By Maria Keckler
Cristina Alfaro, associate vice president of International Affairs at SDSU, is receiving the California Association for Bilingual Education (CABE) 2022 Innovation Leadership Board Award.
The award honors Alfaro’s exemplary leadership and contributions in the field of K-20 biliteracy and bilingual education over decades of her professional career.
Alfaro will be recognized during CABE’s 2022 Conference, to be held March 29 through April 2, and she will be a featured speaker during the conference.
“I am deeply moved and grateful to receive this honor at this point in my career, after more than twenty years advocating for the importance of bilingual education, even during years when it was prohibited to do so by ill-conceived policies,” said Alfaro, a professor of multilingual and global education and co-chair of Hispanic-Serving Institution Community Relations and Transborder Affairs.
“To be recognized for innovations in multilingual education, such as the first university Global Seal of Biliteracy, which honors and recognizes students' cultural and linguistic diversity, highlights how far we have come.”
Each year, the CABE Board of Directors selects individuals and organizations who have made outstanding impacts in the field of biliteracy and bilingual education to receive this prestigious award.
“Dr. Alfaro’s contributions in the area of educational research, program implementation, and innovative thinking and leadership have made a mark not only at SDSU, but throughout California, nationally and globally,” said Jan Gustafson-Corea, CABE CEO. “Dr. Alfaro’s leadership has impacted the field of research and bilingual/dual language teacher preparation in many ways, and has also inspired many to open their eyes and hearts in service of immigrant and linguistically diverse students, their families and the educators who serve them."
As a teacher-educator and educational leader, Alfaro led the California State University (CSU) International Teacher Education Program for more than a decade. In this program, she collaborated with ten CSU universities with the goal of preparing global critically conscious and linguistically competent bilingual teachers to meet the diverse needs of multilingual learners.
As a researcher, Alfaro has examined and published extensively on the role of ideological critical consciousness and pedagogical practices that situate diversity, access and equity at the core of K-20 education.
Alfaro also served as the immediate past chair in the College of Education’s Department of Dual Language and English Learner Education. During her tenure, she championed the largest model bilingual teacher preparation program in the state of California.
In her current role, Dr. Alfaro leads the effort to create a Diversity, Access, and Equity roadmap for international education and leadership. A champion of initiatives that bring solutions to address challenges facing the California-Baja California transborder region, Alfaro chairs SDSU’s annual RE:BORDER Binational Conference, which convenes critical conversations between researchers, educators, policymakers and community leaders in the private and non-profit sector.
Gustafson-Corea noted Alfaro’s recent work on establishing the University Global Seal of Biliteracy at SDSU in partnership with California Department of Education and CABE’s Multilingual California program. Gustafson-Corea said Alfaro is setting the standard and creating a model that will be able to be implemented throughout the California State University system and other university systems.
Alfaro is the recipient of the San Diego County Office of Education Biliteracy Leadership Award, Senate Excellence in Teaching Award, the National Outstanding Latina in Higher Education Award and the Gomez-Morin Global Education Award.
She has received numerous teaching awards for graduate and undergraduate teaching, including the Most Influential Faculty for an impressive six times. Alfaro has been awarded numerous federal and state professional development grants to promote multilingualism, most recently a grant for the first-ever University Global Seal of Biliteracy in English and Spanish.
Alfaro will be the keynote speaker on the topic of Multilingual Education at the 2022 annual Multilingual and Global Education Conference in the Republic of Georgia to be held in September of this year.