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Topic: Bilingual - Spanish

Marc Rodriguez

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Marc Rodriguez, M.A., is the Parents as Teachers Coordinator and Parenting Coordinator in the Family Literacy program at Metropolitan State University of Denver. His areas of expertise include K-12 education, parenting skills, Sheltered (ESL) Instruction, and educational administration.

Rodriguez has been with MSU Denver for 10 years. In addition to working at MSU Denver, Rodriguez works as a Teacher Effectiveness Coach at Denver Public Schools.

Rodriguez received both his master’s degree in educational administration and his bachelor’s degree in elementary education from University of Colorado – Denver in 1995 and 1990, respectively.

Diane Ream

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RN since 1999; nursing management, NICU, adult ICU, emergency, home health care, and nursing education. Retired from 23 years in USAF in 2005.

Vincent Piturro

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Vincent Piturro, Ph.D., is a professor of film and media studies in the Department of English at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

He hosts an annual science fiction film series in conjunction with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science and the Denver Film Society. Piturro writes a film review column for The Front Porch, a neighborhood Denver paper with a circulation of about 30,000. In addition to teaching, he is also the general studies chair on the Faculty Senate Standing Committee at MSU Denver.

Piturro published several works including a book chapter on “The Ballad of Little Jo” in the edited collection of “Love in Western Film and Television,” an article in the International Academic Forum journal titled “Documentary Film Rhetoric: Saving Face and the Public Sphere” and a book chapter on gays in Westerns in the upcoming edited volume “The New Western.” His areas of research include Westerns, science fiction, documentaries, Italian cinema and Italian-American cinema.

Piturro received his doctorate in film studies from University of Colorado Denver in 2008.

David Piacenti

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David Piacenti teaches Prejudice & Discrimination, Contemporary Sociology, Art & Craft of Sociology Writing, and Sociological Theory: Past and Present.

He has taught at Metropolitan State University of Denver since 2010.

Piacenti has published “Yucatec-Mayan Immigration to the Mission and Edison Neighborhoods: A Comparison of Social Conditions and Immigrant Satisfaction” in the Journal of Méxican Studies/Estudios Mexicanos, “The Tangle of Anthropological Tourism: How the Consumption of Fantasy and Academia Share Common Spaces” in Applied Anthropologist and “For Love of Family and Family Values: How Immigrant Motivations Can Inform Immigration Policy” in the Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy.

Marina Pereira

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Professor Marina Pereira has taught graduate courses in the Graduate Social Work program as MSU Denver. She has taught at Metropolitan State University of Denver since 1999.

Professor Pereira is well versed in topics of mental health and families. She has special interest in issues of acculturation, diversity and first-generation Latino students. She was an advisor for the Student Association of Social Workers (SASW), a student organization that helps students develop and increase their sense of civic responsibility and community engagement by service learning activities.

Before teaching at MSU Denver, Pereira worked in the areas of medical social work and mental health, where she specialized in treating and advocating for children and families with a history of domestic violence, sexual and physical abuse.

Abel Moreno

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Abel Moreno, Ph.D., is the chair of the Department of Computer Information Systems at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Moreno has served as department chair since 1999. His scholarly work focuses on management science, such as data envelopment analysis applications, computer information systems, quantitative methods for business pedagogy and information systems education. He has been published in various academic journals, including the Indian Journal of Economics and Business, the International Journal of Global Management Studies Professional, the International Journal of Intercultural and Information Management and Information Systems Education.

Moreno received his doctorate in engineering with a concentration in industrial engineering and management; and a master’s in industrial engineering and management from North Dakota State University, Fargo in 1990 and 1988 respectively; and a bachelor’s in industrial and systems engineering from Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (ITESM) in Monterrey, Mexico in 1981.

Lupe Martinez

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Lupe Martinez teaches courses in diversity, classroom management and curriculum, language arts and social studies. He has been teaching at Metropolitan State University of Denver for over 25 years.

The highlight of his MSU Denver career has been the development and implementation of an urban teaching preparation partnership program with Denver Public Schools’ Math and Science Leadership Academy, which has been going strong for more than 15 years. The program is based off of a model, which has been refined and improved over the years, that he presented at an international conference in Barcelona, Spain, in 2013 and at a conference in San Francisco in 2014.

