Welcome to PLAN

Melissa Bullard has been teaching Spanish since 2007 at both the university and high school levels. She loves teaching high school because of the opportunities to build relationships with students and watch them grow their language abilities over the duration of a program. She is passionate about proficiency-based language teaching, heritage language programs, and driving student growth through departmental collaboration. Melissa served as the Nevada representative for the Leadership Initiative for Language Learning (LILL) for two years and has presented at national, state, regional, and local conferences. In 2019, she also co-authored an article that was published in ACTFL’s The Language Educator. She lives in Reno with her husband and two daughters.  

Those within her realm of influence shared how they have been impacted by Mrs. Bullard in their professional and personal lives:

 “Through both her direct instruction and the countless opportunities I’ve had to observe her in action, I’ve gained the most profound insights into what constitutes truly effective world language teaching.”—N.L.N., Colleague

“There are great teachers, and there are the ones who leave a mark that never fades. Mrs. Bullard is the latter. She doesn’t just teach Spanish—she teaches each individual student to be bold, to be proud, and to believe in their own voice. . . We didn’t just speak Spanish in her class; we learned to own it. Own the fact that the language we spoke on a daily basis wasn’t just a normality; it was part of unraveling our identities.” –A.M., Student

The Professional Language Association of Nevada is honored to have Mrs. Bullard representing the Silver State as the 2026 Nevada World Language Teacher of the Year!