Laura Hamman-Ortiz, assistant professor of TESOL/Bilingual-Dual Language Education, earned her B.A. and M.Ed. at the University of Notre Dame and Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her research explores how classroom language practices, policies, and ideologies shape learning experiences for bi/multilingual students. She began her career as a second-grade teacher in Texas and Chile and has spent the last decade as a teacher educator and researcher. She teaches courses on second language acquisition, educational linguistics, ESL methods, qualitative research, and foundations for teaching second language learners.
Dolores Smith, Lecturer at the School of Education, is a 2000 graduate of University of Rhode Island with a BS in English Secondary Education and a 2004 graduate of Rhode Island College with a M.Ed. in Reading/Literacy. She is also a trained dyslexia interventionist using the Wilson Reading Method. She was employed at Cranston Public Schools from 2000-2019 as an English teacher and a reading specialist/consultant, providing reading services to students from K-12, and professional development in literacy intervention strategies and data collection. In 2020, she began supervising students in URI’s English Secondary Education program. Her research and teaching interests lie in literacy and dyslexia.