Victoria Russell, Ph.D., is the 2022 President of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). She is also a Professor of Spanish and Foreign Language Education at Valdosta State University (VSU). She has been a language educator for the past 30+ years, earning a doctorate in Second Language Acquisition & Instructional Technology from the University of South Florida after spending many years teaching at the middle, high school, and community college levels both in the United States and abroad. She began teaching Spanish online in 2007 and currently serves as the Coordinator of Online Programs for the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at VSU, where she helped create fully online bachelor’s degree and certificate programs in Spanish, French, and TESOL as well as online MAT programs in Foreign Language Education and English for Speakers of Other Languages.
She has published numerous articles and book chapters in the areas of online language teaching and learning, world language teacher preparation, and Spanish pragmatics. Her recent book, Teaching Language Online: A Guide for Designing Developing, and Delivering Online, Blended, and Flipped Language Courses, was co-authored with Dr. Kathryn Murphy-Judy (published by Routledge). Victoria served as Chair of the ACTFL Distance Learning Special Interest Group from 2015 – 2018, where she led the effort to create a national mentoring program for online language educators. She has given numerous national and international workshops and presentations on world language teacher education and online language course design, development, and delivery.