Collaborators

Katie Richardson, ELL and Dual Language Coordinator of ARPS

Danielle Thomas (Faculty Supervisor) holds a PhD in Hispanic Linguistics and her research focuses on language development and language use by bilinguals. As a Canadian living in the US, she is also interested in issues of language power and discrimination, especially as they relate to the value of language and language heritage in different social and cultural groups. She is very interested in connecting campus to the community and the community to campus, and she welcomes suggestions and contributions from all community members of how to make this happen in an effective way.

Claudia Matachana (Program Designer & Instructor) holds a BA in Spanish Literature and Linguistic Studies from the University of Oviedo. In 2015, she earned an M.A. in Spanish as a Foreign Language, which focused on teaching Spanish to second-language speakers. In 2018 she joined the Spanish and Portuguese Program at UMass Amherst where she is currently a Ph.D. candidate and Teaching Associate. Her research focuses on issues of linguistic discrimination.

Jasmine Gray (Program Coordinator)

Marla Lech (Course Designer)

Sophie Meltzer (Course Designer) is a third-year undergraduate student at UMass Amherst pursuing a BS in Nursing and a BA in Spanish. She grew up in Framingham, MA, and was constantly surrounded by multiple languages at school and in the community which led her to develop a passion for learning languages. As a future healthcare professional, she is looking forward to engaging with the multilingual communities in Massachusetts and creating more accessible and equitable environments for non-English speaking patients.