Dr. Margarita Machado Casas is a Full Professor in the Department of Dual Language and English Learner Education at San Diego State University. Dr. Machado-Casas completed her Ph.D. at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She received the IMPACT award for her research on transnational migration trends of Bilingual and Multilingual newly arrived immigrants in the southern U.S. Dr. Machado-Casas also completed the prestigious Post-Doctoral fellowship at Frank Potter Graham (FPG) Research Institute at UNC-Chapel Hill in conjunction with Duke University. Her research interests include immigrant, indigenous and Bilingual/Multilingual education, transnational communities, and minority agency in the fields of education, literacy, assessment/evaluation, parent/family involvement, and social cultural foundations. Currently she is part of a national research project looking at indigenous and bilingual/multilingual education and identity. In the U.S. Dr. Machado-Casas is Co-Chair of the National Bilingual Education Student Organization (BESO). This is the largest bilingual education student organization in the US.