She is also the academic director of the Spanish program for the Texas Tech University campus in Seville, Spain. Recently, she was recognized as a Texas Tech Integrated Scholar and was an Office of International Affairs Global Vision Award winner for the Donald R. Haragan Study Abroad Award in 2017. Dr. Elola grew up in the Basque country of northern Spain. After completing her undergraduate and master's degrees in Spain, she received her Doctorate in Foreign Language Acquisition Research and Education at the University of Iowa. She joined the faculty at Texas Tech University in 2005.