First Year Spanish Program Coordinator
Office: Moore Hall 431 | Phone: (808) 956-4197
Email: galante@hawaii.edu
Originally from Florida, Kim has lived in Hawai‘i for over 25 years. Before permanently settling in Hawai‘i, Kim lived in New York City, where she taught Spanish at New York University. She also lived in Barcelona, Spain, where she completed a postgraduate diploma in: Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language. At the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, Kim has been the First Year Spanish Program Coordinator since 2025. She has taught first, second and third year language classes, as well as intermediate grammar and composition and conversation. Kim enjoys working with students and creating a dynamic and communicative environment, where everyone feels motivated to take chances with the language and develop their skills naturally.
Her main areas of interest are second language teaching and language acquisition. She is a passionate advocate for the study abroad experience and the benefits of language immersion and has led four groups from UH Mānoa on Spanish immersion programs abroad.
In addition to teaching, Kim has served on the UH Foundations Board for 3 years. In 2022 she created the LLEA PoCo Talks series, a forum for colleagues to share creative tips, ideas and resources that are immediately useful in the L2 classroom.
Her primary goal is to continue learning and growing as a language instructor. Kim participates in a variety of professional associations and professional development endeavors each year. She is a lifetime member of the Hawai‘i Association of Language Teachers (HALT) and was honored to receive the HALT award for Excellence in Teaching in 2013. She is also a member of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish & Portuguese (AATPS) and was awarded a travel stipend in 2023, to attend the annual conference in Salamanca, Spain.
For more information please see: LLEA – Kim Galante-Wong