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About Us

Mary Ellen Alsobrook (me_alsobrook@mail.utexas.edu)
Mary Ellen Alsobrook is a doctoral student in Multicultural Special Education at The University of Texas at Austin. She brings 15+ years of experience as a general and special education teacher, as well as a background in diversity training. Her research interests include teacher preparation for culturally and linguistically diverse populations with a focus on prevention of inappropriate referrals to special education.

Melanie Bertrand (mbertrand@mail.utexas.edu)
Melanie Bertrand is a master's student in Cultural Studies in Education at the University of Texas and a facilitator of pre-service teachers. Prior to beginning graduate studies, she taught English as a Second Language at an elementary school in Denver. Her research interests are hegemony, counterhegemonic resistance and language.

Amy Villafuerte Golde (agolde@mail.utexas.edu)
Amy V. Golde earned her elementary teaching certificate with a bilingual minor from Pan American University in Edinburg, Texas in 1987. She taught 1st, 2nd and 5th graders during her 13-year teaching career. Through the Austin-U.T. School Leadership Program (Cohort I), she began to pursue her Master's in Educational Administration and graduated in May 2002. She loved the challenges that higher education offered her so she continued pursuing her Ph.D. in the Cultural Studies Program in June 2002 and continues studying to this day. She has been an assistant principal at Mendez Middle School, Porter Middle School, Houston Elementary, Galindo Elementary and is presently an assistant principal at O. Henry Middle School with the Austin Independent School District.

Florencia Gutierrez (fpgutierrez6@hotmail.com)
Florencia Gutierrez is a prospective graduate student in the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas at Austin and has a Masters in special education. Her research interests surround issues of access to educational pathways for minority students.

Linda Guardia Jackson (lgjackson@mail.utexas.edu)
Linda Guardia Jackson is a doctoral student in Cultural Studies in Education at The University of Texas at Austin. She brings 25+ years of experience as a teacher and consultant (Jackson & Associates) for bilingual programs with a focus on the implementation of dual language models. Her research interests include Chicana bilingual education teachers' epistemologies, as well as language and identity.

Linda Prieto (lprieto@mail.utexas.edu)
Linda Prieto is a doctoral student in Cultural Studies in Education at The University of Texas at Austin and Managing Editor for the Anthropology of Education Quarterly. Her research looks at the preparation of teachers serving predominantly Latino classrooms, schools, and communities through a Chicana feminist framework.