Meet the TexLER Committee

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The Texas Language Education Research (TexLER) Conference Committee is a student organization comprised of undergraduate, Master's and Ph.D. students of the Department of Bicultural & Bilingual Studies and TESOL in the College of Education and Human Development.

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Committee Members

Kathryn I. Henderson is the faculty advisor for TexLER. She is an assistant professor in the Department of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies, College of Education and Human Development at The University of Texas at San Antonio. Her education interests include language ideologies, language policy and dual language bilingual education programs.

My name is Martha Zapata, I was born in Mexico City and I'm currently a student at UTSA working on my bachelors on Bilingual Education. I've worked with children for a long time already but I have a special interest in working with bilingual children. I believe those children are still being underrepresented and in some cases undermine that is why I'm always looking for new ways to address their needs.

Nguyen is the Academic Coordinator of the TexLER Committee. He is a first-year Ph.D. student in Culture, Literacy, and Language at UTSA. Before moving to San Antonio, worked as an ESL teacher in Vietnam. Then he earned his M.Ed. in Curriculum & Instruction from University of Houston. His research interests include language learning, literacy practices, and identity among Vietnamese Americans.

Amalia "Maya" Guirao, Educational Specialist at The Department of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies, UTSA teaches Spanish Language courses designed for bilingual teacher candidates and serves as Advisor for the UTSA undergraduate and graduate bilingual student organizations BESO and GLOBE. Her area of research interests includes Spanish language acquisition for heritage speakers; Sociocultural approaches to language, literacy, identity; bilingualism/biliteracy; Latin@ education; bilingual education; teacher education; and qualitative and ethnographic methodologies.

Elise is currently a doctoral student in the Culture, Literacy, and Language program at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She has a range of English teaching experiences, including at intensive English programs in the U.S., an international school abroad, and as an English Language Fellow in Uzbekistan. Elise is interested in serving language teachers around the globe through professional development, advocacy, and mutual learning.

Alpha A. Martínez-Suárez is a third year Ph.D. Fellow in the Culture, Language, and Literacy program at University of Texas at San Antonio. She currently teaches Análisis Lingüístico y Bilingüismo (Language Analysis & Bilingualism) at COEHD in UTSA. She is a two-time Academy for Teacher Excellence Presidential Distinguished Scholar awardee and co- founder of the Focused Library for the Dreamers’ Resource Center at UTSA.

Jessica McConnell is currently a doctoral student in the Culture, Literacy, and Language program at the University of Texas at San Antonio. She has ten years of experience as a Spanish and French high school teacher. She also has a master’s in industrial/organizational psychology from Saint Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas. Her main research interests are in foreign language teacher retention and attrition, foreign language pedagogy, meeting the needs of diverse learners in foreign language classrooms, and understanding the experiences of migrants from Francophone countries.