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Office for Bilingual Integration Division of Academic Affairs

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  • Bilingual Integration

Contact Us

Office for Bilingual Integration

ESSBL 4.101 / BLHSB 2.424
Email: bilingualintegration@utrgv.edu
Phone: (956) 665-2183
Phone Alt: (956) 882-7829

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  • Center for Bilingual Studies
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Our Team

OBI Vice Provost

 

Joy Esquierdo, PhD

Vice Provost
Phone: (956) 665-2183
Email: joy.esquierdo@utrgv.edu
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Joy Esquierdo, PhD


Vice Provost
Office for Bilingual Integration
Email: joy.esquierdo@utrgv.edu

Phone: (956) 665-2183


 

Diana Ocañas

Administrative Associate
Phone: (956) 665-2183
Email: diana.ocanas@utrgv.edu
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Diana Ocañas

Administrative Associate
Office for Bilingual Integration
Email: diana.ocanas@utrgv.edu
ESSBL 4.101
Phone: (956) 665-2183

Dania López García, PhD

Director for B3 Curriculum and Professional Development, Associate Professor of Hispanic Linguistics
Phone: (956) 882-6503
Email: dania.lopezgarcia@utrgv.edu
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Dania López García, PhD


Director for B3 Curriculum and Professional Development, Associate Professor of Hispanic Linguistics
Office for Bilingual Integration
Email: dania.lopezgarcia@utrgv.edu
BMAIN 1.512
Phone: (956) 882-6503

Katherine Christoffersen, PhD

Director for B3 Scholarship and Student Connection, Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics
Phone: (956) 665-8102
Email: katherine.christoffersen@ut...
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Katherine Christoffersen, PhD

Dr. Christoffersen holds an MA in English Language & Linguistics and a PhD in Second Language Acquisition & Teaching from the University of Arizona. She is an Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics in the Department of Writing and Language Studies and teaches courses in applied linguistics and sociolinguistics in the BA English, MA Linguistics, and MA ESL programs, integrating bilingual and translanguaging pedagogies in these classes. Dr. Christoffersen's research examines bilingualism in the community and the classroom using discourse analytic and ethnographic research methods. She has published in journals such as the International Multilingual Research Journal, GiST Education and Learning Research Journal, Studies in Applied Linguistics, and NABE Journal of Research and Practice and contributed a chapter to the edited volume Identity and Dialect Performance: A Study of Communities & Dialects. Dr. Christoffersen is also the co-creator of an online accessible database of sociolinguistic interviews entitled Corpus Bilingüe del Valle (CoBiVa), and in 2021, she served as project director and lead principal investigator on the project "Bilingual Voices in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands" funded by the National Endowment of the Humanities.
Director for B3 Scholarship and Student Connection, Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics
Office for Bilingual Integration
Email: katherine.christoffersen@utrgv.edu

Phone: (956) 665-8102

Mercedes Orfelinda Torres, MA

Program Manager/Translator Liaison
Phone: (956) 882-7829
Email: mercedes.torres@utrgv.edu
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Mercedes Orfelinda Torres, MA

Mercedes Orfelinda Torres is originally from the Matamoros, México and Brownsville, Texas border region. She holds a BA in Spanish with a Minor in Spanish Translation, an Associate Degree in Translation Studies, and an MA in Spanish, all from The University of Texas at Brownsville.

She is currently the Program Manager & Translator of the Office for Bilingual Integration, and provides support in administrative tasks and translations for the Translation and Interpreting Office.

She has worked as a freelance Translator since 2005 delivering services to the Curriculum and Instruction Department at legacy institution UTB/TSC, and to medical and legal offices in Brownsville.

She was an instructor and taught Advanced Spanish during the Spanish for Faculty and Staff Professional Development for UTRGV in Mérida, Youcatán, México in July 2018.

Ms. Torres has 17 years of experience lecturing in both face-to-face and hybrid delivery methods of instruction at her alma mater and in the Department of Writing and Language Studies at UTRGV. She also taught Advanced Placement Spanish and Dual Enrollment Spanish at Gladys Porter High School in collaboration with The University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College from October 2010 to June 2012.

She has taught lower and upper level courses, including SPAN 2311/2312 Intermediate Spanish I and II (Summer Bridge Program), SPAN 2313/2315 Spanish Native/Heritage Speakers I and II, SPAN 2321/2322 Hispanic Literature and Civilization I and II, SPAN 3330 Advanced Grammar, SPAN 4316 Acquisition of the Spanish Language, and SPAN 4368 Children’s Literature; and worked as a linguistics graduate teaching assistant.

During 2003-2005, as President of the Honorary Society Sigma Delta Phi, Chapter Tau Chi, she coordinated children's literature readings in Spanish throughout the Brownsville community. In her spare time, she writes short stories in Spanish and Calaveras, and has presented her work in conferences and symposia in Brownsville, Edinburg, and Matamoros, Tamaulipas, México.


Program Manager/Translator Liaison
Office for Bilingual Integration
Email: mercedes.torres@utrgv.edu
BLHS 2.424
Phone: (956) 882-7829

Michelle Cavazos, M.Ed.

Program Manager
Phone: (956) 655-3214
Email: michelle.a.cavazos@utrgv.edu
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Michelle Cavazos, M.Ed.


Program Manager
Office for Bilingual Integration
Email: michelle.a.cavazos@utrgv.edu
EEDUC 2.216B
Phone: (956) 655-3214

Raquel Pérez, M.Ed.

Program Manager
Phone: (956) 655-3214
Email: raquel.perez@utrgv.edu
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Raquel Pérez, M.Ed.


Program Manager
Office for Bilingual Integration
Email: raquel.perez@utrgv.edu
EEDUC 2.216B
Phone: (956) 655-3214

Kevin Valverde

Student Assistant
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Kevin Valverde

Student Assistant

Frida Lecona

Student Assistant
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Frida Lecona

Student Assistant

Trinity Rios

Student Assistant
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Trinity Rios

Student Assistant

Jorge Salazar

Graduate Assistant
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Jorge Salazar


Graduate Assistant
Office for Bilingual Integration

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