Martinez earned his Associate of Arts from San Francisco City College and his Bachelor of Arts from San Francisco State University. After earning his bachelor’s degree, Martinez joined the Teacher’s Corp. During that time he was a kindergarten and fourth grade elementary school teacher in his hometown neighborhood of San Francisco, interacting with children who reminded him of his younger self. He earned his master’s degree as part of that program and ultimately attained his doctorate from the University of Colorado Boulder.

Besides his presentations on the partnerships for teacher preparation, he has presented papers throughout the United States, in Singapore and in Beijing on diversity and the characteristics of a 21st century educator.

Edgar Maldonado

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Edgar Maldonado is an associate professor in the Department of Computer Information Systems at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He holds a Ph.D. in information sciences and technology from Pennsylvania State University. A native Venezuelan with an extensive professional and academic background in engineering, he has spent several years designing and implementing network solutions and systems internationally.

He has experience as a software support engineer for banking networks, with projects in Venezuela and the Caribbean. Before joining MSU Denver, he worked at an IT consulting firm in Denver.

Maldonado specializes in the socioeconomic aspects of information technology and is well versed on the topics of computer security, cyber terrorism, public policies and information systems technologies, including emergency management.

He is aware of the major issues concerning intellectual property as applicable to technology patents and is an asset to the implementation of multicultural information systems. His scholarly work has been published in several peer-reviewed journals and he was a leader for one of the national level case studies in the “Research of Emergency Capacity Building,” sponsored by the National Science Foundation, as a research assistant at Penn State University.

Lunden MacDonald

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Lunden MacDonald, Ph.D., is a professor of modern languages at Metropolitan State University of Denver. MacDonald started teaching Spanish at MSU Denver in 1998 and has since held the positions of instructor, assistant professor, full professor, chair of the Department of Modern Languages and director of First Year Success program. She speaks Spanish, French, Portuguese and Galician. Her areas of expertise are in Spanish language, literature, teaching, contemporary trends in foreign language study, translation, SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome), SUDC (Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood), Investigative trends in SIDS and SUDC research.

MacDonald has published several articles including “The Virtual Language Lab: Virtually Painless, Simply Real” in the International Association for Language Learning Technology Journal in 2009 and Spanish Translation of “La próxima etapa en Panamá: la subcontratación de pensiones” in La Prensa, Journal of Honduras, in 2007. Her research topics include Joseph Blanco White, European Enlightenment, Enlightenment (or lack thereof) in Spain, paradigms of Enlightenment in the Spanish-speaking world, Spanish language learning and teaching methods; and technology and technological applications in the teaching and learning of Spanish language, literature and culture.

MacDonald received her Ph.D. and master’s in Spanish language and literature from Princeton University in 2006 and 1997. Additionally, she also received a master’s and bachelor’s in Spanish language and literature from the University of Colorado, Boulder in 1995 and 1993.

Jose Lopez

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José López teaches in the Aviation & Aerospace Department. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Aerospace Engineering from St Louis University and a Master’s Degree from the University of Tennessee Space Institute. He spent 23 years in the U.S. Air Force on active and reserve duty working in various areas including the Minuteman ICBM, on the engineering and operations of several classified spacecraft, the Defense Logistics Agency, and a final tour with the Air Force Space Command. He is a graduate of the Armed Forces Staff College in residence.

As a civilian, he worked for Raytheon and Lockheed- Martin. Upon retirement from the aerospace industry, he started teaching at MSU Denver. He was instrumental in designing Introduction to Space, a hands-on course which introduces students to the challenges of working in space, where students design, construct, launch and recover a simulated satellite via a weather balloon.

In 2010, López organized in Colorado the first competition of Rocky Mountain BEST (Boosting Engineering Science & Technology). BEST is a national organization that provides a free robotics competition to middle and high schools. He is now the Executive Director. BEST in Colorado grew from 10 teams in its first year to 69 teams in 2016 in 4 hubs or chapters. In 2017, a fifth hub was added in Colorado Springs and a Regional competition was approved by the parent organization BEST Robotics Inc. (BRI) headquartered at Auburn University.

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