Sonia Nieto is professor emerita of language, literacy, and culture at the College of Education, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is the bestselling author of The Light in Their Eyes, 10th Anniversary Edition, Why We Teach, and What Keeps Teachers Going? She is the recipient of the 2019 LRA Distinguished Scholar Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2021 Mass Humanities Governor's Award. She received the 2024 Multistate Association for Bilingual Education (MABE) Lifetime Service Award. In 2024, she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.