Researcher, educator, and curriculum consultant.
Researcher, teacher educator, and curriculum consultant working at the intersection of language, literacy, and equity.
Ph.D., Curriculum and Instruction
M.S. Ed., Curriculum and Instruction
B.A., Elementary Education
University of Miami
- Design and deliver undergraduate and graduate ESOL and bilingual education courses in both face-to-face and Canvas-based online formats, grounded in student-centered pedagogy.
- Consistently receive strong student course evaluations; nominated for a faculty teaching award, 2025–2026.
- Apply Science of Learning principles — spaced retrieval practice, metacognitive strategy instruction — to course design, modeling evidence-based practice for teacher candidates.
- Develop syllabi, instructional materials, and assessments delivered and managed through Canvas LMS.
Florida International University
- Teach undergraduate and graduate courses in Second Language Acquisition, Language Methodology, ESOL, and Bilingual Education, taught fully online in both synchronous and asynchronous Canvas LMS formats.
- Design and deliver face-to-face, synchronous, and asynchronous courses in Canvas LMS modeling differentiated instruction and content-language integration for ESL/BL teacher candidates.
- Coach graduate teacher candidates through iterative feedback cycles on developing research-based instructional materials.
Nova Southeastern University
- Teach undergraduate ESOL and bilingual/multicultural education courses entirely online via Canvas LMS, in both synchronous and asynchronous formats.
- Appointed to the Department of Education Curriculum Committee, contributing to program-level curriculum review — direct service-to-department experience.
National Heritage Language Center, UCLA
Led the redesign of a nationwide professional development program for heritage language educators, grounded in current research on project-based learning and scaffolded, differentiated instruction; project completed 2026.
Utah Bilingual State Department
Designed backward-design, standards-aligned curriculum integrating language development and content learning across proficiency levels.
Faculty Teaching Award Nominee, University of Miami School of Education and Human Development, 2025–2026
The Maria Luisa Ortiz Award for excellence and democratization of knowledge in the field of Portuguese as a Heritage Language, American Organization of Teachers of Portuguese (AOTP), 2024
The most relevant publication for Portuguese teachers in the U.S., AOTP, 2017
Worlds-Ahead Student, Florida International University, 2014
Building a Language Toolkit for Teachers: A Functional Approach Book Study — June–August 2026, Westerlund Consulting
Certified Hybrid Instructor — January 2026, Florida International University
Assessment Design with AI — February 2026, GTx, Georgia Institute of Technology
Chatbots for Instruction — January 2026, GTx, Georgia Institute of Technology