Faculty

Gilberto Garcia is a Mexican-American scholar and professor. He was born in El Paso, Texas, and raised in Ciudad Juárez, México. He holds two bachelor’s degrees in linguistics and Spanish and border studies from the University of Texas at El Paso and a bachelor’s of education from La Universidad Pedagógica Nacional in Mexico, respectively. He received his master’s in Spanish from the University of Texas at El Paso. He also received a master’s in education in 2013 in teaching and learning processes from Instituto Tecnológico de Monterrey in Mexico. Dr. Garcia is a Ph.D. recipient in Hispanic linguistics with a minor in educational psychology. During the last year of his Ph.D., Dr. Garcia was awarded the Excellence in Teaching Award from Texas Tech University in Lubbock. 

Currently, Dr. Garcia is directing and teaching in the newly developed, breakthrough Spanish Language Program in the Medical Education Department at Texas Tech Health El Paso. He has presented in a variety of conferences and published articles in his research and teaching interests. Those interests include heritage language education, heritage speaker identity, heritage speakers in monolingual settings, border studies and transculturation, second language instruction and Spanish dialectology.

Arely was born and raised in El Paso, Texas. She is proud to call the Borderland her home and is excited to develop and pilot the Spanish Language Program at Texas Tech Health El Paso, one of a kind in the country. 

Before joining Texas Tech Health El Paso, Arely attended Washington State University and obtained her bachelor’s in foreign languages in cultures with an emphasis in Spanish and ethics. Arely is a Teach For America –Appalachia 2015 alumna, where she spent six years teaching and co-developed a curriculum and instructional resources that is used throughout the Kentucky Valley Education Cooperative region. Arely is a Rural School Leader Academy Fellowship 5th Cohort member, where her emphasis and research focused on culturally responsive teaching and high-yield practices. She has worked with Teach For America’s Collaborative, a BIPOC-led team to create diversity, equity and inclusion trainings that are used nationwide. Arely is currently is pursuing a master’s in linguistics at the University of Texas at El Paso.

Judith is a proud El Pasoan who has always called the Borderplex home and is constantly in awe of its beauty, culture, people and the language. Raised in both in El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, at a young age, she developed a passion for languages especially bilingualism and the border community. Thus, her educational background is in Spanish and Chicano/Latino Studies. She holds a Masters of Spanish in Literature.  
Before joining the Texas Tech Health El Paso family and the Spanish Program team, she dedicated herself to closing the language gap and barrier international students face as an full-time ESOL Instructor at University of Texas at El Paso. Since 2011, Judith worked with the institutional collaboration between UTEP and Texas Tech Health El Paso to teach Medical Spanish. Since then, she has been an integral component to the continuous growth of the Spanish curriculum for medical students, one that is relevant and authentic to the border community. She enjoys developing creative, authentic, and innovative practices and resources for all of her students to inspire the passion for learning a language and hopes to bring that to the table as the newest member of the Spanish Program team. 

Dr. Angelica Padilla is a board certified anatomical and clinical pathologist at Texas Tech Paul Foster School of Medicine. She obtained her Bachelor of Science in Microbiology and Chemistry at the University of Texas at El Paso. She then obtained her medical degree from UT Houston Mc Govern School of Medicine in Houston, TX and continued her medical training as a pathology resident at UT Houston Mc Govern School of Medicine. Upon completing her residency, Dr. Padilla completed two fellowships in Surgical Pathology and Breast/Gynecological Pathology at Houston Methodist Hospital.

Arturo Ramírez is a Mexican scholar and professor. He was born in Chihuahua, México. Arturo holds a bachelor degree in English from Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua. Simultaneously, he studied law at Universidad Mexicana de Educación a Distancia, so he is at the stage of candidate in that degree as well. In the pursuit of graduate school experience, he moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico, where he completed his M.A. in Spanish (linguistics). This teaching and research exposure allowed him to gain cultural and linguistic knowledge in a border setting.

Dr. Ramírez attained his Ph.D. in Hispanic literature, with a minor in Portuguese, at Texas Tech University. He was twice assigned as an instructor for the Seville Study Abroad Program (Summer 2016 and Fall 2017), which made him aware of the vital role immersion plays when learning a language. In 2019, he was awarded with the Helen Devitt Jones Excellence in Graduate Teaching Award at TTU.

After spending two years in his hometown, where he taught English at both the School of Agricultural Sciences in Universidad Autónoma de Chihuahua, and the mechatronics division at Universidad Tecnológica de Chihuahua, he is back in the Borderplex. Apart from his main area of research, Afro-Cuban Literature, Dr. Ramírez has been constantly in touch with Portuguese and linguistic disciplines. He has presented in a variety of conferences in the fields of semantics, pragmatics, discourse analysis and the Lusophone diaspora. 

Christiane Herber-Valdez earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) in 1993. She received her Master of Arts degree in Clinical Psychology in 1998, and a Doctor of Education degree in Educational Leadership and Administration in 2008, both from UTEP.

Dr. Herber-Valdez currently holds a faculty appointment as assistant professor in the Department of Medical Education, and an administrative appointment as Director of Institutional Planning and Effectiveness for the TTU Health Science Center. Prior to joining Texas Tech in March 2014, she held professional positions at institutions of higher education in the areas of student services (UTEP, 1995-2001), and in the management and evaluation of federally funded programs (New Mexico State University, 2002-2014). In the area of program evaluation she was directly involved in the design, development, and implementation of large scale evaluations of federally funded grant programs, including initiatives by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). Between 2002 and 2014, she directed the evaluation and program operations of a multi-million dollar NIH P20 faculty and student development grant (New Mexico-IDeA Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence, NM-INBRE), which spans six New Mexico institutions of higher education (New Mexico State University, University of New Mexico, Eastern New Mexico University, New Mexico Highlands University, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, and San Juan College). Between 2010 and 2014, she also directed the annual evaluation of the University of New Mexico (UNM) Undergraduate Pipeline Network (UPN), a summer research experience program hosted by the UNM Clinical Translational Science Center (CTSC) Biomedical Research Education Program (BREP). Other recent external evaluation projects include the evaluation of the NSF funded Research in Disabilities Education (RDE) STEM-STARS program at New Mexico Highlands University, and the NSF funded Transforming Undergraduate Education in Sciences (TUES) program at UNM. Dr. Herber-Valdez currently serves as evaluation consultant to the NIH funded Maine IDeA Network’s for Biomedical Research Excellence (ME-INBRE), which serves eleven institutions in Maine, including The Jackson Laboratory and Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory. Between 2008 and 2012, Dr. Herber-
Valdez also held an appointment as College Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Management at New Mexico State University, where she taught masters and doctoral level graduate courses in higher education on an adjunct basis.

Throughout her career, Dr. Herber-Valdez has presented her work at regional and national meetings and conferences. Organizations include the National Academic Advising Association (NACADA), the National Council for Professors of Educational Administration (NCPEA), the Texas Association of Colleges and University Student Personnel Administrators (TACUSPA), the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC), the New Mexico Alliance for Minority Participation (NM AMP), the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), the American Evaluation Association (AEA), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Dr. Herber-Valdez’ current interests include social science research methods, program evaluation, evaluation/strategic planning for quality improvement, and innovations in STEM/medical education.