The institute was founded by Mark Matthews, B.A., M.A. in 2002 to serve the needs of professionals in Matamoros and Brownsville, drawing on his more than 30 years of experience in teaching, facilitating cross cultural communication and business. Mr. Matthews has also had training in translation and simultaneous interpretation. While his native language is English, he speaks Spanish and French.

His resume shows a variety of experiences which enable him to provide quality education. In 1979, he received a scholarship for the summer program of Bryn Mawr College in Madrid, Spain (El Centro de Estudios Académicos). He received his Bachelors Degree from the University of Missouri at Kansas City with teacher certification. In 1993 he received a Masters Degree from the Washington Theological Union in Washington, D.C.

He has also taken courses at the Princeton Theological Union, the University of Georgia, the University of Texas-Brownsville and an intensive course in interpretation from the Agnese Haury Institute for Interpretation at the University of Arizona-Tucson.

He enjoys traveling and has visited several countries where he has studied language and culture: France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Turkey. He lived for 2 years in the south of Mexico and has traveled in almost every state of Mexico.

Over the past 20 years, Mr. Matthews has collaborated closely with the Matamoros Maquiladora Association. He has translated and/or interpreted for various programs including the Texas DOT workshop, DELPHI and the Matamoros EXPO, as well as visiting dignataries of the Mexican government.