Our Team

Nancy Stern is a Professor in the Programs in Bilingual Education & TESOL at The City College of New York and in the Linguistics Program at the CUNY Graduate Center. She holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the Graduate Center,...

and has published in the fields of theoretical linguistics, teacher education, and bilingualism (including 'On So-Called Spanglish,' 2011, with Ricardo Otheguy). A former department chair and former director of the Programs in Bilingual Education & TESOL, she is currently the PI of B-SEAL, a five-year National Professional Development Project funded by the US Department of Education, and is a Co-PI in CUNY-IIE with responsibility for administration and finance. In addition, Nancy serves as the president of the Columbia School Linguistic Society, and on the Academic Council of American Friends of Combatants for Peace.

Daniela Alulema is the Project Director for the CUNY Initiative on Immigration and Education. She previously served as director of programs at the Center for Migration Studies for nearly eight years, where she managed community-based research projects on the implementation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, on statelessness in the United States...

and on the impact of deportation on US families and communities. She has also authored reports on the impact of DACA and the critical role educators play in the lives of immigrant youth. Daniela received her Master of Science degree in Urban Policy Analysis and Management at The New School and a bachelor's degree in Accounting from Baruch College, CUNY. Originally from Quito, Ecuador, Daniela brings her journey as an undocumented immigrant, passion, and belief in human-centered policymaking and research into her work.

Aminata Diop, Ph.D. is the Chief of Staff and Director of Administrative Services at Mount Sinai's Icahn School of Medicine. She holds a Ph.D. in Urban Education at the CUNY Graduate Center. Her research addresses the intersectionality...

between culture, language, and social identity of immigrant youth while making visible a group that is often ignored and/or overlooked in school discourse, policies, and education research. Her dissertation focused on immigrant students from African descent, transnational mothering, and integration experiences of transnationalized children to illuminate how the increase of the immigrant population in the U.S. complicates dominant ideologies of nationalism and mainstream perceptions of normal family structures.

Dr. Maite T. Sánchez is an Assistant Professor of Bilingual Education at Hunter College, CUNY. She is an Advisor for CUNY-IIE. Maite holds a Ph.D. in education from Boston College, a M.Ed. in education from...

Northeastern University, and a B.A in psychology from Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (Lima, Peru), from where she immigrated from. Maite has worked closely with teachers, school administrators and state-level officials to create professional development opportunities, materials, and research studies to better understand the dynamic bi/multlingual trajectories of language minoritized students and to create educational opportunities that support these students. Her research focuses on language education policies and practices, translanguaging pedagogy, and supporting novice bilingual education teachers entering the profession. Further information can be found on her website: www.maitesanchez.org.

Ariana Mangual Figueroa is an Associate Professor in the Ph.D. Programs in Urban Education and Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Cultures at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She is an educational anthropologist who...

explores the ways in which the everyday lives of children and adults who belong to mixed-status families and communities are shaped by their legal and cultural citizenship. Her work has appeared in journals including Educational Researcher, American Educational Research Journal, and Anthropology & Education Quarterly.

Tamara (Tammy) Alsace, PhD is retired from the Buffalo Public Schools, where she held various positions during her 32+ year career, including as a bilingual elementary and special education teacher,...

professional development specialist, and as Director of Multilingual Education. In that role, she directed the bilingual, ESOL, & world languages programs. Since retiring, she has worked as a consultant for the Regional Bilingual Ed Resource Network (RBE-RN), the Council of the Great City Schools, and the American Reading Company. Dr. Alsace also serves on several non-profit boards and is active in professional & community organizations in Buffalo and at the state and national levels. A tireless advocate for the educational rights of multilingual/immigrant students and their families, she is a past president of the NYS Association for Bilingual Education (NYSABE) and part of the current leadership team of NY Advocates for Fair/Inclusive Resources for Multilingual Learners (NY-AFFIRMS).

Cecilia M. Espinosa, Ph.D. was born in Ecuador, South America. She is currently a Professor in the Department of Early Childhood/Childhood Education (ECCE) at Lehman College, CUNY. She received her PhD from Arizona State University.

