The Northern California Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese is a vibrant and dedicated community of Spanish and Portuguese language professionals. We represent all levels of instruction, from PreK to post-secondary education, and support each other in our goals toward professional development, curricular enhancement, and ongoing research. For information on AATSP membership and services, click here.

We are privileged to count among our membership two past presidents of the national organization as well as other committed language professionals like you. For further information, see this site or contact the current Chapter President.

Current Chapter Officers

Rebecca (Becky) Pozzi, President

Becky Pozzi is Associate Professor of Spanish Language and Linguistics at California State University, Monterey Bay, where she coordinates Lower Division Spanish, including the Heritage Language Program, and she teaches courses in Spanish language, linguistics, and applied linguistics. She obtained her PhD in Hispanic Linguistics with an emphasis in Second Language Acquisition from the University of California, Davis, where she gained training and experience in teaching Spanish in face-to-face, blended, and virtual contexts. Her research focuses on second and heritage language development, sociolinguistics, study abroad, and language pedagogy.

Francisco Zermeño, President-Elect

Francisco Zermeño is a long-time AATSP member who was instrumental in helping the NorCal Chapter become re-constituted after a period of inactivity. His essential role in the Foreign Language Association of Northern California (FLANC) gave the chapter an assured venue for fall meetings, often on site at Chabot College, Francisco’s institution. Francisco further produces the FLANC newsletter, which provides vital information for the AATSP chapter as well as for FLANC. Francisco served as Chapter President in 2015, hosted a spring Chapter meeting in 2013, and has remained one of its most active members. Recently, he helped to create the outline of recent Chapter history.

Christine Campbell, Treasurer

Christine Campbell is President of Campbell Language Consultants and Professor Emerita of the DLIFLC, where she was Associate Provost. She is former President of the American Association of the Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP) and recipient of its 2020 Distinguished Leadership Award. Named a Distinguished Alumna by Purdue University in 1994, she recently served as Chair of the AATSP Task Force Committee, which oversaw the revision of the national World Readiness Standards in Spanish.

Sandra García Sanborn, Communications Coordinator

Sandra García Sanborn, pictured here presenting at the AATSP Conference in 2019, holds a Ph.D. Hispanic Languages and Literatures from UC Berkeley and is a lecturer at CSU Stanislaus. She has been teaching at the college level for over 20 years. Her research interests lay at the intersections of language and creative writing, the visual arts, TBLT, and learner autonomy. Currently, she is President of the Foreign Language Association of Northern California (FLANC). She specializes in literatures of the Southern Cone and Central America, and writes and publishes poetry. She will contribute a “Learning Scenario” to the World Readiness Standards for Learning Spanish: A Project of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese to be published in Hispania in 2020.

Raquel Rodríguez, Poster Contest Coordinator

Tanya de Hoyos, Publicity Coordinator

Dr. Tanya de Hoyos has been working at the Defense Language Institute (DLI) in Monterey, CA since 2007 till present as Spanish Teacher.

Juan Pino-Silva, Webmaster

Juan Pino-Silva has a doctorate in Linguistics from Indiana University. He is a part-time ESL and Spanish instructor at Evergreen Valley College. He has published in System, Reading Matrix, Foreign Language Annals, and English for Special Purposes. His main interests are second language acquisition, computerized testing, translation and interpretation, cloze testing, second language loss and acquisition of a second language and/or dialect. He is an English-Spanish translator/interpreter.

Avizia Long, Past President (2022-2023)

Avizia Long is an Assistant Professor of Spanish at San José State University. She earned her doctorate in Hispanic Linguistics from Indiana University, where she also first became a member of the AATSP. She is an active researcher in the field of Spanish second language acquisition, and her teaching interests include Spanish language and linguistics.

Ali Miano, Past President (2020-2021)

Alice (Ali) Miano (Ph.D., UC Berkeley) is Coordinator of the Spanish Language Program at Stanford University, where she received the Gores Award for excellence in teaching and has taught since 1991. Through the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) and the U.S. Peace Corps, Ali is privileged to engage with language instructors worldwide as an ACTFL certified workshop facilitator in the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) and Writing Proficiency Test (WPT). Named a 2018 Faculty Fellow by Stanford's Haas Center for Public Service, Ali and her students collaborate on art projects with a local Boys & Girls Club of the Peninsula, and her third-year students create digital stories with Stanford workers. She has volunteered to work with asylum seekers through the CARA Family Detention Project in Dilley, TX, Al Otro Lado in Tijuana, México, and the Services, Immigration Rights, and Education Network (SIREN) in Northern California.

Distinguished Members