Achterberg calls upon her own life experience to guide her. She is a second-generation Latina. Her grandparents crossed the Rio Grande in the early 1900s and eventually came to California, where her father, the last of 10 children, was born.

As a very young child, Achterberg lived with her grandparents in Watts, a predominately African-American neighborhood in East Los Angeles. Her grandmother had little formal schooling, but was proud of learning to read so she could read the Bible in English. “And she was an amazing cook,” Achterberg said. Even today, going into a home filled with the familiar smells of Mexican food instantly relaxes her.

When she entered school, her life changed. Her father, a teacher and school administrator, felt it best that his children speak only English, even at home. “My first school years were difficult,” Achterberg said. “I struggled, and was confused and pretty much silent.”
Only later did she do much better in school; so much so that “I knew inside that I would go to college.” However, her father felt it best that she planned to marry rather than continuing her education. After high school, Achterberg was soon “alone and on my own.”

With the help of a small scholarship and two jobs, she earned a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. That led to yet another decision that set her apart from her extended family. She left them on the West Coast and headed for Maine, where she ultimately finished a master’s degree. She studied human development and researched why some babies failed to grow and develop as they should.
She soon decided she wanted to influence public health policy, so she earned a doctorate in human nutrition from Cornell University.

For the next 20 years, she was a faculty member and then a dean at Penn State University. She moved in 2005 to Iowa State University, where she was Dean of the newly formed College of Human Sciences.

In all her decisions, she had no family or friend to advise her. “Because of the way I was raised, and the people I knew, I didn’t dream the dreams common to college students now,” she said. “I had to figure it out on my own, one year and sometimes, one day at a time.”

She credits public education with giving her the knowledge needed to succeed. “The single highest value of public education is that it allows a person to write their own life script. Without it, you get handed your script and you have to live it whether you want to or not.”

Achterberg advises Latin@ students to be open to possibilities. “Opportunities may make you uncomfortable, but your cultural roots and values are safety nets.” At the same time, she says, “as life presents you with problems to resolve, bend but do not break!”