Dr. Tinajero is Professor of Bilingual Education and Special Assistant to the Vice President for Research. She is an educator and advocate on issues of equity and excellence for culturally and linguistically diverse children and families. Her areas of research are in bilingualism, dual language education, language acquisition, bilingual education, literacy, biliteracy, and education of underrepresented groups. She directs the UTEP Mother-Daughter/Father-Son Program, and is Chair of the El Paso chapter of Do the Write Thing Challenge, a violence prevention program that is part of the National Campaign to Stop Violence. Nine school districts in the El Paso area participate in this initiative.