Job description

ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT

The Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences (SLHS) at The University of Texas at El Paso is a collaborative, research-engaged unit housed in the College of Health Sciences. The department offers expanding undergraduate and graduate programs and is committed to excellence in clinical education, community engagement, and culturally responsive practice.

SLHS operates a bilingual, pro bono speech-language and hearing clinic serving individuals across the lifespan in the Paso del Norte region. The clinic provides an exceptional applied research environment with direct access to Spanish-English bilingual populations within a dynamic border community. This setting offers unique opportunities for translational research in bilingual language development and disorders.

Faculty maintain active interdisciplinary collaborations across campus, including with colleagues in Linguistics, Psychology, Social Work, and Computer Science, as well as external partnerships. These collaborations position the department to contribute meaningfully to UTEP’s institutional priority of advancing research and education in bilingualism.

The department is experiencing growth in enrollment, research activity, and community partnerships, and seeks to expand its national research profile through strategic senior-level recruitment.

ABOUT THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT EL PASO

The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a Carnegie R1, opportunity, and community engaged university at the heart of the U.S.-Mexico border region that is increasing access to excellent higher education. We advance discovery of public value and positively impact the health, culture, education, and economy of the community we serve. UTEP enrolls more than 25,000 students – 85% of whom are Hispanic and half of whom are the first in their families to attend college. UTEP offers 171 bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs at the only open-access, top-tier research university in America.

The city’s location on the Rio Grande in the Southwest where two countries and three states meet makes it an ideal venue for academic programs and research studies on topics of national interest, including bilingual education/language acquisition, health and health disparities, international relations, international trade, migration, and environmental sustainability and infrastructure. The University enjoys strategic partnerships with two DOE national laboratories in the region and sits on the edge of White Sands Missile Range, making engineering and scientific research both a priority and an opportunity.

Along with its top designation as an R1 research university, UTEP is also nationally recognized as an Opportunity University by the Carnegie Classification for its positive impact on economic mobility for students after graduation. In 2024, Forbes found that UTEP students graduate with the lowest average debt of any college or university in Texas and go on to earn a median salary of more than $100,000 10 years after graduation.

Located at the westernmost tip of Texas, El Paso is set against the backdrop of the Franklin Mountains and the Chihuahuan Desert in one of the largest binational communities in the world. The city’s active arts and culture community features the state’s longest-running symphony orchestra, a nationally recognized chamber music festival, a vibrant street art and mural scene, art galleries, museums, and a full schedule of seasonal events and festivals. In 2024, El Paso opened La Nube, a unique hybrid institution that merges the educational aspects of a science center and children’s museum experiences. UTEP adds to the arts and entertainment scene with concerts and live events at the city’s largest indoor and outdoor venues; theater, music and dance productions; contemporary and student art galleries; and a natural history museum and desert gardens. El Paso residents can also easily travel to the sister city of Ciudad Jurez, Mexico, to enjoy great food, markets and cultural events.

El Paso/Jurez is the fifth largest manufacturing region in North America and the center of commerce, education and health services for the region. A family-oriented community, the cost of living in El Paso is very reasonable for a large metropolitan area with the average home value of $224,000 in 2025. Texas has no income tax and, when it comes to public safety, El Paso is the fifth safest large city in the United States. In 2025, U.S. News and World Report named El Paso as the second best big city in the United States in which to live.

El Paso is also an ideal location for people who love the outdoors. It is home to one of the nation’s largest urban parks – Franklin Mountains State Park – and many options for year-round hiking, mountain biking and rock climbing at Hueco Tanks State Park and nearby White Sands, Guadalupe Mountains and Carlsbad Caverns national parks.

For sports fans, the UTEP Miners offer exciting Division I college athletics at several campus venues including Sun Bowl Stadium – where one of the oldest football bowl games takes place annually – and the Don Haskins Center arena. Southwest University Park, located a mile away in lively downtown El Paso, is home to the El Paso Chihuahuas, the Triple-A baseball affiliate of the San Diego Padres, and the El Paso Locomotive FC, a professional soccer team founded in 2019.

