Organizing Committee

Roberta Espinoza, Vice Provost for Global-Local Initiatives and Professor of Sociology
As Vice-Provost for Global-Local Initiatives, Dr. Espinoza oversees the Office of Study Abroad and the Office of National and International Fellowships. As LMU's Senior International Officer, she facilitates collaborations and professional relationships among LMU faculty, staff, alumni, and other organizations and institutions on efforts related to comprehensive internationalization and strategic community engagement. Dr. Espinoza holds a B.A. from Pomona College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from UC Berkeley. She worked at CSU Fullerton and Pitzer College, where she was a Professor of Sociology and served as Interim Associate Dean of Global and Local Programs, Director of the Institute for Global/Local Action & Study and of the Global Local Mentorship Program and created and supervised Pitzer's First-Gen Program. She also served as the Academic Coordinator for the Claremont Colleges Mellon Mays Undergraduate Program, and received the inaugural Claremont Colleges Diversity Teaching Award. Dr. Espinoza has numerous publications on the role of social and cultural capital in the educational advancement and success of first-generation students of color in higher education.
Franca Dell'Olio, Associate Dean of Continuous Improvement, Assessment, and Accreditation and Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Administration
Dr. Dell'Olio earned an M. A. in Bilingual Bicultural Education from LMU and a Doctorate in Educational Leadership, Administration and Policy from Pepperdine University. She holds CA Single Subject Teaching Credentials in History and Spanish. As a scholar-practitioner, Professor Dell'Olio promotes inclusive school cultures and instructional programs with specific emphasis on school-community relationship building. As a practitioner, she focuses on the preparation of school administrators for Catholic, private, traditional public, and charter schools. Her publications focus on key processes of communication, leadership, motivation, conflict, and organizational change, in particular on how school administrators guide school communities in responding to the needs of diverse learners in varied educational settings.
Tim Chang, Associate Dean of Student Life and Administration, Emerson College Los Angeles
Timothy Chang holds a B.A. from Bradley University in Psychology and an M.A. in Higher Education Administration from Teachers College, Columbia University. He has served in lead administrative roles over the past two and a half decades at The College of New Jersey, the California Institute of Technology, and Occidental College. Tim's LMU assignment includes responsibility for customer service, human resources, facilities planning, information technology, enrollment management, and financial management in support of the academic mission of the School of Education.
Deena González, Provost and Senior Vice President, Gonzaga University
Dr. González holds academic degrees from New Mexico State University and UC Berkeley. Previous to her current assignment, she served as Director of Faculty Development and Associate Provost of Faculty Affairs at Loyola Marymount University, where she was also a Professor and Chair in the Department of Chicana/o, Latina/o Studies for eighteen years. Prior to joining LMU, she was a faculty member in History and Chicana/o Studies at Pomona College for eighteen years as well. In addition to a monograph and two major Latino/a Studies encyclopedia projects with Oxford University Press, Dr. González has published over sixty articles in journals, anthologies, and conference proceedings; she is well-known nationally and internationally for developing new scholarship in the fields of Chicana/o Studies, History, Women's/Gender Studies and Ethnic Studies. Her work in Faculty Affairs at LMU included facilitating the university's Rank and Tenure processes, developing efficient methods of communication with faculty about internal grants, sabbaticals, leaves, and contractual obligations, and assisting the development of faculty in their roles as Chairs.
Ricardo Machón, Professor of Psychology
Dr. Machón earned his B.A. in French and Psychology, M.A. in Clinical Psychology, and Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of Southern California. He currently serves in a leadership role for the Study Abroad, University Honors, and Undergraduate Research programs, and National and International Fellowships. He also collaborates with Student Affair colleagues, provides leadership and coordination to the Graduate Initiative for Diversity, Inclusion, and Success, a partnership with a few select universities in the greater LA area, and has primary responsibility for the nomination and selection process for Presidential Citations. Professor Machón has published widely in the fields of psychopathology and neurodevelopment of schizophrenia and other major mental disorders, and has presented his research findings at numerous national and international conferences. His most recent publications (co-authored with LMU undergraduate students and recent grads) center on service-based community engagement and increased social awareness among students, in particular first-generation college students.
William Pérez, Professor
Dr. Pérez conducts research on the academic success and higher education access of immigrant, undocumented, indigenous, and deported students in the U.S. and Mexico. He has received various awards for his research including the 2009 Mildred Garcia Prize for Excellence in Research from the Association for the Study of Higher Education, the 2013 Critics Choice book Award from the American Educational Studies Association, the early career scholar award from the Hispanic Research Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association, and the Fulbright Fellowship. For the past four years (2015-2018), he has been selected for Education Week's annual ranking of the top 200 university-based scholars in the U.S. who are doing the most to influence educational policy and practice.
Candace Poindexter, Professor of Education
Dr. Poindexter received her Master's Degree from LMU and her Doctoral Degree from UCLA. She has taught at LMU for more than three decades and is currently Chair of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and Director of Literacy and the Educational Studies Master's Degree programs.
Francisco Ramos, Professor and Colloquium Director
Francisco Ramos holds a B.A. in Education from the Escuela Universitaria de Formación del Profesorado de Soria and an M.A. in Filología Inglesa from the Universidad de Zaragoza in Spain. He also holds an M.A. in TESOL from California State University, Los Angeles, and a Ph.D. in Language, Literacy, and Learning from the University of Southern California. He has published in the International Multilingual Research Journal, the Bilingual Research Journal, the Journal of Bilingual Education Research & Instruction, Estudios sobre Educación, Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada, and Porta Linguarum. He has conducted professional development sessions in Mexico and Honduras, and presented at the annual conferences of the National and California Association for Bilingual Education, Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, and the Comparative and International Education Society. A former Chair of the Bilingual Education Interest Section of TESOL, he is the current Director of the Bilingual Education Program at LMU.	‌
Isabel Sanz, Colloquium Coordinator
Isabel Sanz is a Spanish teacher at Hamilton High School Academy of Music Magnet. She holds an M.A. in Filología Inglesa from the Universidad de Zaragoza; an M.A. in Multicultural Education, Bilingual Education Specialist, from California State University at Dominguez Hills; a Certificate in Interpretation and Translation from the Escuela de Traductores e Intérpretes, Instituto Internacional Sampere, Madrid; and a Certificate in Differentiated Curriculum for Gifted Students Program from the University of Southern California. She has published in De Par en Par, a magazine of the Department of Education of the Embassy of Spain, Washington. She has presented at the Education Office of the Consulate of Spain in Los Angeles, at the CLTA Summer Seminar for Teachers of Spanish, University of Santa Barbara, California; at the annual conferences of the National and California Associations for Bilingual Education, and at the Jornadas Pedagógicas Internacionales para la Educación Bilingüe at LMU. She was awarded Who's Who Among America"s Teachers for the 8th, 9th, and 10th editions.

