Valeria Ochoa (she/her/ella) is an Assistant Professor of Spanish Linguistics and Heritage Education in the School of Language, Culture, and Society. Her research focuses on Spanish as a Heritage Language (SHL) in the United States. Within this field, Valeria investigates issues relevant to local bi/multilingual communities through the incorporation of critical and decolonial perspectives. 

Valeria coordinates and teaches the courses in the Spanish for Heritage Language Learners (SHLLs) program. She brings her academic and personal expertise to this role as a Mexican American SHLL from Las Vegas, Nevada.

In addition, Valeria teaches courses in Linguistics as part of the newly established Linguistics minor.

As of fall 2025, Valeria is a faculty co-advisor for the MEChA chapter at OSU.

Publications in chronological order:

Ochoa, V. (2025). Indigeneity in SHL education: Personal and academic reflections. In A. Schwartz, D. Magaña, D. Grammon & S. Loza (Ed.), Aquí se habla: Centering the Local and Personal in Spanish Language Education (pp. 31-46). Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111323237-003

Loza, S., Gómez Becerra, J., Ochoa, V. & Flores, J. (2025). Contributor conversation: Embodied knowledge/institutional knowledge. In A. Schwartz, D. Magaña, D. Grammon & S. Loza (Ed.), Aquí se habla: Centering the Local and Personal in Spanish Language Education (pp. 73-86). Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111323237-005 

Del Carpio, L., & Ochoa, V. (2022). Language Ideologies in the Spanish Heritage Language Classroom:(Mis) alignment between Instructor and Students’ Beliefs. Languages, 7(3), 187. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7030187 

Tecedor, M., Del Carpio, L., & Ochoa, V. (2021). Novice or expert? Heritage speaker's orientation to the novice-expert paradigm. Journal of Pragmatics, 182, 253-264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2021.02.013