Natalie Operstein

Dr. Operstein holds a PhD in Indo-European Studies from UCLA and is an internationally known expert in several areas of linguistics, including historical linguistics, phonology, language contact, and Mesoamerican linguistics. She is the author of a research monograph Consonant Structure and Prevocalization, which presents her discovery of the new phonologocal phenomenon of consonant prevocalization and theory of consonant structure, supported with data from more than 150 languages and dialects. Dr. Operstein is co-founder and co-organizer of the International Conference on Mesoamerican Linguistics and co-editor of collective monographs on Mesoamerican linguistics and language contact. She has been teaching at UNEX since 2006, building the UNEX online offerings in linguistics and giving about 40 online linguistics courses. Her teaching has been highly praised by students and colleagues. In 2006, she was profiled by Helga Sitkin in the radio talk show "Men and Women of the World".