About me
I am a Professor of Spanish and Linguistics. I currently serve as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Affairs in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Director or the college’s Academic Advising Center.
I am from New York originally but have travelled and/or lived in Spain, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Peru (and have a strong desire to travel the rest of the world, especially the Spanish-speaking part of it!).
Professionally, I have taught all levels of Spanish, from beginning language on up to graduate seminars in Hispanic Linguistics. For a long time I directed our lower division Spanish program, working to design basic language courses, train graduate instructors, and improve the language requirement experience for UF students. I also served as Chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies from 2010-2021.
My primary research focus is on how we can teach, and how students learn, Spanish as a second/foreign language in the most effective and enjoyable ways. I have done work with computer-assisted language learning, study abroad, and classroom environments. My real passion is the acquisition of the Spanish sound system (so, pronunciation) – that’s just a warning, because if you ever ask me about Spanish phonetics/phonology, I can and likely will talk for hours.
One of my latest accomplishments is the publication of an all-digital learning program (textbook – but not a book since it’s digital!) for beginning Spanish. It’s called Contraseña and you can learn more about it at Lingro Learning. With the same publisher, I am in the process of writing a Spanish phonetics textbook, called De onda a onda, with Gator Ph.D. Diana Velázquez-López.
I’ve been in Gainesville since 2001, when I got my PhD and took my first job here fresh out of graduate school. I met my husband here – he’s a Gainesville native, and is currently Mayor of Gainseville. We have three daughters, one is currently in 10th grade, one is a freshman at UCF this year, and the oldest is a senior at UF studying History and Public Health.