Cristina Alfaro, Ph.D., is an associate professor of English language and biliteracy development in the College of Education at San Diego State University (SDSU) and Director of Multilingual Initiatives. She is the recipient of the College of Education 2010 Excellence in Teaching Award. She served on the 2012 expert panel for the California State Department of Education English Language Development (ELD) Standards, where her work focused on the alignment of the New Generation ELD Standards to the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). She is the principal investigator and project director of a major U.S. Department of Education grant where her focus and work is to create access for English Language Learners to the Common Core State Standards. She can be reached at calfaro@mail.sdsu.edu.