Gabriel T. Acevedo Velázquez
has been a dancer, actor, podcaster, film critic, researcher, academic, and educator for over ten years. He holds degrees from the University of Puerto Rico and The Pennsylvania State University. He has taught every grade from kindergarten to college-level courses. He currently resides in Arizona, where he is an Assistant Professor of English Education at Arizona State University. He holds his identities as a Puerto Rican, born and raised, and a gay man close to his heart. This allows him to view the world through such prisms and allows those lenses to elevate his work in order to bring those experiences to the forefront. Engaging with literature, pop culture, teaching methods, queer, and Latinx identities, he wishes to close gaps within critical pedagogy.
Ahmad A. Alharthi
is a Ph.D. candidate in English Language and Rhetoric at the University of Washington, Seattle, where he taught mainstream and multilingual sections of first-year composition courses and worked as a writing tutor at the Odegaard Writing and Research Center. He is also affiliated with King Saud University in Saudi Arabia. He holds M.A. degrees in English Linguistics and in TESOL from University College London in the UK and the University of Washington in the US, respectively. His research interests include critical applied linguistics, composition studies (with a focus on second language writing), and the implications of the global spread of English.
Afiya Armstrong
is a wife and mother, and has served as a dedicated Early Childhood Educator and Leader for nearly 25 years. Her research focus and projects center on improving the quality, access, impact, and equity of education, especially for young learners. In her career, she has served as an educational consultant, founding PreK director, university associate faculty member, and clinical supervisor, observing and recommending aspiring teachers for licensure. As a former learning coach and co-owner of a tutoring company, she enjoyed partnering with teachers, administrators, and families to build and support a strong educational foundation for all students. She is currently an Early Learning Coach Manager for the City of Seattle, Department of Education and Early Learning (DEEL).
is a father, partner, educator, and bricoleur. He is an assistant professor of teacher education at Colorado Mesa University in the Center for Teacher Education. He loves his family and the time they have together.
Caitlin Beare
is a clarinetist, educator, collaborator, and creator. She holds degrees from Shenandoah University, Manhattan School of Music, and the University of Washington, Seattle, with additional studies at Bard College. She has won prizes for solo and chamber music performances and has held fellowship positions at music festivals in the United States, Canada, and Switzerland. Her creative and research interests include interdisciplinary performance projects, contemporary clarinet pedagogy, and the role of the writing center and writing communities in the doctoral student experience. She currently resides in South Texas, where she is Assistant Professor of Clarinet at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi.
Rebecca Borowski
has two decades of experience in mathematics education. She taught kindergarten, first grade, and fifth grade in North Carolina, where she also worked as a mathematics coach. She now works at Western Washington University and is dedicated to helping preservice teachers find joy in mathematics while also developing their content and pedagogical knowledge. She also conducts professional development for parents and practicing teachers. Rebecca’s research investigates students’ quantitative reasoning, particularly with linear representations such as number lines, and she is beginning to investigate the impact of self-based methodologies on her development as a teacher educator. When she is not working, Rebecca enjoys listening to the music of BTS and spending time with her 10-year-old daughter.
Anya Ezhevskaya
works as a translator and interpreter for NASA’s Space Station Program. She also enjoys the life of a scholar of world arts as she studies creativity, Slavic bardic song, and the interrelationship between worship and the arts in ethnodoxology. When not interpreting at the Johnson Space Center or pursuing her academic interests, Anya cherishes time spent with family exploring the outdoors, traveling to off-the-beaten-path locations, climbing walls, foraging for mushrooms, and painting murals. She also enjoys puttering around in the garden, writing and performing spoken word poetry, and adventuring together with friends.
is a fourth-year Ph.D. candidate studying STEM Education in the School of Education at Drexel University. Chris started his career as a process engineer and then transitioned to teaching as a Noyce Scholar. During his time as a teacher, he was a math, science, and STEAM teacher. His last position was at The Shipley School, where he was tasked with starting the STEAM department, creating STEAM courses, and designing and managing the school’s MakerSpace. Before becoming a teacher, he worked as a process engineer for approximately three years. He holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Rutgers University and an M.Ed. in Secondary Math Education from Temple University. His research focuses on out-of-school time STEM programming, integrated STEM teaching, and self-efficacy of STEM instructors.
