Erin Bolívar teaches courses in Spanish. Her specializations are Romance Languages and Latin American literature.

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Maricarmen Cedillo has been an adjunct member of the faculty since Fall 2008. She teaches core-curriculum Spanish courses at USD and undergraduate levels of Spanish at other community colleges in the San Diego area as well as French and English as a second language.

Cedillo is a San Diego Professional Tour Guide Association (SDPTGA)  tour guide and interpreter in San Diego county and Tijuana. She has worked as an interpreter and translator for the International Olympic Committee, sport events, businesses and educational associations. Cedillohas a license as a Notary Public (Loan Specialist). She worked in a hospital in Mexico, three years as head of Public Relations and later as the Hopital Administrator. She also taught the staff classes in both business and medical English.

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Kate Defrise teaches undergraduate French.She holds a professional certificate in copyediting from University of California, San Diego and has copyedited and prepared for publication numerous works from various fields, from scholarly to technical. She has a passion for fiction and is working on a novel. She is a native of Belgium.

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Margaret Martínez-Don, Ph.D., teaches lower-division Spanish courses. Her specializations include the appropriate use of technology in foreign language instruction and her research focus has been on Spanish online instruction.

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John W. Fendrick, Ph.D., has been a member of the faculty since 1992. He teaches undergraduate courses in classical Greek, Latin, Spanish, and German. He also serves as director of the Classical Languages Program on campus and is the on-site coordinator of University Ministry for the Guadalajara Study Abroad Program.

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Maria L. Gee was born and raised in China. She worked as a writer and editor of screenplays at a national TV station for 11 years. Since immigrating to the U.S. in 1992, she has worked as a writer, film producer, teacher, and Chinese community leader. As a professor of Mandarin Chinese at USD, she has taught all elementary and intermediate level courses. She has always shown her passion for the Chinese language and culture. She has published four books, numerous articles, and a 12 episode Chinese language documentary film series in America. The documentary film Adrift Without Roots has become one of the Asian study materials for many universities in both America and China. She is active in the Asian community, and has served as a chair and the honorable chair of the board directors of American Chinese Culture and Education Foundation (ACCEF) for more than five years.

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Sophie Halvin is an Adjunct Professor in the Languages and Literatures department where she has been teaching the full spectrum of elementary and intermediate French classes since 2001. She came to USD after working for 10 years at the University of California, San Diego where she taught a variety of language and literature courses. She is a native of Paris, France.

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Professor Hepp teaches elementary and intermediate Italian at USD and local community colleges. She also taught lowe-r and upper-division Italian courses and courses on Italian Civilization for the Humanities Department at San Diego State University. Recently, she served as the coordinator for Italian in a series of workshops on SLO (Student Learning Outcome) offered by Grossmont Community College.

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Randa Jad-Moussa is a lecturer of Arabic at the University of San Diego and the University of California, San Diego. Professor Moussa’s career in second language education spans over 20 years and across K-12, college, professional and university settings in both ESL and Arabic. In her classroom she has employed an integrated approach to teaching communicative Arabic and culture based on the National Standards and ACTFL proficiency guidelines in the four skills using available technologies and authentic material. She is a certified ACTFL/ILR Oral Proficiency Interview tester in Modern Standard Arabic and Lebanese as well as Egyptian Arabic; and the School Site Coordinator for “Everyone A Reader” Reading Tutor Program for grades 1-3.

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Maria Kotsaftis has taught at USD as an adjunct instructor intermittently since 2001. Her teaching includes language classes as well as upper-division literature seminars, Survey of Italian Literature, Composition, Culture and Civilization et al.

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Xusheng Li began his teaching career in 2002 as a graduate student in the Department of Linguistics at University of California, San Diego. He joined our faculty in 2008. Over the course of his career, he has taught a variety of courses to a wide spectrum of students: college, adult learners, and working professionals. He teaches elementary and intermediate Chinese language here.

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José L. Mendoza has been teaching in the Department of Languages and Literatures since 1994. He teaches the basic courses of beginning and intermediate Spanish and he is currently a coordinator of all the Spanish 102 classes. In the past, Professor Mendoza has taught both at USD and at other academic institutions a variety of Spanish courses.

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Silvia A. Metzger has been a member of the faculty at USD since 1997. She has been teaching elementary and intermediate courses of Italian in the Department of Languages and Literatures and she has taught a class of Italian for the USD summer abroad program.

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Professor Moya  teaches elementary and intermediate language classes at USD, UCSD, Miramar College, Southwestern College and Grossmont College.

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Martha T Oregel has been a member of the faculty since 1999. She teaches lower division Spanish courses, including a specialized “bridge” course which begins with a review of first semester Spanish and then moves on to complete the second semester.

