School of Education

Nilsa J. Thorsos serves as chair of the Department of Special Education. She brings 31 years of teaching experience, professional development, and mentoring in public, private k-12 classrooms in addition to teaching in higher education. Her experience in k-12 settings includes teaching all grade levels, including pre-school and professional development. Thorsos’ tenure encompasses an extensive multicultural background and experience as a classroom teacher in public schools throughout New Mexico, Northern California, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. In New Mexico, she coordinated the bilingual program for the special education students and developed a model for inclusion. In Northern California, she implemented a Montessori Inclusion program and was designated the master teacher for the San Jose State University Teacher Education Program. In addition to her interest in foreign languages, she is fluent in Spanish and holds a BCLAD.

Thorsos also serves as a consultant for nonpublic schools in areas of professional development for teachers serving diverse or disabled students. She specializes in language acquisition, Bilingual Special Education, the referral process, Response to Intervention, and Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act and its implementation. Her areas of academic interest include sociocultural linguistic studies, teacher education, professional development, minority overrepresentation in special education, and Montessori philosophy.