Biographical note

Susan Navey-Davis is Assistant Department Head for Student Affairs in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at North Carolina State University. She serves as Coordinator of Lower Division Spanish courses, Supervisor of Second Year Graduate Teaching Assistants, and Director of Undergraduate Advising. She has received numerous awards for teaching, advising, and extension service. She recently received regional and national recognition for advising and has received regional, state, and university awards for excellence in teaching. At North Carolina State University she is a charter member of the Academy of Outstanding Faculty Engaged in Extension and is a past chair of the executive council for the academy. She has been secretary of the board of directors of an organization that provides health care in Nicaragua. In addition to being a co-author of PLAZAS: LUGAR DE ENCUENTROS, Navey-Davis is also co-author of Heinle's intermediate textbook, RUMBOS. She holds an MAT in Spanish from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Robert Hershberger (Ph.D., University of Kansas) is Associate Professor of Spanish at DePauw University. Before working on PLAZAS, Dr. Hershberger authored Heinle's ¡Tú Dirás! and INTERCAMBIOS CD-ROMs and was the lead author and project manager for the TEMAS CD-ROM. Most recently, Dr. Hershberger served as a co-author on Heinle's second-year Spanish program, RUMBOS. In addition to his teaching at DePauw, Dr. Hershberger is Chair of the Department of Modern Languages and a Tenzer University Professor in Instructional Technology. In 2005, Dr. Hershberger received the Exemplary Teacher Award by DePauw University and the United Methodist Church. In 2008, Dr. Hershberger received the Edwin L. Minar Scholarship Award for exceptional scholarly achievement in the field of foreign language pedagogy. Guiomar Borrás Alvarez. received her Ph.D. in Curriculum & Instruction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she studied Spanish language and Spanish and Latin American literature and culture. She obtained a Master of Arts Liberal Studies in Latin American Studies from Dartmouth College and a Master of Arts in Teaching English as a Second Language and a Master in Education from St. Michael's College. Currently she is Professor of Spanish at Glendale Community College and has been working as Business Spanish Professor at Thunderbird School of Global Management. Dr. Borrás Alvarez. was the Academic Director of the Thunderbird Intensive Language Program in 2001 and coordinated the lower division classes. Her contribution to scholarship includes Heinle's SPANISH FOR LIFE: BUSINESS WORKTEXT; INTERCAMBIOS, Fifth Edition; and PLAZAS: LUGAR DE ENCUENTROS, Second and Third Editions. She has worked and was the president of the Arizona Language Association (AZLA). She received the Thunderbird Student Government Outstanding Professor Award seven times and in 2000 received the Hacker Faculty Prize for Excellence in Teaching and Research.