Dr. Lombeida received both his M.A. in Foreign Language Education and his Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from the University of Texas-Austin.  He speaks Spanish, French and Quechua.  Dr. Lombeida's areas of expertise are Spanish Phonetics, Andean Studies, Contemporary Spanish American Literature and Latin American Studies. 

His current research includes Juan Leon Mera's collection of oral poetry Cantares del pueblo ecuatoriano, a 1989 anthology of Colonial Spanish, and bilingual Spanish/Quechua songs and poems.