Melinda Harrison
is a first-generation Ph.D. graduate of the University of Alabama at Birmingham in Educational Studies in Diverse Populations. Her research focuses on post-secondary student transitions and non-traditional student experiences, with her dissertation investigating assets and challenges of diverse graduate students in a Master of Public Health program. Melinda’s love of teaching and learning began as a first-generation undergraduate at a large four-year public university. That love has taken her from teaching in a public high school to teaching in intensive English programs, community English programs, writing programs at large and regional public universities, and graduate education courses for pre-service and in-service English as a Second Language teachers. Along the way, she has learned more from her students than they’ve probably learned from her, and as a result, she has adopted a relational pedagogical model in the courses she teaches. (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6939-6870)
Linda Helmick
is a White, queer artist/researcher/teacher who works towards critical, self-reflective anti-racist feminist philosophies. She/her/hers engages in creative activity, in its most holistic form, with equity, wellness, and inclusion at the heart of these investigations. She grounds her work in the belief that creative expression is a basic human right that should be accessible to all and promotes creativity as a powerful force for change, healing, and transformation. Her areas of expertise include critical creative work with underserved populations and building art education/therapeutic arts wellness and self-care curricula to better serve those who have experienced trauma. Linda earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction, art education at Indiana University, and works as an assistant professor of art education in the Department of Learning, Teaching and Curriculum at the University of Missouri, Columbia.
is a Filipina-American mother, educator, and adventurer. She earned her B.A. in English and Master’s in Education at the University of Florida, became a high school English teacher for several years before serving in the U.S. Peace Corps in China, returned to teaching in the American classroom in Hawai’i and Ohio before receiving her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of South Florida. Currently, she is an instructor at Colorado Mesa University for the Center for Teacher Education. Morales continues her research on Narrative Inquiry and other Qualitative Research methodologies, counterstorytelling focused on immigrant perspectives, and Critical Race Consciousness and the English Education curriculum. She is also interested in cooking and eating exotic foods, wandering and wondering, and creating and exploring with her two beautiful children.
Luis Javier Pentón Herrera
is Full Professor at the Akademia Ekonomiczno-Humanistyczna w Warszawie, Poland, the Coordinator of the Graduate TESOL Certificate at The George Washington University, United States, and co-editor of Tapestry: A Multimedia Journal for Teachers and English Learners. In addition, he is a Fulbright Specialist and an English Language Specialist with the U.S. Department of State. Previously, he served as the 38th President of Maryland TESOL from 2018 to 2019, and earned the rank of Sergeant while serving in the United States Marine Corps (USMC). Two of his professional accolades include the ‘30 Up and Coming Emerging Leaders in TESOL’, awarded by TESOL International Association in 2016, and the J. Estill Alexander Future Leader in Literacy Award, awarded by the Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers (ALER) in 2018 when his dissertation was chosen as ALER’s 2018 Outstanding Dissertation of the Year. Dr. Pentón Herrera’s current research projects are situated at the intersection of identity, emotions, and well-being in language and literacy education, social-emotional learning (SEL), autoethnography and storytelling, and refugee education. His books have been published by Routledge, Springer, Brill | Sense, TESOL Press, and Rowman & Littlefield. Originally from La Habana, Cuba, Dr. Pentón Herrera enjoys creative writing, playing with his two doggies, Virgo and Maui, and running in his free time. To learn more about Dr. Pentón Herrera, please visit his website https://luispenton.com/
Olya Perevalova
is a conference interpreter and a language instructor for adult learners. She likes early mornings, running, and listening to people’s stories.
is a recovering academic who currently works at an art museum in Rockland, Maine. As a first-generation college student, she finds meaning and purpose in developing programming with students and teachers that seeks to make museum collections and spaces more equitable and accessible for rural, coastal, and island communities.
Kimberly Sterin
is a dedicated scholar-activist who interrogates the ways power operates in the politics of education with the intent to advance equity and justice in all its forms. She is racialized as white, of Jewish heritage, gendered as a woman, and able-bodied. While pursuing her Ph.D. in Education Policy and Leadership at Drexel University, Kimberly has worked with Dr. Ayana Allen-Handy in the Justice-Oriented Youth (JoY) Education Lab on multiple federally funded projects which employ democratized research methods rooted in critical theoretical frameworks. A teacher at heart, she has seven years of experience as a public school English teacher in both middle and high school settings. Sterin earned a Master’s degree in Secondary Education from Johns Hopkins University and holds Bachelor’s degrees in English Language & Literature and Spanish Language & Literature, as well as a minor in Creative Writing with a concentration in Poetry, from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Katrina Struloeff
is a White, queer, woman with experience as a K-12 urban educator and a background in non-profit operations, educational development, and communications. Prior to joining Drexel to pursue her Ph.D., Katrina spent seven years in the New Orleans public charter school landscape as a middle school and high school administrator. She has facilitated national training for organizations that serve youth and families in vulnerable positions; taught arts, STEM, and entrepreneurship to youth; engaged with community activism and social enterprise incubation; and led partnerships with numerous national and regional organizations for information-sharing and innovative, evidence-based programming. She earned a Master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University Heinz College in public policy, with a focus on nonprofit management. Her research interests focus on leadership and education policy, including equity gaps and representation for women and minoritized populations, civic education, policy design, and principles and practices of effective leaders in education.
