Sandra Lorena Villalobos Orozco has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish from Eastern Michigan University, with a minor in Anthropology. She also has a Master of Arts degree in Spanish from the same institution. After graduating, she worked as a lecturer at Eastern Michigan, teaching Spanish as a second language at the beginning and intermediate level. Her main interests are sociolinguistics, Spanish language acquisition for second language and heritage learners, academic writing, and the design of written and oral Spanish proficiency tests.