Elsa Cardenas-Hagan

Elsa Cárdenas-Hagan, Ed.D., CCC-SLP, CDT, CALT, QI, is a bilingual speech-language pathologist, certified teacher, dyslexia therapist, Certified Academic Language Therapist, and Qualified Instructor. She is the President/Director of the Valley Speech Language and Learning Center in Brownsville, Texas and serves as a research associate with the Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation and Statistics at the University of Houston. Her work focuses on the development of language and literacy skills among Spanish-speaking English learners, and she has collaborated for more than two decades with national research teams to design assessments and interventions for English learners who struggle with reading.

Cárdenas-Hagan is the editor and author of Literacy Foundations for English Learners: A Comprehensive Guide to Evidence-Based Instruction, a structured literacy resource that supports educators in teaching language and literacy skills to English learners. She has written numerous scholarly articles, curricular programs, and book chapters on oracy and literacy development among English learners and is the author of Esperanza (HOPE), a Spanish language reading program for students with reading difficulties. In addition to her research and clinical work, she serves as **Chairperson of the National Joint