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Yadira Ortega-Ocádiz has been a Spanish Instructor at USD since fall 1998. She teaches lower division courses introducing new vocabulary and grammar concepts emphasizing oral proficiency using a variety of methods. Yadira also supervises the third level of Spanish for non-natives visiting her colleagues’ classes and participating in the development of exams, quizzes and syllabus. She also chooses readings according to the topic or grammar of the chapter for all third semester sections. Attend to regular meetings with all Spanish lower division supervisors to keep syllabi, workload and homework uniform.

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Emanuela Patroncini has been an Italian instructor at USD since 2002, and is the current acting director of the Italian section. She teaches lower and upper division classes.

Born and raised in Italy, she is enthusiastic about sharing the language, culture and way of life of her country. Her classroom ischallenging but offers a supportive environment that promotes peer cooperation and stimulates learning.

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Born in Toulon, South of France, Professor Rachel-Gueirard has lived in Germany and now, the U.S.She began teaching at USD in 2002 and also teaches at UCSD, UCSD Extension, and Point Loma Nazarene University, as well as for the Alliance Française de San Diego. She is equally at home teaching French and German.

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Professor Ramos has been a member of the faculty in 2001. She participated as an instructor for the San Diego Police Department Spanish Program as well as Spanish for Educators. To remain current, she attends workshops in and out of San Diego.

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Santiago Rubio-Fernaz has been a member of the faculty since 1998. He is a lecturer in Classics and also currently serves as Director of Placement for the Department of Languages and Literatures. In the Languages Department, Professor Rubio-Fernaz offers undergraduate courses on Latin and Greek and occasionally on Spanish. His research focus is Roman and Greek poetry, with special interests in Greek epic poetry of the Hellenistic Age and Roman lyric poetry of the Classical Period.

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Shirley M. Saad has been teaching French at USD since 1999. She teaches beginning and intermediate French.

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Graziella Spinelli joined the faculty in 1985 and has played an important role in developing our Italian program into the vibrant minor program we have today. In addition to teaching all levels of language, Professor Spinelli has taught intermediate conversation and advanced literature courses. She has taken students to Perugia, Italy so that they could complete their third semester language requirement while immersed in the Italian culture.

She is the former coordinator of the Core Curriculum classes, responsible for the curriculum of the first, second, and third semester language classes and promoting the development and growth of these courses.

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Christiane Staninger has been at USD since 1984. 

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Hiroko Takagi has taught lower and upper-division courses here since 1990. Her specialization is Japanese pedagogy and instructional technology. Her recent research focus has been on motivation in elementary foreign language classes.

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Professor Takahashi teaches elementary and intermediate Japanese at USD and also runs a small, private school in San Diego.  Since 2003, he has volunteered to teach Japanese at a high school in Mongolia for one month every summer. He does this because he believes that a sound education is necessary to prepare Mongolia's future leaders. Studying abroad is an enrichment opportunity that most cannot afford, however, about 100 of these students have been able to study at universities in both Japan and the U.S. with the help of scholarships awarded to them by the schools.

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Alex Villalobos joined our faculty in 1998 and over the past 10 years, he has taught all elementary and intermediate language courses. Recently he enjoyed teaching advanced conversation, which offers non-native speakers an opportunity to put their years of book studies to practical use.

He also teaches full time in the Invention & Design Educational Academy at Crawford High School, where his teaching assignment includes Advanced Placement Spanish Language. As a Director of Student Activities, he is responsible for the organization of student dances, school festivals, and support for all school-wide clubs. He serves on the Area G Council for the California Directors of Activities promoting Student Activities in Middle and High School in California.

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Simi Windward has been with the University of San Diego since 1993 teaching Spanish 101, 102 and 201, both on campus and at the program in Guadalajara, Mexico.  In addition to her studies in languages and language teaching, Professor Windward is trained in Spanish interpretation and translation; worked as a fund raiser for a variety of international charities and Public Television in New York City.

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Barbara Wrasidlo joined the faculty of the English Department in 1986 and, four years later, came to the Department of Languages and Literatures to teaching lower- and upper-division German courses, both on campus and in Germany.

Professor Wrasidlo also teaches at San Diego Mesa College and has taught English and Russian at other institutions.

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Víctor Zambrano joined the faculty in 1988 and has taught both the Core Curriculum course and upper-division classes in conversation and Spanish for business. He is the past coordinator of both Spanish 201 and the Spanish Intensive Language Model program.

He has a solid theoretical and practical background in curriculum design and evaluation and is currently studying how information and communication technologies are incorporated into the teaching/learning processes. Professor Zambrano also teaches Spanish for Professional Proficiency in the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the University of California, San Diego. He is an ACTFL-trained Oral Proficiency Interviewer.

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