She earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, under the direction of Dr. Anne Haas Dyson. She is a former bilingual educator who worked with children from diverse, racial, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds for over 7 years. Her own personal narrative growing up bilingual and having a deficient-based identity placed upon her because of her linguistic differences has served as source of motivation to become an educator and researcher. Her research and teaching interests include: multicultural education, social justice, critical pedagogy, and pre-service teachers’ cultural awareness. Contact Dr. Osorio at sosorio at ilstu.edu.