Event Staff

Elizabeth López, Event Staff Supervisor
Elizabeth López, 21, is a proud daughter of Mexican immigrant parents. She grew up in a humble environment where her parents instilled in her and her siblings the importance of education. She is currently studying at LMU to become a bilingual elementary teacher while concurrently working as an AVID tutor, youth group coordinator, mandoline teacher and RAINS assistant. She likes to be with family and friends in her spare time. Elizabeth is determined to finish her studies and be the first in her family to receive a master's degree. She hopes to effect changes in the educational system to defend the language and culture of Spanish-speaking students.
Adrián Marinero, Event Staff
Born in Valladolid, Adrián is a 21-year-old student of Translation and Interpreting at the University of Valladolid in Soria. Winner of the Spanish amateur category of the LocJAM 2017, a videogame translation contest, he is an enthusiast of technology, videogames, and languages, and hopes to be able to benefit from these fields in his future job.
Claudia Ioana Macrea, Event Staff
Claudia is a 22-year-old Translation and Interpreting student at the University of Valladolid in Soria. Originally from Romania, she is passionate about music and learning languages. She is also a member of the innovative group Crealante (Creative Language Teaching) and has recently gained experience as an intern in "Multicultural Schools", a European Union-sponsored project.
Óscar Recacha, Event Staff
Óscar is a Translation and Interpreting student at the Universidad de Valladolid in Soria. Born in Logroño, La Rioja, he loves English, as well as anything language-related. He has spent time in Vilna, Lithuania, as an Erasmus student. He hopes to use the practical knowledge he has acquired in this experience in the future.
Inés López, Event Staff
Inés is a 21-year-old Primary Education student at the University of Valladolid in Soria. She is passionate about photography and learning new languages.
Pilar Serrano Bellido, Event Staff
Pilar is a 21-year-old Education student at the University of Valladolid in Soria, the city where she was born and raised. She is interested in learning about nature, as well as different cultures and languages, and hopes to be able to incorporate these interests in her future career.
Rodrigo Gallardo Gómez, Event Staff
Rodrigo is a 16-year-old student born in Santander. He would like to study Mathematics and Physics once he reaches college-age. He loves sports, especially track and field.
Marta Gallardo Gómez, Event Staff
Marta is an 18-year-old Education student at the University of Cantabria. Born in Santander, she practices track and field and enjoys traveling and music.
Sara Gallego Jiménez, Event Staff
Sara is a 16-year-old 11th grade student at the IES Virgen del Espino in Soria. She's planning to study Medicine in college, and loves music, reading, and learning about other cultures.
Elena Blázquez, Event Staff
Elena is a 17-year-old 11th grade student at the IES Virgen del Espino in Soria. She enjoys sports, especially basketball, and music.
Alberto Fernández, Event Staff
Alberto is a Translation and Interpreting student at the Universidad de Valladolid in Soria. He was born in Valladolid, Castile and Leon. He loves to travel and discover as many different places and people possible, and that's why he likes languages so much. After broadening his horizons in his experience as an Erasmus student in Cagliari, Sardinia, he hopes to keep doing it more and more. Apart from that, he loves theater and Art in any form.
Alexander Cantú, Event Staff
Alex is fluent in English and Spanish. Born in Los Angeles, California, he will graduate from Culver City High School next year after completing 10th grade at Colegio Santa Teresa de Jesús in Soria, Spain. He plans to study International Relations in college, and is very passionate about traveling and learning about different cultures.