Catalina Medrano de Barrera is a former Army veteran (1994-2001) with six years of service. Her impressive career began in 1996, with a focus on K-12 Title I schools and federal adult education programs. Over the years, she has held various positions, including adult ESL/GED/literacy educator and adult program coordinator, Spanish SIFE self-contained middle school educator, dual language elementary educator, SLAR/ELAR reading coach, Spanish language arts and social studies elementary curriculum writer, school administrator, and BIL/ESL Program coordinator.
Catalina's extensive pedagogical knowledge and experience have allowed her to gain practical experience in both classroom teaching and private consulting practice. As the founder of Gran Vía Education, she has supported the licensure of hundreds of Bilingual and ESL educators in large and rural school districts across Texas.
In addition, she has served as a Region 10 Bilingual/ESL consultant in North Texas, where she worked with over 130 districts to develop training and educator capacity in bilingual and ESL educational practices and teacher certification. She was appointed Manager at the Texas Education Agency in 2021, where she oversaw the Emergent Bilingual Family Empowerment Toolkit grant initiative for regions across the state of Texas. This project increased the representation of multilingual families in decision-making processes within their communities and schools. Currently, Catalina is pursuing her doctoral studies at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and partnering with districts around the state to improve and enhance the effectiveness of their multilingual programs.
Catalina is pleased to disclose that she is experienced and certified in all training areas offered, to include: reading, school leadership, bilingual/ESL education, self-contained all subjects, GT, and Spanish. Through over 25 years of educational experience and ongoing doctoral studies, she has both theoretical and practical application experience of the topics covered in her trainings.
Catalina's current certifications are:
