Marty Abbott ‘72, executive director for the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL), will serve as the keynote speaker at the University of Mary Washington’s fourth annual Educator-In-Residence event on Saturday, April 26. Abbott will speak at 12:45 p.m. at the north building of UMW’s Stafford campus.
Prior to the lecture, graduating students from the College of Education will present their research projects from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Abbott’s speech will be followed by recognition of the College of Education graduates at 1:20 p.m. The lecture and presentations are free and open to the public.
The recipient of UMW’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2004, Abbott began her career in Fairfax County Public Schools as a language teacher, foreign language coordinator and director of high school instruction. She currently leads ACTFL’s national public awareness campaign, “Lead with Languages!” which will launch in 2014.
Abbott has held many roles in national organizations, including president of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages, chair of the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and President of the Foreign Language Association of Virginia. Her work helped develop student standards, beginning teacher standards and performance assessments in foreign languages.
Abbott received her bachelor’s degree in Spanish with a minor in Latin from Mary Washington and a master’s degree in Spanish linguistics from Georgetown University.
For a full list of student presentations, visit https://www.umw.edu/news/files/2014/04/ResearchPresSchedule14.pdf.