Cecilia started her education career as a teacher assistant, later on was as a bilingual multiage teacher and director of a dual language program in Phoenix, Arizona. Currently, she teaches courses on biliteracy, observation and assessment, English as a new language. She is also the Professional Development Liaison at Samara Dual Language School. Cecilia is a member of the New York City Writing Project (NYCWP), the CUNY New York State Initiative Emergent Bilinguals (NYSIEB) and City University of New York, the Initiative on Immigration and Education (CUNY-IIE) PD Team. Cecilia lead with Dr. Patricia Velasco the NY State Department of Education Project on Practices with Multilingual Learners and the Next Generation Learning Standards (NGLS).

Ivana Espinet is an Associate Professor at Kingsborough Community College, CUNY. She holds a Ph.D. in Urban Education from the CUNY Graduate Center and an M.A. in Instructional Technology and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University.

She is originally from Argentina and her journey as an immigrant and mother of three bilingual children has shaped her research interests on the use of multimodal and collaborative methodologies to learn about the experiences of emergent bilinguals and their families in schools, as well as language education policies and practices.

Ashley Busone Rodriguez is a third grade teacher in an integrated co-teaching classroom at Dos Puentes Elementary School, a dual language school in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. She holds an M.A. in...

Bilingual Education from The City College of New York. Prior to teaching third grade, Ashley taught English for Speakers of Other Languages for adults and teenagers in Harlem, Boston, Santiago de Chile, and Morogoro, Tanzania. Ashley has co-authored articles and curricula related to translanguaging, immigration, popular education and indigenous language education.

Kellie Griffith Tanaka is a bilingual dual language teacher in Jackson Heights, Queens. She is thrilled to be part of the CUNY-IIE team as a Project Researcher. Kellie’s philosophy of education centers the voices of her young...

immigrant-origin students through translanguaging and culturally responsive teaching practices. After spending a year in Loja, Ecuador, as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant, Kellie completed her master’s degree in Bilingual Education at CCNY, where she currently teaches graduate courses as an adjunct lecturer. After almost a decade of teaching in New York City Public Schools, Kellie was featured in CUNY-IIE’s Not Too Young video series.

Brian Avila Klein (formerly Aguilar Avila) is a proud two-time CUNY alumnus who is an Urban Education PhD student at the Graduate Center, CUNY. He also is an Administrative Specialist/PhD Program Administrator in the Biomedical Engineering Department...

at The City College of New York (CCNY). He holds a B.E. in Biomedical Engineering from CCNY and recently earned an M.S.Ed. in Higher Education Administration with a focus on Institutional Research from Baruch College. He will serve as a data analyst at CUNY-IIE, where he will hone-in his engineering and institutional research skills from his prior studies, to assist in the collection and analysis of survey data from partner schools.

Rachel Duff is an educator, organizer, and current PhD student in Urban Education at the Graduate Center, CUNY. She is from the Deep South and Puerto Rico, two integral parts of her positionality. She is a former educator of English...

for emergent multilingual students and has worked in education policy and research in both Washington, DC and Jacksonville, FL. Her research interests include understanding how early career educators develop critical consciousness and subsequently how critically conscious teachers impact student belonging and family engagement for newcomer and/or undocumented youth. Rachel obtained her bachelor’s in English Education at the University of North Florida and master’s in Educational Transformation at Georgetown University. She has organized in Northeast Florida with a Black-led grassroots organization fighting for self-determination and freedom.

Emilia Fiallo is an experienced educator specializing in English Language Arts and Bilingual Education. With over a decade of service in NYC public high schools, she has developed culturally responsive and inclusive curricula that celebrate the needs of multilingual and multicultural students.

