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About Us

The National Heritage Language Resource Center, at the University of California, Los Angeles, is a federally funded language resource center whose mission is to to develop effective pedagogical approaches to teaching heritage language learners, both by creating a research base and by pursuing curriculum design, materials development, and teacher education.

Over 57 million people in the U.S. speak a language other than English at home (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006-2010). Individuals exposed to a language other than English at home but educated primarily in English are heritage speakers of the home language.
 
The creation of a national center dedicated to heritage language education attests to the importance of this field to the nation. California is an ideal venue for NHLRC since almost 27% of its population five years of age and older is foreign born, and 42% speak a home language other than English (U.S. Census Bureau, 2005-2009).

Directors

María Carreira

Co-Director for Language Teaching (Professor, California State University, Long Beach)

Email: carreira@csulb.edu

Maria Polinsky

Co-Director for Research (Professor, University of Maryland)

Email: polinsky@umd.edu

Administrative Staff

Kathryn Paul

Executive Director

Email: kathryn@humnet.ucla.edu

Claire Hitchins Chik

Associate Director

Email: chik@international.ucla.edu

Susan Bauckus

Senior Editor

Email: sbauckus@international.ucla.edu

Arturo Díaz

Program & Outreach Coordinator

Email: arturodiaz@ucla.edu

Heleana Melendez

Program Representative

Email: hmelendez@international.ucla.edu

Afaf Nash

Research Fellow

Email: afafnash@gmail.com

Web Team

 Kaya Mentesoglu

IT Manager and Senior Developer

Email: kaya@international.ucla.edu

Kedaar Sridhar

IT Web Developer

Email: ksridhar@international.ucla.edu

Advisory Board

Richard Brecht, University of Maryland

Ray Clifford, Brigham Young University Center for Language Studies

Olesya Kisselev, The University of Texas at San Antonio

Judith Kroll, University of California, Irvine

Jin Sook Lee, University of California, Santa Barbara
Andrew Lynch, University of Miami, Florida

Tommy Lu, Chinese Community Schools of Delaware

Scott McGinnis, Defense Language Institute

Silvina Montrul, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Joy Kreeft Peyton, Center for Applied Linguistics

Margaret Malone, American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages

Julio Torres, University of California, Irvine

Guadalupe Valdés, Stanford University

Juliana Wijaya, University of California, Los Angeles

Terrence Wiley, Past President, Center for Applied Linguistics


Eastern Region

Sybil Alexandrov, Yale University

Irina Dubinina, Brandeis University

Agnes Weigum He, State University of New York, Stony Brook

Gabriela Ilieva, New York University

Marie-Michelle Monereau, The Graduate Center, City University of New York

Sara Shin, University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Alla Smyslova, Columbia University

Western Region

Masako Douglas, California State University, Long Beach

Linda Godson, Portland State University
Kimi Kondo-Brown, University of Hawaii at Manoa

Jin Sook Lee, University of California, Santa Barbara

Namhee Lee, California State University, Los Angeles

Ekaterina Moore, University of Southern California

Alegría Ribadeneira, Colorado State University, Pueblo

Southern Region

Sara Beaudrie, University of Arizona

Victoria Hasko, University of Georgia, Athens

Tanya Ivanova-Sullivan, University of New Mexico

Diego Pascual y Cabo, University of Florida

Midwest Region

Melissa Bowles, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Kim Potowski, The University of Illinois at Chicago

Laura Walls, University of Nebraska, Omaha

Wayne Wright, Purdue University