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Topic: Bilingual - Spanish

Janelle Johnson

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Janelle Johnson, Ph.D., is an associate professor with the School of Education at MSU Denver, where she teaches in STEM teaching and learning. Prior to her current role, she was the STEM equity specialist at MSU Denver and a coordinator for Project SEED-Scholarships for Education and Economic Development at the University of Arizona. Johnson was also the program coordinator for a State Department-funded leadership institute for indigenous university students from Latin America. During this time, she served as a guest researcher at the Center for Research and Higher Education in Social Anthropology. She has also taught math and science to elementary and middle school students.

Ibon Izurieta

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Ibon Izurieta, Ph.D., is from Bilbao, in the Basque region of Spain. He speaks Basque, Spanish and English. His research includes historical, political, sociological, cultural, artistic and literary aspects of the coexistence of Basque and Spanish languages and cultures in the Basque Country, but also contemporary aspects of Spanish literature, film and society focused primarily in Spain rather than Latin America, the only exception being Mexico. He organizes trips for students every summer and during the academic year. He is currently working on establishing a program in Oaxaca.

He has several articles published in professional journals covering different aspects of Spanish and Basque literature and Film, Literary Theory and Criticism and is currently finishing a manuscript on the philosopher, writer, cultural critic Miguel de Unamuno who was born in Bilbao and bridged the cultural divide of Spanish and Basque perspectives in literature, culture, history and philosophy. He earned his M.A. in Comparative Literature and his Ph.D. in Spanish, from the University of Iowa.

Rey Hernandez-Julian

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Rey Hernández-Julián, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Finance at Metropolitan State University of Denver. His areas of expertise include Economics of education (both K-12 and higher education) and public finance policy analysis. He currently teaches Managerial Finance, Introduction to Banking and Personal Money Management.

Hernández-Julián leads and helped establish MSU Denver’s Banking Careers Pathway Program, a workforce-development program in partnership with Mi Casa Resource Center and the Community College of Aurora. The stackable credentials program seeks to give nontraditional students and current entry-level employees the chance to turn their work experience into college credits and professional certificates.

Throughout his entire time at MSU Denver, he has remained academically qualified, publishing peer-reviewed journal articles about the economics of education, religion, demography and health. He has also given over 15 conference presentations.

Rey Hernández-Julián received his doctorate degree in applied economics from Clemson University in 2005 and a bachelor’s degree in humanities from Bob Jones University in 2000.

Ricardo Gonzalez-Fisher

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Ricardo Gonzalez-Fisher, MD, MPH, FACS, is a lecutuer in the Department of Health Professions at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He is a surgical oncologist with experience in teaching medical students, interns, residents, nurses and other specialists. He also served as the program director of the Mexican Consulate’s Ventanilla de Salud where he organized workshops, referrals, immunizations and worked to increase underserved patient access to care by providing communities with a mobile health unit.

Gonzalez-Fisher has organized and led several patient centered support groups, ethics committees and clinical research trials. Additionally, he worked as a CMO of a private state of the art hospital and as a public health professional. He has worked in the non-profit sector promoting health literacy and health programs for underserved Hispanics in Colorado. His teaching interests are in the areas of bioethics, pathophysiology, physiology of aging and medicine history.

Roberto Forns-Broggi

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Roberto Forns-Broggi, Ph.D., is a professor of Spanish in the Department of Modern Languages at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He was born in Lima, Peru and speaks Spanish fluently.

Forns-Broggi has been teaching at MSU Denver since 1998. He is the faculty chair for the Modern Language Department Committee. Forns-Broggi also taught at Universidad Nacionla de Cordoba in Cordoba, Argentina for 13 years.

His research interests include Latin American and Spanish literature, popular cultures, environmental philosophy, environmental spiritualties, film studies, world cinema, environmental literature, film media literacy, critical thinking and creativity. He has taught classes about intercultural communication through literature and film; literary and cultural theory; creative writing and children’s literature.

Forns-Broggi received his doctorate in Spanish language and literature from Arizona State University in 1995.

Ramon Del Castillo

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Ramon Del Castillo is a retired professor of the Chiana/or Studies Department. He taught at Metropolitan State University of Denver from 35 years.  Del Castillo’s publications include “Institutionalizing Curanderismo in Colorado’s Community Mental Health System,” “Institutionalizing Curanderismo into a Mainstream Healing System: Boundary Spanners and Innovation in Action” and “The Life History of Diana Velazquez: La Curandera Total.”
As past Chair of the Masters Program in Nonprofit Program at Regis University (1999-2005), he directed educational services and program development for the department and taught classes in the history of the nonprofit sector, leadership, ethics, managing diversity in organizations and the capstone project. He traveled to Mexico for 5 years, developing collaborative bi-national curricula between the nonprofit and civil society sectors through the “Making Connections in Mexico Program,” in collaboration with ITESO Jesuit University, located in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.
Del Castillo possess a Bachelor of Arts Degree with a double major in Sociology and Mexican American Studies from the University of Northern Colorado. He obtained master’s degrees are in Social Science and Public Administration from the University of Colorado at Denver (UCD) and his Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Public Affairs at the same university. His master’s research was on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Chicano Viet Nam Veterans and his doctoral dissertation, examined Curanderismo, a traditional approach to holistic and spiritual healing, using theories of innovation to critique the institutionalization process within a publicly funded mental health agency.

Michael Benitez

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Michael Benitez, Ph.D., is the vice president for the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He is a nationally acclaimed scholar practitioner and educator in the field of diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education. Benitez has a critical perspectives on social and cultural issues on topics related to leadership and identity development, intersectionality, race and ethnicity, knowledge production as well as critical and inclusive pedagogy/practice in higher education.

Prior to his current role at MSU Denver, Benitez served as director of diversity initiatives at Dickinson College, director of intercultural development and the black cultural center at Lafayette College, affiliate faculty in the Graduate School of Leadership and Professional Advancement at Duquesne University, director of intercultural engagement and leadership at Grinnell College, and chief diversity officer/dean of diversity and inclusion, and Title IX and EEO officer at the University of Puget Sound.

Benitez’s deep knowledge and practice of innovative equity and inclusion-based strategies has helped to address some of higher education’s more pressing campus climate issues of today, including the Diversity Monologues- a critical spoken work initiative he helped implement and shape at multiple institutions, the campus climate community participatory framework and the Northwest 5 Consortium for supporting faculty of color.

He has authored book chapters and articles on student identity, hip hop culture, cultural centers, cultural and ethnic studies, institutional research and campus climates as well as faculty development. Benitez has also been featured in educational documentaries such as “Cracking the Codes: The System of Racial Inequity” and has appeared on talk shows such as “Worlds Apart,” “Hard Knock Radio” and “Speak out with Tim Wise.”

Benitez received his Ph.D. in educational leadership and policy with a focus on social justice in higher education from Iowa State University, a master’s in counselor education and a bachelor’s in human development and family studies from Pennsylvania State University.