Awards

Distinguished Latino Alumni Award - 2010

About Carlos J. Ovando

Carlos J. Ovando received a Ph.D. in curriculum, instruction and international comparative education in 1975, a master's degree in Latin American studies and political science in 1973, and a master of arts in teaching in Spanish in 1969, all from IU. He currently is a professor of curriculum, instruction, educational leadership and policy studies at the School of Transborder Studies, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences of Arizona State University and its Faculty Honors advisor.

Before joining the faculty at Arizona State, he served as chair of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at IU Bloomington, where he was also the director of the Bilingual Education Program. In addition, Ovando has taught at Oregon State University, University of Alaska and the University of Southern California.

A naturalized citizen of the United States, Ovando's research focuses on factors that contribute to the academic achievement of language minority and ethnically diverse students -- a topic he knows firsthand, having emigrated from Nicaragua as a preteen.

He's currently involved in researching the impact of globalization on education reform in 19 nations in Latin and North America, Europe, Africa and Asia. In 2006, he served as a consultant in a cooperative initiative between Mexico and the U.S. to promote the teaching of English in Mexican public schools.

Ovando has received two Teaching Excellence Recognition Awards from the IU School of Education, is widely published, serves on a number of editorial boards, and has served on the selection committee for the Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program.