Dr. Custodia-Lora is the Vice President of the Lawrence Campus and Community Relations at Northern Essex Community College, the first Hispanic Serving institution in Massachusetts. She spearheads the NECC Early College program that includes more than 15 regional high schools. Also, under her leadership are Communiversity Partnerships with four-year institutions to offer bachelor degree completion programs at NECC. Dr. Custodia Lora is responsible for launching an onsite credential evaluation service at NECC for immigrants in the region; the development of the NECC Dom. Rep. Experience Professional Development Program for staff and faculty in partnership with Dominican Republic universities. She has also participated in the National Credential and Skill Institute as part of the White House New Immigrant Initiative. Dr. Custodia-Lora is an active community volunteer serving on multiple boards including the Lawrence Partnership Advisory Board, Lawrence EparaTodos Advisory Board, and the Maker Innovation Lab Lawrence Advisory Board among others and actively involved with La Feria Internacional del Libro de Lawrence. In addition, she serves as anEvaluator for the Commission on Institutions of Higher Education New England Association of School and Colleges (NEASC) for accreditation of colleges and universities and a board member of the Lawrence Alliance for Education.

In 2013, Dr. Custodia-Lora was one of only 47 Fellows selected nationwide by the American Council on Education, and the only community college representative. As part of her fellowship, she spent a year working at Lesley College in Cambridge, leading special projects. Dr. Custodia-Lora was the principal investigator for a 1.4-million-dollar grant from the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center Capital Program to update all NECC life science labs in the Lawrence and Haverhill Campuses and for a National Science Foundation – Advance Technological Education to develop and implement a Laboratory Science Program (LSP). The LSP was developed in collaboration with area employers and received the highest endorsement—gold level—from the Massachusetts Life Science Education Consortium. She also developed the ESL (English as Second Language) Learning Social Club to promote Science careers among NECC ESL students. Dr. Custodia-Lora joined Northern Essex in 2003 as a faculty member of the Natural Sciences Department. Prior to that, she was a research fellow at Tufts Medical School. Dr. Custodia-Lora was born in Puerto Rico to Dominican immigrant parents. She holds a PhD. in Molecular Endocrinology from Boston University and a B.S. in Biology from Universidad de Puerto Rico.