She holds a Master of Arts in Bilingual & Bicultural Education with a Bilingual Extension from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a Bachelor of Arts in English Secondary Education from Hunter College. As a tenured high school teacher, Emilia spent five years exclusively supporting newly arrived immigrant students in the NYC Department of Education, focusing on their social-emotional development to help them achieve academic success. Her work is shaped by her personal experience as a formerly undocumented youth from ages 9 to 29 in NYC. She believes that educators have tremendous power and influence over students' lives, and this power must be wielded responsibly to benefit all school community members.

Rosa Angela Calosso (she/her/hers) is a Queens native, born to Dominican and Salvadoran immigrants. She previously served as an academic consultant for first and second-year college students.

As well as curated and managed social media content for a social justice center. Her research focuses on Black Dominicanidad, gendered racism and digital feminism. Rosa enjoys spending time with her chosen family, brunches, art galleries, true-crime YouTube videos, and working on DIY projects.

Isamar Jimenez-Vazquez is an educator and scholar pursuing a degree in Bilingual Childhood Education. Born in Puebla, Mexico and raised in New York City, Isamar has been an advocate for undocumented students like herself for many years.

Isamar has over 10 years experience in the public school system in New York City, gaining invaluable and extensive experience on the many facets of our educational system. Isamar is passionate about bringing awareness and creating solutions to support educators regardless of immigration status, in the hope of creating greater access to a fair and just education for all. In her role at Undocu- Edu she is committed to uplifting the experiences of undocumented students and educators, by highlighting the positive impact and vital role we have in our communities.

Sunisa considers herself part of the 1.5 generation of immigrants who were resettled in the U.S. following the Vietnam War. Born in a refugee camp in Thailand to Lao parents, she and her family were resettled in upstate New York...

just after she turned one. Having graduated from New York State public schools, she also lived, attended university, and worked in northern California before returning to the east coast and transitioning to a career as a public school teacher. Sunisa currently teaches 11th and 12th grade English Language Arts at The International High School at Prospect Heights in Brooklyn, a place she considers home as she enters her ninth year at the school. Her interest in language, particularly translanguaging and home languages, has led her to the Graduate Center at CUNY, where she hopes to contribute years of progressive, critical, and transformative educational experiences to the project. In her free time, she enjoys many forms of health and happiness.

Lesly Jimenez-Vazquez is the social media manager for the CUNY-Initiative on Immigration and Education as well as Paralegal for NYC where she focuses on supporting the new migrants various legal services. She is an artist, organizer, and all-around creative mind. After spending years in corporate retail, she now focuses on... creating spaces for Fat BIPOC women and provides her social media skills to different non-profit organizations. Lesly is one of the founders of the NYC-based Fat Femme Collective. Born in Puebla, Mexico, Lesly migrated to New York when she was 5 years old. She hopes her journey as an immigrant and her passion for creation shines through in her work and helps to lift up the voices of BIPOC immigrants like herself.

Leza Rawlins provides administrative support to CUNY-IIE. She has a background in finance and health care, and previously worked at various financial institutions, and most recently at Mount Sinai Health System. Leza has volunteered...

as a member of the Mount Sinai Health System Sexual Assault and Violence Intervention (SAVI) Program. With an interest in medicine, Leza will soon be resuming part-time pre-clinical studies in nursing.

Adeyinka M. Akinsulure-Smith, Ph.D., ABPP, is a licensed psychologist and a tenured Professor in the Department of Psychology at the City College of New York, the City University of New York (CUNY) and at the Graduate Center, CUNY.

Dr. Akinsulure-Smith has cared for forced migrants, including survivors of torture, armed conflict, and human rights abuses from around the world at the Bellevue Program for Survivors of Torture since 1999. In addition to her teaching and clinical work, Dr. Akinsulure-Smith is the recipient of several grants and Fellowships. She has written extensively about service provision to and mental health challenges facing forced migrants. Visit my website.

Brian Mercado is a doctoral student in the Sociology program at the Graduate Center, CUNY. Brian is the son of immigrants from Mexico, and was born and raised in Southern California. His current research seeks to analyze the processes by...

which immigration surveillance and enforcement, a manifestation of the criminalization of youth, occur within schools. He is the coordinator of the CUNY Pipeline Fellowship Program, a CUNY-wide initiative designed to provide support to undergraduates from groups underrepresented in academia who are interested in pursuing a PhD. Brian has taught as an adjunct faculty member in the Sociology Department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY.

