Dr. Villarreal earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Texas at Austin. She also participated in the Fulbright-Hayes Group Project Abroad in Tanzania, which was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education and coordinated by the African Studies Institute at the University of Georgia. She has 13 years of bilingual elementary classroom teaching experience in urban public schools. Her experiences as a bilingual elementary teacher in Texas have led to her interests in the improvement and support of educational programs that serve students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Her research interests include hybrid language practices in linguistically and culturally diverse teaching contexts with a focus on Latinx children as well as literacy teacher education.
