Project Directors
Flavia Belpoliti (Texas A&M University-Commerce)
Flavia Belpoliti is Associate Professor of Spanish and Director of the Spanish Language Teaching MA at the Department of Literature and Languages at Texas A&M University-Commerce.
Her research interests include Spanish as Second Language and Spanish as a Heritage Language Pedagogy, Hispanic Sociolinguistics, Spanish in the US, and Discourse Analysis. Since 2016 she is co-director of the “Texas Coalition for Heritage Spanish” (TeCHS).
Jocelly Meiners (The University of Texas at Austin)
Jocelly G. Meiners is Associate Professor of Instruction in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at UT Austin. She specializes in teaching and developing courses for Spanish heritage learners, Spanish for healthcare professionals, and courses implementing open pedagogy and experiential learning. Jocelly serves as co-director for the Texas Coalition for Heritage Spanish (TeCHS).
Previous Leadership
Dr. José Esteban Hernández (University of New Mexico, Ph.D. Hispanic Linguistics) is Professor of Hispanic Linguistics at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. His research interests include sociolinguistic variation, dialect and language contact, and Spanish as a heritage language learning. Most recently, he has focused on the construction of identity in contact situations. He has authored and co-authored in venues such as Journal of Sociolinguistics, Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana, Revista de Filología y Lingüística, and Southwest Journal of Linguistics. He has taught courses on the dynamics of language variation and change, and the sociolinguistics of U.S Latino communities. Currently, he is co-coordinator of the “User-Generated Material for Heritage Spanish Project” in the Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning (COERLL) at The University of Texas at Austin.
Yanina Hernandez is a lecturer in The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. She holds an M.A. from the University of New Mexico, and has taught beginning-level Spanish courses for more than 14 years, including face-to-face and online courses. Her experience includes teaching at the University of New Mexico, Texas Southern University, Houston Community College, Texas State Technical College, and The University of Texas Pan American (now UTRGV). Currently, she is co-coordinator of the User-Generated Material for Heritage Spanish in the Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning at The University of Texas at Austin.