Well, there’s been a number of changes in my life professionally, I don’t really know where to begin. But, I guess I’ll tell you about a couple of things.
After 23 years at the University of Texas where I started my career, I have taken a position at the University of California, Irvine in the School of Education. It’s an exciting move for sure. One of the things that drew me to this program is the number of faculty who work on issues of diversity in education broadly speaking. It’s an opportunity for me to think about how questions of bilingualism and language impairment fit into the broader educational mission of our public schools. How can we improve services for kids with language impairment not only at the clinical level, but at the broader classroom, school, and district level. I’m looking forward to continuing my work in bilingualism and to broaden my research lens to consider other aspects of learning. And if you’re thinking about doing a Ph,D. (and would like to do your studies in Southern California) feel free to contact me.
Many of you know that we first published the BESA almost 3 years ago with AR-Clinical Publications. Well, the training wheels are off and the BESA needs a bigger yard to play in. So, it will now be published by Brookes in the Spring 2018. You can sign up for alerts through their website, and as I know of information to report, I will do so here.
That’s about it for now, I will continue to post about new papers, projects, and so on. We have a couple of papers recently accepted so when those are published we will let you know about that too.
2 Languages 2 Worlds 
#1 by Francesca on November 29, 2017 - 12:45 am
Congratulations! As a Texas native, (TTU grad – Red Raider) now living in Southern California, I can share, the weather is amazing in Cali! I look forward to learning more on bilingual assessments. Hope to meet and learn more from you soon.
#2 by Silvia Meléndez-Briskie on November 29, 2017 - 5:56 am
Congratulations!!! Looking forward to reading about your new journey and further research…
#3 by Margie Medrano Biddick on November 29, 2017 - 8:42 am
Congratulations! California and UC Irvine are fortunate to have you. I look forward to continuing to read your research as you broaden your expertise. As a UT Austin alumni, I do miss Tejas, but it’s close enough to visit.
#4 by Rebeca Rivera on November 30, 2017 - 6:57 am
Congratulations on your new adventure! I have a question about BESA. I was looking for your booth this year at the ASHA convention but was not able to find it. I wanted to ask if you are working on an extension of the test for older students (lets say 7 to 12 years or older).
#5 by Elizabeth D. Peña on November 30, 2017 - 10:40 am
This year there was an announcement at the Brookes booth since they will be publishing it. And YES, we’ve been working on an extension and have data on kids through about age 10, some 11 year olds– not quite enough for a norm, but I think we can get there.
#6 by Rebeca Rivera on November 30, 2017 - 10:44 am
Great!
#7 by Elisa Schwartz on June 4, 2018 - 1:20 pm
I loved hearing you at ASHA in November (2018) and can hardly wait to use your test. Keep us posted please. And, best of luck in your new position. How exciting!