Dr. Marie Heath

Dr. Marie Heath brings over 30 years of experience in education, having held a variety of influential roles including ESL teacher, department head, compliance facilitator, specialist, curriculum writer, and adjunct professor. Prior to joining Seidlitz Education full-time, she served as the curriculum coordinator for a North Texas school district with over 12,000 multilingual learners. Dr. Heath has deep expertise in working with students from diverse backgrounds, particularly focusing on first-year emergent bilinguals. Her work has been featured in The Middle Level Leader with the article “Successful Middle School Newcomer Programs,” and in ProQuest with her research titled “Texas High School (Im)migrants Negotiation Acculturation: Measuring Bicultural Identity Integration in a New Cultural Context.”

Dr. Heath holds a Master’s degree in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of North Texas and a Doctorate from Texas A&M Commerce, where her research focused on acculturation among immigrant adolescents and the factors that contribute to successful bilingual and bicultural integration. In 2022, the state of Texas adopted the Multilingual Acculturation Studies course she designed, which provides newcomer high school students with the opportunity to earn graduation credit while receiving social, cultural, and linguistic support.

As the child of an immigrant, Dr. Heath personally experienced the challenges of balancing two cultures and has dedicated her career to helping others navigate the complexities of multicultural identity. She lives in North Texas with her husband, and enjoys spending time with her seven children and six grandchildren.