Mrs. Gallardo gained her bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from the Benemérita y Centenaria Escuela Normal del Estado de Sonora “Profesor Jesús Manuel Bustamante Mungarro” in Hermosillo, Sonora. She later started her master’s in general Education through IDESA. Alejandrina moved to Arizona in 2007, where she started working as a pre-school teacher at the International School of Tucson. After three years, she started working as an editor and columnist for the Arizona Bilingual Newspaper. Also, during the same year, she started doing voiceovers professionally for the Hispanic market of Arizona. Alejandrina is a long-life learner that enjoys challenging herself and learn new things every day. In 2011, she decided to go back to school and started a Post-Baccalaureate in Secondary Education through Pima Community College. Before graduated, Mrs. Gallardo was offered a position as a Spanish teacher at Catalina Magnet High School. It was her first job at the secondary education level. In 2013, Mrs. Gallardo started teaching at Sunnyside High School, and in 2017 she was named department Lead of the World Languages Department. In the same year, Mrs. Gallardo completed a Business Certificate Program through the Eller College of Management, University of Arizona.

           Mrs. Gallardo possesses a real sense of community and enjoys working with students and the entire community. In the past, she was a sponsor of some school clubs, such as Spanish Club, Finding your Voice, GLEE, and Noche de las Estrellas and from time to time, she runs an after-school program for students that stay after school and need a safe place to be while waiting for their parents.

             Alejandrina graduated in October 2020 from Grand Canyon University with a Master of Educational Administration degree. She keeps attending as many professional development training as possible. Every year, she helps the Spanish and Portuguese Department of the U of A organize and deliver a workshop for Arizona’s language teachers.  

She graduated with a B.A. in Spanish and an M.A. in Southwest Hispanic Studies from the University of New Mexico where she was part of the university’s first class of Ronald E. McNair Scholars.  She graduated with her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago in Hispanic Studies with concentrations in Latina/o cultural studies and sociolinguistics and also served as the Assistant Director for UIC’s Spanish for Heritage Speakers Program.  She has worked in the field of Spanish as a Heritage Language for 17 years.  She previously developed and directed the Spanish as a Heritage Language Program and the Spanish for Heritage Learners Nicaragua Summer Immersion Program at New Mexico Highlands University. She has also served as faculty for the Summer Spanish Immersion Program for Bilingual Teachers at New Mexico Highlands University since 2006.  She actively promotes recruitment and retention of Latinas/os/xs in higher education and has worked with local and national Latino higher education organizations such as the USDA Hispanic Serving Institutions Office, HACU and the Tucson Hispanic Leadership Institute.  Dr. Lillian Gorman is a proud Chicana and Nuevomexicana from Albuquerque, New Mexico.