Dr. Barbara Medina

Dr. Barbara Medina is the Assistant Commissioner for Innovation and Transformation at the Colorado Department of Education. She oversees the Language, Culture and Equity Unit, Accreditation/Regional Services Unit, On-line Learning Unit and the School of Choice Unit; as well as two federal grants under No Child Left Behind, Title III which supports Linguistically Diverse Students and Title I, part C for Migrant Education, and one State Grant under the English Language Proficiency Act (ELPA). Concurrently, Dr. Medina serves on Governor Ritter's P-20 Council. Prior to working at CDE, Dr. Medina was the Chair of the Department of Teacher Education at Adams State College where she still holds an appointment as Professor. She has been a classroom teacher and also served as the Coordinator of Secondary Second Language Programs with Boulder Valley School District. Dr. Medina's scholarly interests include research in the area of language and literacy for diverse populations, second language acquisition, and cultural and linguistic diversity.