Board of Directors

Cynthia High

Cynthia High, Ph.D., Board President, has a doctorate in Educational Administration, Policy and Planning from The University of Texas at Austin, and a M.S. in Curriculum and Instruction. Dr. High teaches in the Master’s of Education program for teachers at Concordia University and in the College of Business graduate program at St. Edward’s University. Dr. High conducted a school reform, bringing a minority, near failing, and threatened-to-close school to Exemplary in one year. She taught school in Beijing, China where she learned to speak Mandarin. She worked in schools in Chicago, IL. Dr. High advises nonprofits on organizational leadership, strategic planning, grant winning and management. Dr. High worked for over 15 years as an educational consultant in business management, continuous improvement and organizational development. Dr. High employed apposite development skills in schools and nonprofits to increase board leadership and increase academic scores.

Paula May

Paula May, Vice President, is the Director of IT for the Development Office at The University of Texas with a B.S. in Mathematics from Southern Methodist University and a Certified Oracle DBA. Paula had the privilege of a dual language education in preparatory years and is bi-literate in Spanish/English. She has more than 30 years of experience in private and public industry in Texas and “believes that bilingual education as necessary preparation for success in a global economy”.

Cheris Lifford

Cheris Lifford, Board Secretary, is a teacher of English as a Second Language (ESL) with 10 years of education experience. She is a Foreign Language Education alumni of The University of Texas at Austin. Cheris founded the Dual Language Austin website when she realized there was no such opportunity for children in Austin. She is the mother of two young children.

Edith Cuevas-Sanchez

Edith Cuevas-Sanchez is an MD currently working towards becoming certified in the U.S. She was born in Mexico City and grew up in Houston, Texas. She has a BA degree from the University of Dallas as a Theology/PreMed Major. Edith is certified in Bilingual Education and taught in Spring Branch ISD for three years. She then moved to Mexico City where she studied medicine at Universidad Panamericana and graduated in 2004. Edith has two young children and is very interested in Dual Language education because she sees it as the only hope for her children to become fluent in both English and Spanish.

Rob Lifford

Rob Lifford, currently a web and software developer with frog design in Austin, began taking an interest in education and language acquisition while teaching English as a Second Language in South Korea from 1998–2001. He helped his wife, Board Secretary Cheris Lifford, found DualLanguageAustin.org as a resource for interested parents and educators in Central Texas. Rob and Cheris have a daughter and a son.

Fernando Cuevas

Fernando Cuevas was born in Mexico City and grew up in Houston, Texas. He received his BA degree from St. Edwards University in Political Science. Fernando has spent the last 8 years in Washington D.C. where he worked as Communications Director for Congressman Gene Green of Houston and Ciro D. Rodriguez of San Antonio. He most recently worked as Western Regional Press Secretary for the DCCC in Washington D.C. Fernando and his wife Meredith recently moved back to Texas and reside in Austin.

Advisory Board

Lori May

Lori May, Board Treasurer, is a founding member of Austin Community School and has been an educator for 25 years. Lori has a M.Ed. in Education Administration and a B.S. in Elementary Education, Bilingual /ESL K-8. Lori is a Grade One teacher in the Primary Years Program (PYP) at the International School of Amsterdam (ISA), to learn and apply the International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum. Prior to this she was an Associate Principal (AP) in Hong Kong, China. Lori’s previous positions include starting an international school in Mexico and working in both Austin ISD and the Houston ISD as an administrator, Curriculum Coach, bilingual teacher and teacher of gifted children. Lori’s strong beliefs in Dual Language (DL) Curriculum are drawn from her own work-life experiences as a student in DL schools in Colombia and more recently, from the growing number of documented successes of DL schools throughout the country. Lori is a member of NABE (National Association of Bilingual Education); ASCD (Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development); NAESP (National Association of Elementary School Principals) and ECIS (European Council of International Schools).

Deborah Palmer

Deborah Palmer is an Assistant Professor in Bilingual/Bicultural Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Texas at Austin. A former two-way immersion fourth/fifth grade teacher from California, she teaches courses in the foundations of bilingual education, teaching in bilingual settings, and second language acquisition. Her research interests include bilingual education policy and politics, two-way bilingual education, and teacher leadership. She is the director of Proyecto Maestría, a National Professional Development Project that aims to build teacher leadership and capacity in bilingual/ESL education. She works with teachers to define and build equitable learning spaces in diverse bilingual/multilingual classrooms.

Paula Ximena Rojas-Urrutia

Paula Ximena Rojas-Urrutia is a community organizer with 15 years of experience in Youth Development and Community Organizing. She's currently a consultant for the Praxis Project, a national not for profit institution dedicated to capacity building, technical assistance, research, and training for community-based policy change. She is a co-founder of Sista II Sista (a young women's leadership development organization) and is a national board member and trainer for Incite (Women of Color Against Violence). She is a graduate of the (IB) International Baccalaureate Diploma Program and is the mother of two fully bilingual children.

Elizabeth Sanchez

Dr. Sanchez is a family practice physician. She lived in Puebla, Mexico until the fourth grade. Then she and her family moved to College Station, Texas. She attended A&M Consolidated High School. She received a Biomedical Sciences degree from Texas A&M University, attended Baylor College of Medicine and completed residency at the University of Washington. She has a 17 month old son and works at Seton Kozmetsky.

