University of Florida alumna Alegría Ribadeneira was named Distinguished Professor at Colorado State University Pueblo, recognizing her work at her institution and beyond, and acknowledging her numerous awards that began back in her UF days when she received the Calvin A. VanderWerf Teaching Award as a graduate teaching assistant.
Dr. Ribadeneira received her PhD in Spanish in 2006. She is Director of the World Languages program and Assistant Chair of English and World Languages at her Hispanic Serving Institution. In that capacity, Dr. Ribadeneira, who focuses on heritage language teaching, led the way to transform the Spanish program into a well-recognized heritage language program that serves southern Colorado. Beyond her institution Dr. Ribadeneira has been an affiliate for the National Heritage Language Resource Center at UCLA for the past 10 years, serves on the advisory board, and is now lead instructor. She is also deeply involved with Open Education and works as a collaborator for the Regional Leaders of Open Education Network, uniting leaders from across North America in order to vitalize Open Education initiatives that support underserved students. Dr. Ribadeneira will also serve on the advisory board for the Open Language Resource Center at Kansas University. She is currently leading an ambitious new project to develop a “Zero Textbook Cost” Spanish language degree program at CSU-Pueblo.
The Distinguished Professor title recognized all the above work and also acknowledged all the university, regional, national and international awards Dr. Ribadeneira has received for her teaching and service. At her university, she has twice received the Student Choice Award and has also been recognized with the Excellence in Teaching and the Excellence in Service Awards. Outside her institution, she has received the CCFLT Colorado Excellence in Teaching Award, the SWCOLT Southwest Post-Secondary Excellence in Teaching Award, the Olga E. Kagan Award for advancing heritage language education, and more recently, the Global Educator Award from Open Education Global, which recognized her outstanding work in open educational practices.
Distinguished Professor Announcement