I was raised in a VERY small West Texas town called Snyder. Luckily I escaped and attended the University of Texas at Austin where I graduated in 1974 with a BS in Pharmacy. In 1977 I moved to Maui, Hawaii where I worked as a pharmacist for five years. During a four-month trip around Europe I became very interested in languages and upon my return to Hawaii decided to study languages at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in Honolulu, Hawaii. I received a Master of Arts in Spanish Literature from the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1986 and then moved to Austin to continue my studies. I received a Master of Arts in Spanish Linguistics in 1989 from the University of Texas at Austin. I then completed my doctorate in Hispanic Linguistics with a specialization in Applied Linguistics: Second Language Acquisition in May 2001 at the University of  Texas.  I taught at UT as an assistant instructor (AI) for six years and I have taught at ACC as adjunct faculty for ten years. I am currently a lecturer at the University of Texas teaching Spanish language, practical phonetics, and advanced grammar and composition.