Chaewon (Jessica) Park immigrated from Yongin, South Korea to New York at the age of eleven. She is a first year law student at Rutgers Law School in Newark. Jessica was able to understand the power of solidarity...

through advocacy work and community organizing that she started getting involved in after high school through NYSYLC and MinKwon Center for Community Action. She hopes to empower herself and the community members through her work.

Farah Said immigrated to the United States from Cairo, Egypt at the age of 15 in 2008. She graduated high school with the highest honors in 2011. After being accepted into the Education Program at CCNY, and after finishing all credits for...

her Childhood Education major and taking all courses for her elementary mathematics concentration, she was harshly confronted that without qualifying for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival program, known as DACA, president Obama enacted in 2012, she was barred from student teaching and thereby completing her degree. And the reason she does not qualify for DACA is because she had arrived to the United States a year later than the required date, which is June 15, 2007. She switched gears on her dreams and she graduated with an Interdisciplinary Studies of Arts and Science major, concentrating in Literary, Media and Arts from the Center for Worker Education at CCNY in 2018. She successfully obtained her M.A. certification in Bilingual Education from CCNY in June 2023 after the NYSED had released a new guidance allowing undocumented students enrolled in education programs to do fieldwork, take State certification exams, and/or student teach in certain schools in New York State. She is now working as a 4th grade classroom teacher at a private school.

First and foremost, Jenna is an educator. She began working at Sunset Park High School in Brooklyn as an ENL teacher in 2013, where she has co-taught in all subject areas. She is also the ENL Department Chair and spends time after school...

facilitating the school’s Dream Team, a club for undocumented students and their allies. She also advocates for immigrant rights in NYC schools with the Teach Dream team at the New York State Youth Leadership Council, the first undocumented, youth led organization in New York. In the fall of 2020, she will begin the PhD program in Urban Education at the Graduate Center at CUNY. When she is not teaching or doing advocacy work, she enjoys reading, running (sometimes), and staying busy with friends in Brooklyn.

Isabel is currently entering her third year of law school at CUNY School fo Law. She is currently enrolled in the part-time program and is expecting to graduate in 2022 as a Juris Doctor. She was born in Mexico and came to the United States...

at the age of 6. She grew up in a small town in North Carolina and later moved to New York in 2008. In 2012, Isabel co-founded the CCNY Dream Team and served as Vice-President in 2014. She then graduated from The City College of New York in 2016 with a bachelor's degree in Political Science and Jewish Studies. Currently, she is working as a paralegal for an immigration attorney. She hopes to one day become a lawyer and continue her passion in advocating for immigrant rights for the immigrant community.

Laura Pamplona is a High School ENL teacher who was born in Colombia and was raised in Queens. She obtained her associates degree in photography from Queensborough Community College and was later inspired to become a teacher...

through her work at the Queens Public Library. She obtained her bachelors from Queens College in Linguistics TESOL and went back to teach at the high school she graduated from as an ELL student. She is currently the advisor for her school’s ASPIRA club where she encourages latinx students to develop leadership skills through community work. In her free time Laura enjoys reading lots of books, listening to Metallica and playing with her dog and cat.

Noelle Mapes is a doctoral student at the CUNY Graduate Center in Urban Education. She is a former third grade teacher who appreciated learning alongside hilarious, creative kids...

who like to ask big questions and think critically about power structures. She is currently a lecturer at Brooklyn College and NYU Steinhardt. Her research interests are centered around teacher unionism, districting policies in NYC, and the history of education.

Roxana graduated from CCNY where she double majored in psychology and political science. She was also the President of the CCNY Dream Team during her time there, an undocumented student led space.

