RGVTABE 2025

Karina Chapa was born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico. She completed her Bachelor’s in International Relations from el Tecnológico de Monterrey. After moving to Texas, she became a Bilingual teacher through Alternative Certification. She completed her Master’s in Bilingual Education and School Principalship at the University of Texas PanAmerican in 2005. She later became a Bilingual/ESL Strategist, Newcomer Academy Coordinator, Middle School Assistant Principal, and Bilingual/ESL Director in McAllen ISD. Karina received the Public Education Honoree Award from the Texas Association for Bilingual Education in 2016. She served in the Rio Grande Valley-Texas Association for Bilingual Education Executive Board as Secretary, President, and Parliamentarian; and in the TABE Executive Board as Secretary, Bilingual Administrator Representative, Legislative Chair, and Newsletter Chair. She also served as the Language Proficiency, Biliteracy, and Cultural Diversity Director in Region One Education Service Center, where she had the pleasure of working for more than 160,000 emergent bilingual students in deep South Texas for almost 7 years. In 2019 she delivered her first TEDxMcAllen talk entitled "The Revolutionary Power of Bilingualism". Currently, Karina is the Executive Director at the Texas Association for Bilingual Education, advocating for more than 1.1 million bilingual learners and their families around the state. She also serves as an adjunct professor of Testing and Measurement, Language Acquisition, and Applied Linguistics for future bilingual teachers at the Texas A&M University in Kingsville. Follow Karina on Twitter @bilingualpride and @TA4BE #EveryChildBilingüe