Debbie Mounts, EdD, came to Mexico in 1988 as a Senior Fulbright Lecturer at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. She worked for 10 years in the California Migrant Education Program where the Bi-National Migrant Student Project was begun as a result of her cross-cultural research. Since relocating to Mexico, Debbie has owned and operated a 5-star hotel in San Miguel de Allende and founded Vistas Intercultural Institute, a Spanish language school sponsored by California State University, Hayward Extension.

For the past 10 years Debbie has worked with Academic Tours in Oaxaca in organizing group tours throughout Mexico. Recently however, Debbie has become enamored with watercolor and has shifted her focus to sponsoring weeklong watercolor workshops. These workshops take advantage of the region’s colonial heritage and the flora and fauna to provide a unique painting experience. These workshops are under the tutelage of watercolor artists, who are both local and internationally recognized.