She also participated in the Beyond Identity Program which trains women of color and queer folks to do identity-driven research that allows them to draw on their own lived experiences of discrimination and violence. Her research work explored the complexities faced by undocumented women who struggle with mental health. This research received the 2020 Ringgold-Rich award. She is an active member at the NYSYLC, an undocumented youth organization, where she volunteers her time and expertise to support undocumented youth. More recently, she researched and created a chronological archive of undocumented youth organizing for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. In her current role as researcher for CUNY-IIE’s UndocuEdu team she draws on her knowledge as an undocumented woman to center narratives often excluded. On her free time she takes any opportunity she can to be outdoors and play with her dog.

Andrea Nikté Juarez Mendoza is an NYC based Guatemalan scholar-activist, artist, and organizer from San Francisco California, whose work centers on community-driven change. She holds degrees in Psychology and Ethnic Studies from...

Mills College. Her work is rooted in decolonial and participatory praxis, centering community needs and desires in research as justice work. She uses arts-based and healing-centered methods as pedagogical and research tools through an approach she calls collective testimonio-art. Andrea’s current research broadly looks at immigration, family separation, dehumanization, decoloniality, social movements, and scholar/activism. She has worked as a translator in detention centers with the Feerick Center for Social Justice; accompanying families and individuals to court; and as an organizer and graduate researcher with the APA, CUNY, and the Public Science Project on local, state-wide, and national projects documenting and archiving immigration experiences.

Bridgit is an education consultant specializing in support for bilingual and ENL education for immigrant students. Bridgit is a recently retired (2008-2019) founding principal of Pan American International High School at Monroe in...

the New York City Department Of Education (NYCDOE). She was a teacher for multilingual students in the NYCDOE and profesora-investigadora en la Universidad de Quintana Roo, México.

Cynthia Nayeli Carvajal, Ph.D. is the Project Director for the CUNY Initiative on Immigration and Education. Originally from Zapopan, Mexico, she immigrated to East Los Angeles, CA at the age of five. Her personal and professional goals are grounded...

in her experience as a formerly undocumented immigrant, student, and community member for twelve years of her life. Prior to this position Cynthia was the inaugural manager for the Immigrant Student Success Center at John Jay College, the first of its kind in New York State. Cynthia’s academic and professional expertise centers the roles of educators in creating support systems for undocumented and immigrant students in their schools. Her field work spans across California, New York, and Arizona, providing a comparative understanding on the impact of policy and practice in politically varying states. She currently serves as a board member for the New York State Youth Leadership Council.

Gliset Colón, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor with the Exceptional Education Department at SUNY Buffalo State. She is also the Coordinator for the Teaching Bilingual Exceptional Individuals Graduate Certificate Program. Dr. Colón has...

research interests and expertise in literacy and language outcomes for multilingual students with and without disabilities, multi-tiered systems of support, disproportionality, and intersectionality. Dr. Colón is actively involved in several professional organizations at the local, state, and national levels.

Joanna Beltrán Girón is a queer and proud immigrant from a working-class Salvadoran immigrant household. She is an activist, poet, educator, Reiki practitioner, dancer, una Centroaméricana bien cachimbona, and a researcher.

She is pursuing a PhD in the Critical Social/Personality Psychology program at the Graduate Center. She holds a MA in Latin American Studies from UT Austin and a BA in Psychology from UC Santa Cruz. Her research focuses on state violence and transgenerational healing, resistance, and trauma among diasporic Salvadorans.

Kahdeidra Monét Martin is a doctoral candidate in Urban Education at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She is interested in culturally relevant and universally designed English teacher education, critical pedagogy, and...

multimodal approaches to cultivate racial literacy among teachers and students. Kahdeidra’s scholarship uses qualitative research methods to understand the heteroglossic languaging practices of youth and their significance to identity and belonging in various communities of practice. She holds a BA in African and African American Studies with a minor in Linguistics from Stanford University and an MSEd in Teaching Urban Adolescents with Disabilities from Long Island University.

Lorena is an undergraduate student at City College of New York working on her BA in Political Science. She has organized as part of the CCNY Dream Team advocating for resources for undocumented students on campus.

