Dr. Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan is President of the Valley Speech Language and Learning Center in Brownsville, Texas and a Research Associate with the Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation and Statistic at the University of Houston. Elsa has dedicated 25 years working in national research projects sponsored by the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, the Institute of Education Sciences, a research arm of the United States Department of Education and the Office of Special Education Programs. Her research interests include the development of language and literacy skills among Spanish-and English-speaking students. She has also worked with teams of researchers designing assessments and interventions for this linguistically diverse population of students. Dr. Cárdenas-Hagan serves as the Chairperson of the National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities and is a Professional Advisory Board Member of the Learning Disabilities Association of America. She is also a Past-Vice- Chairperson of the International Dyslexia Association. Elsa was honored to receive the Margaret Bryd Rawson Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Dyslexia Association, the Luke Waites Award of Service by the Academic Language Therapy Association and the Learning Disabilities Award by the Learning Disabilities Association of America. She currently serves on the New York City Public Schools Literacy Advisory Council and the Literacy Advisory Boards for the states of Utah and Texas.
