Received her Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her research focuses on the acquisition of Spanish as a second language and as a heritage language, employing psycholinguistic experimental methods such as self-paced reading and eye-tracking. Her NSF funded dissertation project examined the comprehension of Spanish syntax among native speakers of English in the context of ongoing language immersion in Mexico City. She has over ten years of teaching experience, including Spanish and Linguistics at Texas Tech University and the University of Illinois at Chicago, as well as ESL in China and the National Autonomous University of Mexico and several NGOs in Chicago. In addition to teaching, she has worked in program coordination and curriculum development, including the conversion of a Spanish language program to a blended learning format, combining traditional classroom instruction with online learning.