She is a current New York Dream Act Education Fellow at the New York State Youth Leadership Council. Her mission is to create space for undocumented individuals to feel comfortable in any environment.

Orubba Almansouri is a doctoral candidate in Urban Education at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. She is also an education coordinator at the Brooklyn International High School for immigrant youth.

As a scholar and educator Orubba aims to push forward the importance of multicultural and translingual education in transforming academia into an environment where immigrant students are able to connect and thrive in the world that revolves around them. She is eager to develop educational programs that provide immigrant students—especially women immigrants—with the means to achieve their potential.

Tashi is a queer Peruvian immigrant who grew up in Stamford, CT and currently resides in the Bronx. She serves as the Social Media Manager for CUNY-IIE, creates multi-disciplinary art, is the co-founder and director of A Nurturing Village,...

and helped found the CT UndocuFund. She received an A.S. in Early Childhood Education and Graphic Design from Norwalk Community College, a B.S. in Early Childhood, and a M.S. in TESOL: Bilingual Education and Multicultural Studies from Southern Connecticut State University. Tashi has been organizing since 2011, her experiences include facilitation, youth development, administration, and leadership. She worked as an early childhood educator and specialist for many years in CT. Tashi is rooted in learning and healing in community, the liberation of oppressed and marginalized identities, and creating safe spaces for those most silenced by the system. She enjoys eating good food, spending time with her loved ones, and loving on her kitten.

Angely was born in Anzoategui, Venezuela and she migrated to the United States in 2018. She is a DREAM Team network ambassador at the NYSYLC. She is a student at the Flushing International High School and during the past two years,...

she has been an active DREAM team member advocating resources for undocumented and non-undocumented students. Angely has been doing community organizing at her school which inspired her to help people through her own experiences and motivated her to learn something new every day, as she keeps growing to be a better person.

Carmín Quijano is a doctoral student in Spanish Sociolinguistics in the Latin American, Iberian and Latino Cultures Department at The Graduate Center (CUNY). She is also a member of Grupo de Glotopolítica, which brings a new perspective...

into social sciences and examines the intersection between language and politics. She is interested in the formation of racialized and gendered identities through the perception and evaluation of linguistic practices by creole elites in Puerto Rican institutions. She has two master’s degrees, one in Hispanic Lexicography and another in Communications, and a bachelor's degree in Hispanic Studies. She currently teaches Spanish (Levels 1 & 2) as a graduate teaching fellow at Hunter College (CUNY).

Daicy Diaz-Granados is a doctoral student in Urban Education at the Graduate Center, CUNY. She has a Masters Degree in Bilingual Education from City College, NY. She is co-founder of College Access for Non-Citizens (C.A.N.),...

a coalition of undocumented students and educators in Northern New Jersey working to provide resources and support for undocumented students for accessibility to higher education. She is a writer/curriculum and professional development content creator for the anthology, Our Stories in Our Voices, for use in ethnic studies program which reframes American history by centering ethnic identity and the struggle for social justice. She is presently a teacher at Teaneck High School in Teaneck, New Jersey. Over her career, she has supervised and mentored teachers, taught graduate-level courses and developed curriculum and professional development opportunities.

Guadalupe Ambrosio is a long time community organizer and educator, born in Mexico City and raised in the Bronx. Currently, she is the Associate Investigator for Undocu-EDU at CUNY IIE and the Co- Executive Director of...

the New York State Youth Leadership Council, an undocumented youth lead organization in New York. She has over 11 years of experience in youth development through her work in community organizing in advocating for immigrant rights and her role as an educator in the public school system in the South Bronx.Guadalupe uses her personal experiences and passion for education and organizing expertise to create spaces and opportunities for immigrant people to thrive.She is currently pursuing a degree at CCNY in Bilingual Education and Sociology with a concentration in Immigration. In her free time she loves to spend time with her family and her books.

Juan Carlos is a Salvadoran born and raised clinical psychologist now residing and completing a doctorate in the Critical Social/Personality Psychology program at City University of New York. He holds a Bachelor of Science in...