Job Description:

The Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences invites applications for a tenured Associate or Full Professor with expertise in bilingualism and communication sciences. Areas of scholarship may include, but are not limited to: bilingual language development and disorders, communication equity and linguistic diversity, cognitive and neural dimensions of bilingualism, assessment and intervention science in multilingual contexts, or related areas that advance knowledge of language and communication in diverse populations.

This position is supported through the Regents Research Excellence Program (RREP) and represents a strategic institutional investment in expanding UTEP’s national leadership in bilingualism research. UTEP has an un-paralleled, interdisciplinary community of scholars examining issues of bilingualism across colleges and departments such as Psychology, Education, Chicano Studies Languages & Linguistics among others. Members of this vibrant scientific community collaborate and engage with the community through UTEP’s chapter of Bilingualism Matters and the Consortium for Bilingual Research (https://www.utep.edu/csrb/csrb-members/faculty1.html). Together, these initiatives connect scholars, students, and community partners engaged in research on bilingualism across the lifespan.

We seek a senior scholar with an established, externally funded research program, preferably including federal funding (e.g., NIH, NIDCD, IES, NSF), whose work advances knowledge related to bilingual language development, disorders, or communication across the lifespan. The successful candidate will provide research leadership within the department and contribute to interdisciplinary initiatives aligned with UTEP’s Strategic Plan Goal 4, Initiative 3 (https://www.utep.edu/csrb/csrb-members/faculty1.html), which calls for establishing UTEP as a national leader in research and education in bilingualism, bilingual education, and second language learning.

The faculty member will:

• Lead a nationally visible, externally funded research program
• Develop and submit major federal grant proposals
• Expand interdisciplinary collaborations across campus
• Mentor graduate students, junior faculty, and postdoctoral scholars
• Contribute to the development of large-scale, collaborative research initiatives

This is a research-intensive appointment with competitive salary and start-up support commensurate with qualifications and experience.

Requirements:

• Earned doctorate (Ph.D.) in Speech-Language Pathology, Communication Sciences and Disorders, or a closely related field
• Current tenure at the rank of Associate Professor or Full Professor, or qualifications commensurate with appointment at a tenured rank
• Established program of scholarship in bilingual language disorders
• Demonstrated record of peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals
• Evidence of sustained external research funding or strong record of competitive grant activity

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Active or recent federal funding (e.g., NIH, NIDCD, IES, NSF, HRSA)
• Experience leading multi-site or interdisciplinary research initiatives
• Demonstrated success securing major federal awards (e.g., R01 or equivalent)
• Experience directing research centers, training grants, or large-scale collaborative projects
• Record of scholarship addressing linguistically diverse or bilingual populations
• Commitment to community-engaged research and culturally responsive practices
• Experience mentoring postdoctoral scholars and supervising doctoral dissertations
• Eligibility for Texas state licensure in speech-language pathology

Additional Information:

In keeping with its access, excellence, and impact mission, The University of Texas at El Paso is committed to an open, diverse, and inclusive learning and working environment that honors the talents, respects the differences, and nurtures the growth and development of all. We seek to attract faculty and staff who share our commitment.

The University of Texas at El Paso is an Equal Opportunity Employer. The University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, or sexual orientation and gender in employment or the provision of services in accordance with state and federal law. Discrimination on the basis of sex includes an employee’s or prospective employee’s right to be free from sexual harassment under Title IX of the Higher Education Amendments of 1972. Inquiries-including the filing of a Formal Complaint or reporting an incident-about the application of Title IX may be referred to the Title IX Coordinator, who can be reached by phone at (915) 747-8358, by email at [email protected], or by mail at 500 W. University Ave., El Paso, TX, Kelly Hall, Room 312.

For accommodation information for employees and applicants with disabilities, please contact UTEP’s Equal Opportunity Office at [email protected].

To the extent that this position involves research, work, or access to critical infrastructure as referenced in Executive Order GA-48, being hired for and continuing to be employed in this position requires the ability to maintain the security or integrity of the infrastructure.

How to apply

Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled.

Applicants must submit the following materials:

1. A letter of interest that addresses qualifications for the position, research agenda, and alignment with bilingual language disorders
2. A current curriculum vitae
3. Contact information for at least three professional references (references will not be contacted without prior notice to the candidate)

For inquiries regarding the position, please contact:
Dr. Vannesa Mueller
Search Committee Chair
Email: [email protected]