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The Habla Futures Initiative is grounded in the conviction that testimony alone, however powerful, is too easily set aside by institutions built to demand data. Lasting change requires rigorous, peer-reviewed evidence standing alongside lived experience. Our research portfolio is conducted through the UCI Bilingualism Matters California Initiative, where our founder serves as a Research Intern, in ongoing partnership with distinguished faculty and doctoral researchers at the University of California, Irvine’s School of Education. This work is situated within a growing international scholarly network, having engaged researchers, professors, and doctoral candidates from institutions including Yale University, the University of British Columbia , University College London , the University of Rochester, CUNY, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Universidad de Antioquia (Colombia), and Universidad Anáhuac (Mexico), among others.
As a Research Intern with Tertulias, UCI’s Bilingualism Matters California Initiative research arm, Sailee helps design educator workshops, prepares presentation materials, and writes internal research documentation. She also works with Reinaldo Cabrera on two studies: one tracing how bilingual children’s media use compares to monolingual peers over 30 years of data, and another examining vocabulary organization in Spanish-speaking children with and without Developmental Language Disorder. This work supports earlier clinical identification and evidence-based guidance for bilingual language development.
As primary author, Sailee has published two peer-reviewed studies. The first, Habla Arte (2026, Education Role of Language International Journal), studied 45 K-5 bilingual students and found significant gains in their confidence using Spanish academically. The second, Immigration Enforcement and Preventative Healthcare Avoidance (2026, Contemporary Economic Policy), used twelve years of national health data to show that 2017 immigration enforcement led to lasting declines in outpatient and OBGYN care among U.S. Hispanic adults.
Sailee has authored several publications on language policy and civil rights, including pieces on the 1968 East LA Walkouts and their legacy in bilingual education policy, California’s minimal foreign language graduation requirement, and a JFK Profiles in Courage essay on Assemblyman Peter Chacon’s authorship of California’s Bilingual-Bicultural Education Act.
Visual International Relations Project (VIRP) — Spanish Translator and Research Analyst
University of Southern California
Sailee serves as Spanish Translator and Research Analyst for VIRP, an initiative directed by Dr. Patrick James (USC) that builds a public archive of visual diagrams translating international relations scholarship into accessible graphic form for scholars, students, and policymakers. Her role involves translating VIRP research and materials into Spanish to extend the project’s reach to Spanish-speaking academic communities.
