Katya Pizarro-La Torre, Ed.D
Organizational Leadership-Linguistics – Multicultural Division

Dr. Katya Pizarro has vast experience teaching and leading programs for English as a Second Language (ESL) learners of varying proficiency levels and needs. She started her career teaching and managing the ESL program at the Catholic University Language Center in Peru. In the United States, Dr. Pizarro has supported adult immigrants and refugees in a community ESL program, where she integrated as a member of the advisory board,  researching to improve the instruction and resources that could be provided to members of the community. Dr. Pizarro has been in charge of presenting academic and professional lectures and discussion skills to international college students and instructors at American academic institutions in the English for Academic Purposes program. She has also presented national and international workshops on second language acquisition, assessment, ESL teaching methods, and accommodations for English students as a second language in English and Spanish.

Dr. Pizarro pursued an M.S. degree in Education and TESOL certification at Nova Southeastern University (NSU). She worked as an ESL curriculum specialist and program coordinator at American Heritage Schools Plantation-Boca in South Florida. Dr. Pizarro holds a Lean Six Sigma White Belt in the industry-proven framework for improvement, and she just recently earned the ACUE American national credentials for effective instruction, 2020. As an innate educator, she lectures as a Professor at Broward College. In 2017, she completed the Doctoral Program in Organization Leadership and Higher Education at NSU. She accomplished her dissertation that focused on Exploring Private School Teachers’ Perceptions and Pedagogical Efficacy with English language Learners. Dr. Pizarro’s research focuses on teacher learning and teacher identity, building in schooling settings that incorporate English learners. She is mainly interested in how educators of English learners design effective instruction, perform in multilingual classrooms and develop professionally instructing international learners.