Lisa Doggett

Lisa Doggett, MD, MPH is a family physician and the Director of the UT Family Wellness Center, a health clinic for people without private insurance. She also serves as faculty with the UT-Austin School of Nursing and is the president of Austin Physicians for Social Responsibility. She is the mother of two young daughters who are learning to speak both Spanish and English.

Elena Izquierdo

Dr. Elena Izquierdo is faculty at the University of the Texas at El Paso in Teacher Education. In addition, she is a member of the Hispanic Leadership Council (HLC) that serves to support Hispanic students and educators at both the state and federal level, as well as with and through various education and industry associations. During her tenure as President of the Texas Association for Bilingual Education (TABE, 2008) she advocated for and represented ELLs on issues pertaining to educational equity. During 2007-2008 she served as Vice President on the Executive Board and Chair of Publications and Professional Development for the National Bilingual Association. Dr. Izquierdo’s research and professional specializations focus on Two Way Dual Language Education; Biliteracy; the education of English language learners (ELLs); and in supporting districts in rethinking and reforming schooling practices in their efforts to close achievement gaps for Bilingual/ELL students.

Tebbi Hedgcoth

Tebbi Hedgcoth, M.Ed. holds certifications in teaching English Language Arts/Reading 4-8 and 8-12, Special Education EC-12, and ESL EC-12. She has taught in both the traditional setting and at an alternative setting for at-risk students. Her experiences include teaching 9th and 10th grade general education English Language Arts classes, resources classes for 9th - 11th grade in English Language Arts and Math, and 6th grade inclusion for English Language Arts, Social Studies, Math, and Science. Ms. Hedgcoth holds a Master of Education in Advanced Reading Literacy and is currently seeking a second Masters of Education in Teaching Middle School Mathematics at Texas State University where she is also a recipient of the Mix It Up grant, which gives additional training in coordinating math and science lessons. Ms. Hedgcoth has worked primarily with English language learners and students receiving special services.

Angel Abitua

Angel Abitua is the Deputy District Director for LULAC District VII. District VII encompasses the Greater Austin area, including Georgetown, Round Rock, Taylor, Buda, Bastrop, Leander, and Cedar Park. LULAC is also a statewide and national organization. He has been a member for 39 years. Also, he helps to coordinate LULAC Youth programs at seven high schools in both RRISD and AISD. Improving education and youth leadership development have two of his major goals in the last several years. In a 2007 edition of La Voz de Austin, a local community newspaper, he was named one of the top 25 most influential Latinos in the Austin area. He was also cited in 2006, by the city of Round Rock and the Round Rock ISD, for his work with Hispanic youth programs. Always vocal about the need to support education innovation and initiatives aimed at improving outcomes for Hispanic students, he has been a strong advocate of the proposed Austin Community School, a charter school that will feature dual-language instruction.

Sam Greer

Sam Greer, M. Ed, is completing his Ph.D. in Ed. Admin. with a focus on Charter School Finance with a minor in non-profit management counseling at UT. An expert in charter school management, operations, governance, and state compliance and is currently developing a facility finance program and charter school bond guarantee fund for the Texas Charter School Association. Mr. Greer was the Co-Founding Exec Director of Austin Discovery School Charter School which recently received Recognized rating in its 4th year from TEA, he directed charter application and first 2 years of operations, and is now its Board Treasurer. He was a Project Manager for American YouthWorks Charter School and designed programs at Austin ISD for at-risk youth. Mr. Greer also served as Superintendent/Principal of Cedars International Academy Charter School during its first 2 years of operation.

Mayte Antelo-Ovando

Mayte Antelo-Ovando, M.S., N.C.S.P. is a Nationally Certified School Psychologist working in the San Diego Unified School District. She has worked at SDUSD for three years, this is her fourth. She was born in Salt Lake City, Utah and has lived in the United States and abroad (Utah, Texas, Massachusetts, California, Saltillo, Coahuila-MX, Santa Cruz-Bolivia, Seville-Spain). She obtained her Masters and Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies from Northeastern University in the area of Educational and School Psychology. She obtained her BA in Psychology, with a minor in French from the University of Texas at Austin. She is passionate about children, their education and their overall well-being. Her areas of interest are bilingual education, bilingual assessment, children's rights and organizations that strive to meet the needs of children.

Katie Jensen

Katie Jensen earned a Bachelor of Interior Architecture from Kansas State University’s College of Architecture, Planning and Design. Prior to joining the City of Austin, she completed a year as an AmeriCorps* VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) at a service learning non-profit organization that serves at-promise youth. Jensen is an Environmental Program Coordinator with Austin Energy Green Building. Since joining the award winning team at Austin Energy in 2001, she has coordinated the Seminar Series provided monthly to building professionals, researched green building products and practices, helped develop the current version of the Commercial Rating and Multifamily Rating, and supported education and marketing of green building to the general public and other City of Austin departments. Katie currently coordinates the Multifamily Program. She is Chair Emeritus of the US Green Building Council Central Texas-Balcones Chapter Board of Directors and is a LEEDTM Accredited Professional.

Jamie Cameron Turner

Jamie Cameron Turner, J.D. is an associate in the firm of Powell & Leon, L.L.P. Ms. Turner graduated from Hardin-Simmons University and Baylor Law School. She focuses her practice on the representation of public school districts assisting clients with employment law, student discipline issues, special education, and elections. Ms. Turner is the daughter of two public school administrators. She is married to an attorney and they have one son.