Lorena Orozco Mcelwain

Graduate Teaching Assistant

Sociology: multilingual data collection, second language acquisition, children's political socialization, change management, performance management, crisis communications, civil rights and inequities

I am a first-gen college graduate on both sides of my family. I have a BA and MA from the University of Texas at El Paso, where I focused on political socialization. I retired from the U.S. Government after 26 years of service. During my tenure, I served in career and political appointments at the senior executive level focusing on business operations, strategic planning, performance management, civil rights, and multilingual learners. One of my proudest accomplishments is defining and measuring translation as a source of non-sampling error while a Census Bureau Statistician in 2003. I am currently pursuing a PhD in Sociology to expand on my work in multilingual data collection methods. In my spare time, I find excuses to practice my five languages; I remain an active alumna with Kappa Delta Chi Sorority; I teach Pilates; and I train my labradoodle service dog Maximo (“Max”). I am thrilled to support the Mason Core curriculum as a COMM 101 Instructor and contribute to student academic success. Connect with me! wwww.linked.com/in/Lorena-Orozco-McElwain

Current Research

Multilingual Data Collection Methods to Ensure Functional Equivalency in Questionnaire Translations

Selected Publications

Carrasco, Lorena O. (2003). The American Community Survey en Espanol: Using Cognitive Interviews to Pre-Test the Functional Equivalence of Questionnaire Translations. US Census Bureau. https://www.census.gov/library/working-papers/2003/adrm/ssm2003-17.html

McElwain, Lorena (2020). A Life and Love of Languages. Language Magazine. https://languagemagazine.com/2020/07/24/a-life-and-love-of-languages/

Courses Taught

George Mason University: COMM 101

The University of Texas at El Paso: Intro to Political Science in English and Spanish

Education

The University of Texas at El Paso: BA 1995; MA 1998

Georgetown University: Certificate in International Affairs 1995

George Washington University: Certificate in Project Management 2003

American University: Key Executive Leadership Program 2008