Garcia served as the coordinator of the graduate program in Multicultural Special Education and taught undergraduate and graduate courses related to the education of students with disabilities from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Garcia's research and teaching interests included educational reforms related to language minority students, intercultural communciation skills for educators, instructional planning for language minority students with disabilities, disproportionately large representation of language minority students in special education and personnel preparation. She is a past president of the Council for Exceptional Children's Division for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Exceptional Learners, and served as an associate editor for the division's annual publication, "Multiple Voices."