Psychology from the Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas (2010) and a Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy from San Diego State University. He works closely with Latinx immigrant individuals and families and is guided by mental health approaches that center social justice and community engagement principles. His professional work experience ranges from a counselor, case manager, group facilitator, to clinical psychologist and researcher. Currently, his work draws from Critical Participatory Research Methods to develop transnational frameworks that address the psychosocial challenges faced by immigrant communities from Central America.

Karen Zaino is a doctoral student in Urban Education at the Graduate Center and a Teaching Fellow in the Queens College English Education Department. Prior to graduate study, she was a high school English teacher for 12 years.

She has also worked for the CUNY-New York State Initiative on Emergent Bilinguals and the College Access: Research and Action Center.

María Elena Torre is the founding director of The Public Science Project at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York where she is on the faculty of Ph.D. programs in Critical Social Psychology and Urban Education.

A queer mama of a very cool teenager, she has been engaged in critical participatory action research nationally and internationally with communities in neighborhoods, schools, prisons, and community-based organizations for over 20 years. She's an author of The Essentials of Critical Participatory Action Research (2021) and PAR EntreMundos: A Pedagogy of the Americas (2018), and has written extensively about how decolonizing methodologies, radical inclusion, and a praxis of solidarity can inform a participatory public science that supports movements for justice. María serves on the editorial boards of Awry: Journal of Critical Psychology and the Review of General Psychology.

Rocío Carranza Brito (Puebla, Mexico) is a Ph.D. Candidate in Hispanic Sociolinguistics in the Department of Latin American, Iberian, and Latino Cultures, in the Graduate Center, CUNY. She obtained her master’s degree in Hispanic Linguistics,...

in the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. Her research interests are standard language ideology, language and immigration, language and dialect contact, and language ideologies. She is currently working on her dissertation about Mexican immigrants in New York and the mapping of their and other Spanish-speakers' language practices. She also works as a research assistant in a translation project with Prof. Mangual Figueroa. She is also interested in heritage language pedagogies, adult education, and language justice. She is a published author of several textbooks for high schoolers in Mexico. She is an enthusiast cooking and baking learner and enjoys learning about neighborhoods lives in New York City.

Wendy Barrales (she, her, ella) is an Ethnic Studies educator, scholar-activist, and founder of the WOCArchive. As a first-gen Xicana and daughter of formerly undocumented Mexican immigrants, Wendy works to center her family's stories...

in her research, community organizing, & classroom. She has 10+ years of experience as a public school educator, working predominantly with young women & gender expansive youth of color in Los Angeles, the Bronx and Brooklyn with a focus on the power of storytelling through art. She is also part of the New York Collective of Radical Educators (NYCoRE), where she has co-facilitated annual Inquiry to Action Groups (ItAGs) where teacher study groups engage in one topic of interest and develop action projects. She is currently a Doctoral Candidate in the Urban Education program at The CUNY Graduate Center where her work explores the intersections of gender and race within an arts based womxn centered high school ethnic studies course

Anthony J. Harb is a Palestinian-American PhD student in Latin American, Iberian and Latino Cultures at the Graduate Center, CUNY. He also teaches courses in Spanish language and linguistic anthropology at Medgar Evers College...

and Brooklyn College respectively. Based in a rural Minnesotan town, his research exists alongside a Spanish-language community radio program that broadcasts to a primarily Mexican immigrant population. He takes an ethnographic and participatory action research approach to consider how community media can be used as a pedagogical tool for Spanish-language classes. He is also a Posse Scholar, a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow, and the recipient of a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant Grant in Madrid, Spain.

Carlos Pérez Valle was born in Tulcingo de Valle, México and moved to New York at the age of three. After high school, he became involved in promoting equitable educational opportunities for low-income and immigrant communities.

His leadership allowed him to develop and manage several programs for nonprofit and government organizations. Such work has led him to work for organizations such as the NYC Department of Education, Masa, The Parent-Child Home Program, Breakthrough New York, and various public and charter schools. Carlos received his BA in Speech-Language Pathology & Audiology from CUNY Macaulay Honors College at Lehman, with a minor in Early Childhood Education. He is currently a doctoral student at the School of Communication Sciences & Disorders at McGill University.

