Maria (Mia) Thomas-Ruzic received her PhD in Linguistics from the University of Colorado in 1998. Her career in English language teaching and teacher preparation in the US and abroad has spanned four decades.
Mia’s research interests include instructional talk, uses of discourse tools by teachers, professional and adult development, and learning/teaching in higher education. She established, directed and taught in both the Professional MA track in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and the TESOL BA certificate program.
Dr. Thomas-Ruzic has strong commitments to global education and international exchanges; she has been the recipient of three Fulbright Awards (the former Yugoslavia, Italy, and Mexico) and is a regular visiting faculty member and research associate at the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla in Mexico. Partnerships she has helped to forge in Puebla and with universities in Chile, China and Spain have opened up international learning and teaching experiences for interested students.
Prior to joining the Linguistics faculty in 2004, Mia was with CU-Denver's School of Education & Human Development, where the focus of her work in language, literacy and culture was with k-12 and post secondary teachers and in several large university-school district training and research projects.