Meet Our Staff...
David Calderon
Site / Research and Development Coordinator

David is a graduate of the University of California, Irvine. He graduated with Bachelors Degrees in Sociology, Psychology and a Minor in Business Administration. He started with HABLA in December of 2003 as a student home-visitor. He was later chosen as HABLA's AmeriCorps VISTA member. Upon completion of his AmeriCorps term, he was hired on as a site coordinator serving Santa Ana and Anaheim.

Noemi Maldonado
Assistant Site Coordinator

Noemi is a graduate of the University of California, Irvine and Santa Ana College. She graduated with a Bachelor's in Chicano/Latino Studies at UCI and an Associate's Degree in Liberal Studies at Santa Ana College. In June of 2008, Noemi joined HABLA as a student home-visitor. Upon graduation, Noemi was hired on as an Assistant Coordinator serving Santa Ana.

Virginia Mann
Founder and Director

Virginia holds an S.B. and a Ph.D. from MIT and is a professor of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. Her research on the interplay between written and spoken language development has been funded by NIH and NSF, featured in textbooks on learning disabilities and published in over 75 articles as well as in the popular press. She is the founder and director of HABLA, a home-based language enrichment program for disadvantaged Latino preschoolers; in 2005 by ‘California First 5’ cited HABLA as one of the state’s ten most promising practices for early literacy. Dr. Mann is also the campus director of UCI’s Jumpstart program which works with Latino preschoolers and teaches the service learning ECE course that supports the Jumpstart mission of providing college student mentors for preschoolers at risk for school problems. She has worked as a consultant for Scientific Learning since 2000 and is part of the software development team that created Reading Edge, and the award-winning Fast ForWord Reading series.

Lorena Medina
Assistant Site Coordinator

Lorena is a graduate of California State University, Fullerton. She graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Liberal Studies. She started with HABLA in 2005 as an AmeriCorps member serving the HABLA program. Upon completion of her service as an AmeriCorps member, she was hired on as a home-visitor serving dozens of families in Santa Ana and Anaheim. In 2009, she was promoted to Assistant Coordinator to both Santa Ana and Anaheim.

Rocio Santana
Site Coordinator

Rocío is a graduate of the University of Guadalajara. She graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in International Trade and Accounting. She then graduated with a Master's Degree in Italian Language and Culture at Dante Alighieri, Institute of Languages. She started with HABLA in 2005 as an AmeriCorps member and became a VISTA member. In 2007, Rocío was hired as assistant coordinator serving Santa Ana and Anaheim and was promoted to site coordinator in 2008 serving the city of Santa Ana.