Dina López was born in Guatemala and raised in Providence, Rhode Island. She and her family were undocumented immigrants until 1986, when they were granted amnesty as part of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA).

After receiving her BA from Brown University, she worked with community-based organizations in Providence around issues of adult literacy, language education, and immigrant rights. As a Gates Millennium Scholar, Dina moved to the New York area to pursue graduate work. She received a Master’s Degree in Adult Education/Literacy from Fordham University and Doctorate of Education in International Educational Development from Teachers College, Columbia University. Dina López is currently an Associate Professor in the Programs in Bilingual Education & TESOL at The City College of New York. She has written extensively about bilingual education, immigration, and literacy both in Latin American and the United States.

Jessica is a former NYC bilingual teacher, teaches educators at CUNY-Brooklyn College in the Bilingual Education department, and is a doctoral student in the Urban Education program at the Graduate Center. Her doctoral work explores...

repairing harm through student agency, culturally sustaining pedagogies, and restorative practices. Jessica is also involved in her Latinx community and advocates for community-based organizations.

Juan Carlos Perez is originally from Mexico. He immigrated to the U.S. at the age of eleven. After graduating from IHS at LaGuardia, he earned his B.S. in Mathematics and M.A. in Education from Adelphi University.

Currently, Juan Carlos has DACA and works at the International High School at Union Square where he is a Math teacher and an Immigrant Liaison. Over the years, he has built partnerships between his school and nonprofit organizations to provide students and families with an array of resources. Juan Carlos has been thrilled to be part of the Immigration Liaison Pilot Program as it has brought him back closer to the educator he envisioned to be.

Kate Menken is a Professor of Linguistics and Director of Linguistics and TESOL Programs at Queens College of the City University of New York (CUNY). She is also a Research Fellow at the Research Institute for the Study of Language...

in Urban Society at the CUNY Graduate Center. Her research interests include language education policy, bilingual education, and the education of emergent bilinguals in U.S. public schools. She is Co-Editor of the journal Language Policy and her books are English Learners Left Behind: Standardized Testing as Language Policy (Multilingual Matters, 2008), Negotiating Language Policies in Schools: Educators as Policymakers (co-edited with Ofelia García, Routledge, 2010), and Common Core, Bilingual and English Language Learners: A Resource for Educators (co-edited with Guadalupe Valdés and Mariana Castro, Caslon, 2015). Further information can be found on her website: http://katemenken.org

Marit Dewhurst is the Director of Art Education and Associate Professor of Art and Museum Education at The City College of New York. She has worked as an arts educator and program coordinator in multiple arts contexts including,...

community centers, museums, juvenile detention centers, and international development projects. Her research and teaching interests include social justice education, community-based art, youth empowerment, and the role of the arts in community development. In addition to multiple journal articles and chapters, her first book, Social Justice Art: A framework for activist art pedagogy highlights young activist artists. Her second book, Teachers Bridging Difference: Exploring identity through art describes how to use art as a tool to connect people across different sociocultural identities.

hen is an Associate Professor & Coordinator of Building & District Leader graduate programs at Lehman College CUNY, and is an affiliated doctoral faculty member in the CUNY Graduate Center Urban Education PhD Program.

Dr. Rivera-McCutchen began her career as a high school teacher in the Bronx before earning her doctorate at NYU. A first-generation college graduate, her research is informed by her experiences attending and teaching in NYC public schools. Dr. Rivera-McCutchen’s work focuses on urban school leaders who practice “radical care,” which centers anti-racism and equity as part of their leadership work. Dr. Rivera-McCutchen’s research has appeared in well-respected journals, including Educational Administration Quarterly, Urban Education, Journal of School Leadership, and Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership. She is currently working on a book entitled, Radical Care: A Framework for Leading for Justice in Urban Schools (Teachers College Press).