Margarita Machado-Casas, Ph.D.
Western Region Representative mmachadocasas@sdsu.edu Margarita Machado-Casas, Ph.D. Dr. Margarita Machado Casas is a Full Professor in the SDSU Dual Language and English Learner Education Department. She completed her Ph.D. at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and completed the prestigious postdoctoral fellowship at Frank Potter Graham (FPG) Research Institute at Duke University. She currently serves as the editor of the Critical Issues in Latina/o Education series for Peter Lang Publishers and has recently signed to edit the “Critical Studies of Latinx in the Americas”, and the “Critical issues in Education around the world book series”. Dr. Machado Casas is also a board member of … Continued
Belinda Trevino Schouten, Ph.D.
NABE Secretary & Central Region Representative secretary@nabe.org Belinda Trevino Schouten, Ph.D. Dr. Belinda Trevino Schouten has personally lived the experience of having to learn a second, third and even a fourth language and is fully committed to the educational success of Emergent Bilinguals (EBs), their parents, and their teachers. She is the daughter of an immigrant father from the Netherlands and a Mexican American mother—a “Pionera” who dedicated her life to bilingual education. Dr. Schouten grew up speaking Dutch and English at home and for two years attended an International School through NATO in the Netherlands where she learned Dutch, … Continued
Nilda M. Aguirre, Ed.S.
NABE Executive Director mailto: nmaguirre@nabe.org As a Cuban immigrant who arrived in the US at the age of 6, Nilda Aguirre is well aware of the challenges facing English Learners. Throughout her career as an educator, Nilda has been driven to improve outcomes for English Learners through the use of best practices, cutting edge strategies, community involvement and advocacy. Nilda has been a NABE member for over 35 years, and as the Executive Director for the National Association for Bilingual Education, she will continue to support NABE’s mission of advocating for educational equity and excellence for bilingual/multilingual students in a … Continued
Rebecca Blum Martinez, Ph.D.
NABE Member-at-Large blummtz@gmail.com Rebecca Blum Martinez, Ph.D. Rebecca Blum Martinez is Professor of Bilingual Education in the Department Language Literacy and Sociocultural Studies at the University of New Mexico, where she specializes in bilingualism, second language learning and language maintenance and revitalization in language minority communities—particularly Spanish-speaking and American Indian populations. Her research and scholarly interests have long centered on the study of language development in bilinguals and second language development across varied learning contexts. Dr. Blum Martinez has also served as the director of Latin American Program in Education that serves as a liaison between the UNM College of … Continued
Cristina Alfaro, Ph.D.
NABE Western Region Representative calfaro@sdsu.edu Cristina Alfaro, Ph.D. Cristina Alfaro, Ph.D. is Associate Vice President of Global Affairs at San Diego State University. Dr. Alfaro is Professor and Past Chair of the Dual Language and English Learner Education Department in the College of Education where she has championed and led the largest bilingual teacher education-social justice-based program in the state of California. She is a nationally and internationally recognized scholar in the field of democratic cultural and linguistic diversity education. Dr. Alfaro is also the Director of the Formadores de Docentes Binacionales, a project that addresses the needs of the Students We … Continued
Evelyn DeJesus, M.S.Ed.
NABE President & Eastern Region Representative president@nabe.org Evelyn DeJesus, Executive Vice President, AFT, AFL-CIO Since 2019, Evelyn DeJesus has been the executive vice president of the 1.7 million member AFT, the first Latino/a officer in the union’s 107-year history. A skilled teacher and administrator, DeJesus is a forceful advocate for justice—undaunted and unafraid to speak truth to power. She chairs the AFT Latino Issues Task Force and serves as the presiding officer of the AFT Asian American and Pacific Islander Task Force, the newly created AFT Native American/Indigenous Task Force and the AFT LGBTQIA+ Task Force. In 2021, she joined … Continued
Miriam E. Ebsworth, Ph.D.
Eastern Region Representative miriam.ebsworth@nyu.edu Miriam Eisenstein Ebsworth, Ph.D Miriam Eisenstein Ebsworth, Ph.D., currently represents the Eastern region of NABE (including Puerto Rico). Miriam has a hybrid multilingual multicultural identity. A native Yiddish speaker with dominance in English, Miriam is also bilingual in Spanish and Hebrew, two of her heritage languages. Born in Brooklyn, New York, her extended family is broad including family members who hail from Argentina, Puerto Rico, Panama, Montreal, Wales, England, and China. She earned a Bachelor’s in French and Early Childhood Education from Brooklyn College, a Master’s in TESOL from Columbia University Teachers College, and a Ph.D. … Continued
Judith M. Sauri, M.Ed.
NABE Treasurer & Member-at-Large judycpaa@gmail.com Judith M. Sauri, M.Ed. Judith M. Sauri (Judy) served as Principal of Richard Edwards Dual Language Fine andPerforming Arts International Baccalaureate (IB) School from 2005 to 2020. Edwards serves over1,0550 students; 95% are of Latino heritage. During the 25 years that Judy has served in Chicago Public Schools (CPS), she has worn many hats: Bilingual Teacher, Assistant Principal, After-School Coordinator, Curriculum Design Team Member, ESL Resource Teacher, Bilingual LeadTeacher, presenter and staff development liaison, Dean of Students, Disciplinarian, Programmer and Schedule Coordinator, Parent Coordinator, and grant writer; just to name a few. Her transformational leadership skills have … Continued
Sonia W. Soltero, Ph.D.
NABE Central Region Representative ssoltero@depaul.edu Sonia W. Soltero, Ph.D. Sonia W. Soltero is Professor and Chair of the Department of Leadership, Language, and Curriculum, former Director of the Bilingual-Bicultural Education Graduate Program at DePaul University in Chicago, and former bilingual and dual language teacher and program coordinator. Soltero has numerous publications on dual language, bilingual education and Latino education, including her more recent books: Dual Language Education: Program Design and Implementation and School-Wide Approaches to Educating English Language Learners. She has been involved in dual language and bilingual education for more than thirty years as a dual language teacher, university professor, professional developer, and researcher. Soltero as extensive … Continued