Our Team | ELITE Texas

Leticia Romero Grimaldo

Dr. Leticia Romero Grimaldo serves as the co-principal investigator of Project ELEVATE and Project C2. She also served as principal investigator for Project ELITE. Her research interests include language, literacy, culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogy and practice, bi/multilingual education, job-embedded professional learning, school reform, and school leadership. She has extensive experience developing and providing professional learning in these areas to educators and school leaders, as well as disseminating her work statewide and nationally. Grimaldo is also an adjunct professor for Texas State University, where she teaches master’s-level courses in educational leadership within the Education and Community Leadership Program.

Shannon Giroir

Dr. Shannon Giroir serves as a co-principal investigator on Project ELEVATE and Project C2, and she has been a part of the Project ELITE team since 2012. Through collaborative research initiatives with elementary educators, she coordinates the design, development, and dissemination of K–5 educator tools, deliverables, and training in the areas of literacy, multitiered instruction for ELs, and second-language acquisition. As part these research-to-practice projects, Giroir also leads the development of web content for K–5 educators and school leaders, translating project findings for multiple audiences. Giroir has previously served as a statewide trainer for the Tiered Interventions Using Evidence-Based Research (TIER) project, the Texas Literacy Achievement Academies, and the Reading to Learn Academies, and she has developed online course content for a digital resource bank to support Texas school districts in implementing the statewide Texas Literacy Initiative.

Greg Roberts

Dr. Greg Roberts is the senior associate director of The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk. For more information, read Roberts' full bio on the MCPER website.

Sharon Vaughn

Dr. Sharon Vaughn is the executive director of The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk, director of the Reading Institute, and a director of the Dropout Prevention Institute. For more information, read Vaughn's full bio on the MCPER website.

Stephanie Cowan

Stephanie joined the ELITE team in 2023. As part of Projects C2 and ELEVATE, she provides professional learning and coaching to educators in our partnering district, Hays CISD. She graduated from UT with a Bachelor of Science in Education in 2008, and she obtained a Master of Arts in Literacy Education from UTSA in 2018. She has 14 years’ experience as an educator in school districts in Central Texas, serving as an elementary reading teacher, interventionist, and instructional coach.