Rebecca L. Thacker
has been teaching literature and composition for twenty years—in the Cincinnati Public Schools, at the University of Cincinnati, and now at The Ohio
Ethan Trinh
is a Vietnamese, queer, non-binary, immigrant, researcher, and critical language teacher educator and earned their doctorate at Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA. Their works focus on emotions and well-being in language education that embraces queerness as a healing teaching and research practice. Their articles can be found in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, LGBTQ Policy Journal, Journal of Homosexuality, Genealogy, TESOL Journal, Teaching and Teacher Education, The Qualitative Report, and other book chapters (Routledge, Brill, and Springer). Ethan is serving as an Associate Editor of GATESOL Journal. Also, they have published three co-edited volumes, entitled Critical Storytelling: Multilingual Immigrants in the United States (with Luis Javier Pentón Herrera, Brill | Sense, 2021), Teacher Well-Being in English Language Teaching: An Ecological Approach (with Luis Javier Pentón Herrera & Gilda Martínez-Alba, Routledge, 2023), and Doctoral Students’ Identities and Emotional Wellbeing in Applied Linguistics: Autoethnographic Accounts (with Bedrettin Yazan & Luis Javier Pentón Herrera, Routledge, 2023). Originally from Mekong Delta, Vietnam, Ethan enjoys creative writing and Vietnamese iced coffee and plays with their puppy Shiba in their free time. More info: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ethan-Trinh-3/research
Lisa D. Wood
is a first-generation college graduate who earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction—Curriculum Studies Specialization, and a minor in Art Education at Indiana University, Bloomington. As a licensed Early Childhood—Primary Educator, she has nine years of experience teaching children, and a combined thirteen years of experience in higher education. She has taught writing at a community college, taught and conducted research at a research-intensive university, taught graduate students online at a teachers’ college, and served as an Assistant and Associate Adjunct Faculty Professor in Curriculum and Instruction/Art Education. A published author, curriculum designer, and artist, her interests focus on expressive arts, play, creativity, and empowerment. Through her research, she emphasizes narrative and visual experiences, which draw from the orientations of qualitative and arts-based research approaches. She is currently the C.E.O. of an Emmy award-winning multimedia company.
is Associate Professor in the Department of Bicultural-Bilingual Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio. His research focuses on language teacher identity, language policy and planning, and World Englishes. Methodologically he is interested in critical autoethnography, narrative inquiry, and qualitative case study. His work has appeared in TESOL Quarterly, Language Teaching Research, RECALL, Linguistics and Education, Language and Intercultural Communication, and World Englishes among other journals. Amongst his recent edited volumes are Autoethnographies in ELT: Transnational Identities, Pedagogies, and Practices (with Suresh Canagarajah and Rashi Jain), Language Teacher Identity in TESOL: Teacher Education and Practice as Identity Work (with Kristen Lindahl), and The Complexity of Identity and Interaction in Language Education (with Nat Rudolph and Ali Fuad Selvi). He is currently serving as co-editor of TESOL Journal with Kristen Lindahl, associate editor of Journal of Second Language Teacher Education, and editor for Bloomsbury Academic book series called Critical Approaches and Innovations in Language Teacher Education.
Erin H. York
is concurrently enrolled in PhD and MFA programs where she is studying creative writing and education. Her areas of interest include arts-based representations of research, autoethnography, and queer studies. In 2017, she received her MEd with high honors from the University of South Carolina. Before that, she graduated magna cum laude with her BA in English from the University of Missouri–Kansas City in 2012. Her first book of poetry, The Light You Cannot Touch, won the international Author’s Circle—Poetry award in 2017.
Christel Young
is a wife and mother to seven children, three of which are bonus blessings. She is an active member of her community and church and can often be found supporting events to bring resources to marginalized populations. She is an assistant professor and Director of Using Information at East Tennessee State University (ETSU). Before transitioning to ETSU, she was a K-12 educator for 15 years. She has served as the co-President of the Black Faculty and Staff Association at ETSU as well as a member of the General Education Advisory Council and General Education Advisory Council Executive Committee for the university. Her research focuses on the multi-dimensional impact of housing insecurity on higher education student success and equitable education access among populations who are marginalized at the secondary and post-secondary levels.
is a mother, educator, and researcher in the field of Early Childhood Education (ECE). Since she first studied her major in South Korea two decades ago, she never stopped learning, teaching, and working with young children aged from birth to 8-year olds. After coming to the U.S. to pursue her degree in ECE at Indiana University, Bloomington (IUB), she has participated in various research projects as well as taught and supervised undergraduate students at IUB. Currently, she is working as a preschool teacher with 2-year olds at Dongshin Christian Preschool, which is a non-profit, play-based, and multicultural school located in Orange County, California. While working with young children, she is also supporting and teaching preservice teachers as an adjunct professor at California Baptist University. Her research focus has been primarily on the importance of ECE professionals’ well-being, beliefs, and practices that support social-emotional development in young children.