Carla Jano Defez moved from Spain to Texas in 1999 to work as a bilingual teacher with the "Profesores Visitantes Program" sponsored by the Ministry Education and Science of Spain and TEA. She worked 15 years as a Kn-4th bilingual grade teacher in a Title 1 school in the Southeast area of Houston.

Carla is a Multilingual leader with 25 years of experience in Bilingual education, ESL and Dual Language. She started her career as a bilingual second grade teacher in Houston ISD, she was promoted to Curriculum specialist in 2014, and worked in this capacity until 2016 when she moved to Pasadena ISD as a Multilingual Instructional Specialist (KN-4th)

She designs curriculum for bilingual education, English as a second language, and Dual Language. She also facilitates numerous professional developments in both languages, and coaches bilingual-dual educators and collaborates with multiple stakeholders. In addition to that, she has presented in NABE, TABE, La Cosecha, and in the Bilingual Conference for Region 4 in Houston in numerous years.

Her educational background includes a dual master’s degree in English and Italian language and literature from Universidad de Valencia, Spain and a MA in International Relations from Universidad Católica de Avila, Spain.

Mrs. Jano is passionate about education, foreign languages, and fashion design. Her favorite author is Maria Dueñas and she is an enthusiast of all kinds of audiobooks and podcasts about pedagogy and history. She serves as a Recording Secretary at Houston Area Association of Bilingual Education (HAABE), and she is also a volunteer in SPCA.