical student datasets
• Approach: Utilized SageMaker Autopilot for automated feature engineering and model training/selection
• Outcome: Achieved 15% accuracy increase over baseline models, enabling data-informed admissions decisions
• Relevance: Demonstrates Applied ML and ability to translate model outputs into educational insights

III. 🧠 NLP & ENGINEERING (The Anchor Project)

Project: Automated Essay Evaluation Pipeline – GitLab Prototype

• Goal: Deliver high-stakes feedback aligned with Master-level curriculum and Bloom’s Taxonomy
• Approach: Architected Chain-of-Thought (CoT) pipeline featuring “Pedagogical Critic” audit layer
• Outcome: Reduced hallucination rates and generic feedback; implemented MLOps-ready prompt version tracking
• Relevance: Directly aligns with Brainscape core product requirements
• 📌 Posted on LinkedIn |  [Link here]

IV. 🛡️ SECURITY & ANOMALY DETECTION

Project: Credit Card Fraud Detection – XGBoost & SageMaker

• Goal: Design high-precision model to flag fraudulent transactions in real-time
• Approach: Performed data preprocessing on imbalanced sets and implemented Continuous Model Retraining
• Outcome: Achieved 95% detection accuracy on validation data with automated update loop
• Relevance: Showcases Supervised Learning and MLOps automation—critical for identifying “out-of-bounds” AI behavior

V. ✅ CONTENT AUDIT & HUMAN-IN-THE-LOOP (HITL)

Project: AI-Generated Content Audit – K-8 Learning Materials

• Goal: Ensure AI-generated curriculum is age-appropriate, CCSS-aligned, and instructionally sound
• Approach: Evaluated multi-speaker reasoning and video content with 98% accuracy in annotation and tagging
• Outcome: Optimized evaluation workflows, reducing review time by 30% and boosting model performance by 10%
• Relevance: Connects 30 years of domain expertise to practical needs of training Large Language Models

🎓 Education & Technical Roadmap

🏅 Current High-Level Certifications 

• 🔷 Microsoft AB-731: AI Transformation Leader – Strategic AI implementation and governance 2026
• 🔷 AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate – Cloud infrastructure and deployment (In Progress)
• 🔷 Level Three A Instructional Leader K–8 License (NM) 2024
• 🔷 Professional Certification K–8 (CNMI) 2023

📚 K21 Academy Learning Journey & Career Pivot Roadmap

AWS AI/ML/GenAI Job-Oriented Program

Month 1 – Foundation & LLM Mastery

• 🔹 Advanced Prompt Engineering & LLM Mechanics (DeepLearning.AI)
• 🔹 Chemistry Guardrail Prompt Library Development
• 🔹 Python Automation for Content Validation

Month 2 – Safety & Human-in-the-Loop Systems

• 🔹 10-Point Pedagogical Rubric Design
• 🔹 RLHF Model Ranking (50+ evaluations)
• 🔹 Distinguishing Pedagogically Sound vs. Robotic AI Voices

Month 3 – Governance & Career Transition

• 🔹 AI Governance Whitepaper Publication
• 🔹 MLOps Community Engagement & Networking
• 🔹 Transition from Educator to AI Content Auditor

Key Takeaway: This 90-day sprint demonstrates how educator expertise becomes essential in AI governance—you’re not being replaced, but called to lead responsible AI implementation in EdTech.

💻 Completed & Verified Technical Courses

A curated selection bridging pedagogy and production AI

🤖 AI Engineering & MLOps

• ✅ Advanced Prompt Engineering (Simplilearn)
• ✅ MLOps Tools: MLflow and Hugging Face
• ✅ Building AI Agents for Beginners (Microsoft)
• ✅ Introduction to Generative AI with GPT / Prompt Engineering for ChatGPT
• ✅ Git Essential Training

💡 Programming & Logic

• ✅ Python Quick Start
• ✅ Writing in Plain English / Plain Language (Critical for prompt engineering & LLM alignment)
• ✅ Editing and Proofreading Made Simple

📊 Growth & Digital Strategy

• ✅ AI-Enhanced Content Creation (Humata)
• ✅ Digital Marketing Foundations
• ✅ Understanding Social Media Algorithms for Creators

🎯 Strategic Certification Roadmap: The Next 3 Gap-Fillers

AI Model Development & Fine-Tuning

• 🔷 Prompt Engineering Specialization (DeepLearning.AI / OpenAI or equivalent) (Coursera)
• Rationale: Master Fine-Tuning (PEFT) and RLHF—core technologies for building AI-powered educational tools like essay review systems; directly applicable to EdTech product development

Data Architecture & Analytics

• 🔷 PostgreSQL for Business Intelligence (LinkedIn Learning)
• Rationale: Demonstrate proficiency in managing student datasets and building data-driven platforms; essential for governance roles requiring data quality oversight and compliance tracking

Learning Science & Instructional Design

• 🔷 Instructional Design: Models of Learning (LinkedIn Learning)
• Rationale: Deepen expertise in learning science foundations (Spaced Repetition, Cognitive Load Theory); aligns with EdTech companies that prioritize pedagogically sound AI implementation

🌉 Strategic Alignment: These three certifications close the gap between AI technical depth, data governance, and educational pedagogy—positioning you as a bridge between engineering, policy, and classroom impact.

🛠️ Technical Stack & Tooling

Category	Tools & Technologies
🤖 AI & Machine Learning	Amazon SageMaker, SageMaker Canvas, XGBoost, TensorFlow, Scikit-learn, RLHF
🧠 Generative AI & NLP	OpenAI GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Gemini, Hugging Face Transformers, LangChain
⚙️ MLOps & DevOps	MLflow (Experiment Tracking), GitLab CI/CD, Docker, Prompt Versioning
📊 Data & Analytics	Python (Pandas, NumPy), SQL, Amazon S3, Snowflake (Foundational), Matplotlib
🔐 Governance & Safety	Quantlix Runtime Control Plane, PII Redaction, Ethical AI Frameworks, FERPA/COPPA
📚 Instructional Design	LMS Platforms, Bloom’s Taxonomy, CCSS Alignment, Spaced Repetition (CBR)

📈 K21 Academy Progress & Community Engagement

📋 Progress Documentation

• 📌 All K21 Academy activities—labs, projects, quizzes, assignments, lesson summaries, and reflections—are systematically documented in Progress Diaries for continuous tracking and accountability

🌟 Public Visibility & Recognition

• 📌 Key milestones, wins, and earned certificates are shared on LinkedIn to build credibility and engage the EdTech + AI community
• 🏆 Notable Achievement: Ranked #1 on K21 Academy Leaderboard from Week 1 to present—demonstrating consistent excellence, deep engagement, and mastery of program material

Portfolio Version 2026 | Last Updated: [March  2026]