I am a Professor of Spanish, Linguistics, and Psychology in the Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese with an affiliate appointment in the Department of Psychology. I completed my doctoral studies in the interdisciplinary program in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching at the University of Arizona, with a specialization in linguistic analysis and a minor concentration in second language processing. I then held a faculty position at the University of Illinois for four years (1996-2000), where I was a primary collaborator in pioneering a computer-enhanced Spanish language instruction curriculum consisting of mixed classroom and computer-assisted instruction. Prior to assuming my current position at Penn State, I was a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Mississippi (2000-2001), where I was hired to implement the model for the Spanish language curriculum developed at Illinois.

My research program takes a cross-disciplinary approach to bilingual language processing using converging methodological tools from linguistics, experimental psycholinguistics, and second language acquisition. I conduct experiments, using a range of behavioral and electrophysiological (ERPs) methods, to examine the way in which bilingual readers and speakers negotiate the presence of two languages in a single mind. Because bilinguals who are relatively proficient potentially have access to the grammar and lexicon of each language when they comprehend written sentences or plan spoken utterances and because recent research suggests that these systems are not independent, there is a critical question about how bilingualism affects basic aspects of language processing. The answer to this question has important implications not only for characterizing bilingualism, but more broadly for revealing the degree to which linguistic constraints influence cognitive processes. Recognizing that bilingualism is the rule rather than the exception globally, research from this perspective is now understood as providing evidence that complements monolingual and cross-linguistic research.

Outside the office, I like to travel with my husband. I enjoy spending time in the great outdoors with my kids (well, they will always be kids in my eyes). I enjoy hiking, white-water rafting, birdwatching. I also love to cook and of course some of my specialties are Venezuelan foods, but anything tastes great among friends.