Spaine Long Announces Departure from the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese
Monday, August 8, 2022
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BIRMINGHAM, AL—Sheri Spaine Long, AATSP’s Executive Director, announced recently that she will retire from her position on June 30, 2023. Spaine Long has been Executive Director of AATSP since 2018 and prior to that served as the Editor of the AATSP’s flagship journal Hispania for eight years.
In announcing her decision, Spaine Long stated, “I have been honored to lead our 105-year-old association and the exceptional community of Spanish and Portuguese language teachers, professors, researchers, and administrators. Despite the pandemic, the AATSP proved resilient and vibrant as we achieved much together. It redefined our collective identity to face those challenges of pandemic instruction and the ever changing world in which we teach. It represents a period of achievement, redefinition, and resiliency as we weathered the pandemic years together.
It has been my honor to work with the outstanding AATSP Board Members over the years and implement our values that emphasize the commitment of our organization to diversity, inclusion, access, and equitable treatment of all teachers and students. We have been committed to serving our many members who advocate for Spanish and Portuguese as critical to the curriculum in PreK-12 and higher education in the United States and beyond. Spanish instruction has unique challenges as the nation’s most taught and spoken second language and as a heritage language. Portuguese faces impediments due to lack of access to instruction. Advocacy for Spanish and Portuguese language programs will continue as language learning is key to workforce development and all humanistic enterprise. I have been privileged to work with our dedicated AATSP staff who share my passion for languages and cultures. I leave with a sense of our team’s accomplishments and its future success.”
AATSP President Rachel Mamiya Hernández said, “Sheri Spaine Long’s leadership guided our organization through some of the toughest moments in its history brought about by the pandemic. Her dedication, vision, and forward thinking have positioned us well to continue our mission over the next hundred years.”
The AATSP Board of Directors will form a search and screening committee to oversee recruitment. The process will commence in August with the goal to have a new Executive Director identified by early 2023 to assume duties on July 1, 2023. “The Board of Directors of the AATSP recognizes the vital role this position plays in the long-term health, sustainability, and success of the organization. For this reason, we are committed to keeping our membership updated on the search as we progress,” Mamiya Hernández said.
About AATSP:
Founded in 1917, the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP) is the oldest, largest, and most comprehensive language-specific professional association in the United States. Our nearly 10,000 members are educators from PreK-16+ who endorse our mission to promote, develop, and advance the teaching of Hispanic, Luso-Brazilian, and related languages and cultures in the United States and in other countries. The AATSP’s programs, publications, and projects include the Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica, National Spanish and Portuguese Exams, Hispania, Spanish and Portuguese Review, National Teach Portuguese Week, National Teach Spanish Week among others. The Association awards scholarships to outstanding teachers and students annually. The AATSP will hold its 105th Annual Conference in Salamanca, Spain in 2023. The AATSP is a 501(c)(3). For more information, visit AATSP.org.
Tags: Executive Director
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