Dyana Vukovich, a Nationally Certified School Psychologist, has been a practicing bilingual school psychologist for the past 40 years(!) and recently retired from Benicia Unified School District. She is a founding member and current chair of the Bilingual Roundtable of Northern California. She has served as the CASP chair of the Multicultural Ambassadors Program and the English Learners Certification of Advanced Training and Specialization project (EL CATS), a training developed for school psychologists to learn how to competently assess English Learners. In 2004 Dyana received CASP's Outstanding School Psychologist award.

She has taught the Assessment of English Learners course for school psychologists-in-training at CSU East Bay since 2002 and provides consultation and assessment for neighboring school districts.

In her spare time, Dyana loves to sing with a capella ensembles and currently performs with Sacred and Profane and Coro de Cámara.

Pronouns: She/Her

Mary Champion is a Nationally Certified School Psychologist and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She obtained her graduate level training from Cal State East Bay. Currently she works for Sonoma County Office of Education and has been there since 2013. She provides bilingual (Spanish and English) direct services and supports for students and families impacted by Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and emotional and behavioral challenges. She is part of the Sonoma County’s System of Support, a network of volunteer crisis response agencies that support local schools. Additionally, she is an instructor in a teacher credential program through the North Coast School of Education. She also serves as a consultant for a grant with the North Bay Regional Center that aims to create a statewide curriculum to prevent sexual abuse of adults with developmental disabilities. In her free time she loves to dance, travel, hike, cook and spend time with her friends and family. Dark chocolate is the way to her heart.

Pronouns: She/Her

Leticia received her Bachelor's degree at UC Santa Cruz in Psychology. She studied at University of the Pacific where she earned her Master's and Education Specialist degree in Educational Psychology. She currently works for a large district in the Bay Area. She has seven years experience as a bilingual school psychologist.

When she is not working she enjoys taking her dogs out for adventures. This includes hiking, disc golf, camping, paddle boarding, or just going to the snow.

​Some of her passions include video games and comic books. She currently uses her knowledge of video games and comics in counseling sessions with students. She applies skills learned in video games and comics to real life situations.

Twitter Instagram

Kelvin earned his bachelor’s degree at San Francisco State University in Political Science. Later he pursued his Master’s degree at Alliant International University in Education School Psychology. He is currently employed by a metropolitan school district with a very diverse student population. His level of expertise pertains to the domains of bilingual assessment and analyzing cultural linguistic factors in learning.

Outside of work, he enjoys staying active with activities such as snowboarding, golf, and hikes. Cooking and chess are also hobbies incorporated in self care practices.

Kelvin is very passionate about mentoring kids of color and modeling/guiding 1st generation students as they navigate the social and financial maze of higher education.

LinkedIn

Susan is the Lead School Psychologist for the Berkeley Unified School District. She is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor with a PsyD degree. She is a Spanish bilingual psychologist who assesses preschool through high school students and works with Spanish-speaking children and families. She is also a professor for psychology and school psychology graduate programs and an intern supervisor.

Stephanie Davis Bonnafoux is originally from San Diego and has been living in the Bay Area for the past five years. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of California, San Diego, and completed her graduate program at Saint Mary’s College. She has been working in the West Contra Costa Unified School District for the past four years. The district serves about 30,000 students, kindergarten to twelve grade, spanning multiple cities. She is the school psychologist for a Spanish Dual Language Immersion elementary school. She also conducts bilingual psychoeducation assessments across the district. She greatly enjoys being a part of and contributing to our vast bilingual communities.

Fun Fact: Stephanie has a fourteen-year-old pup named Saxo from France.

Beth Heid has been involved in the education field for over 30 years. She initially worked as a bilingual teacher in St. Helena, California for 12 years. She later obtained a master’s degree in Counseling from Sacramento State University and began work as a bilingual school psychologist. She initially worked in Napa County and later Sonoma County. She is recently retired from Sonoma Valley Unified School District but continues to provide consultation services to districts.

Previously a graduate of the Conservatory of Music at the University of Pacific, Beth has also had an ongoing career as a freelance musician, having played several years with the Mexico City Philharmonic before moving back to the Bay Area. She performs regularly with several North Bay orchestras and with the Eloquence String Quartet.

Dr. Higuera has been in education for 25 years. She started her career as a K-12 bilingual teacher (Spanish)and then served in various roles as a School Psychologist, Special Education Program Specialist, Assistant Director of Special Education, and university-level Disability Management Counselor. Dr. Higuera is a Licensed Educational Psychologist and has completed her Doctorate degree in Educational Leadership, Social Justice. Her field experiences include a variety of settings: public schools, correctional settings for incarcerated youth, California Department of Education, and University Adjunct Professor.

Jennifer is currently a bilingual school psychologist in a public school district in Marin County, California, based in a dual-immersion elementary school. As a Regional Clinical Manager for The Stepping Stones Group, she also acts as a lead therapist, mentor and manager to support special education professionals (school psychologists and special education teachers) based in California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, and Nevada. She serves as a clinical resource and is an integral part of the Clinical Management team, providing supervision, overseeing the implementation of quality service delivery, conducting clinical interviews, as well as creating and delivering professional development. Jennifer is nationally certified with a post-master Educational Specialist (Ed.S.) Degree focused in School Psychology from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM). Prior to her career in school psychology, she taught general education, 4th grade Spanish Immersion, and elementary level Spanish in Pennsylvania's Lancaster and Chester counties. She has two children and two kittens and her passions include creative arts, outdoor sports, and travel.

Korah La Serna Guilar is a Nationally Certified School Psychologist with 15 years participation and collaboration in the Bilingual Roundtable of Northern California.

She was born and raised in Sacramento, California. However, she has lived in the state of North Carolina, the city of San Diego, the country of Peru, and currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Throughout her various life experiences, her passion has always been to serve linguistically diverse students and families, and to be an advocate for all learners. With Dr. Amanda Clinton, she has co-authored a chapter in the book Assessing Bilingual Children in Context: An Integrated Approach, titled: Implications of Semilingualism for Assessment of the Bilingual Child as well as a chapter in Early Childhood Assessment in School and Clinical Child Psychology, titled: Assessment and Collaboration in Family, Home, and Cultural Contexts.

She is an artist; she focuses on the human condition, psychology and personality.

Jacquelyn Meinen has been practicing as a bilingual school psychologist in Richmond and San Pablo for the past 9 years. She is originally from Los Angeles and has enjoyed life in the Bay Area since 2002. She earned her Bachelor's degree at UC Berkeley before working with preschool children on the autism spectrum for 2 years in Oakland. After completing her graduate training at CSU East Bay, Jackie taught English teachers at La Escuela Normal Superior in Querétaro, México via the Fulbright Program. She is passionate about full-service community schools as well as her role in promoting more compassionate, equitable, trauma-informed, and holistic learning environments.

Jackie loves mentoring, traveling to warm destinations, dancing Cuban salsa, and indulging in dessert as often as possible.

Arlene is Assistant Professor of School Psychology at California State University, Sacramento. She has degrees in early childhood special education, psychology of bilingual students, and school psychology. She has worked at numerous school districts as an educator and school psychologist. She has also worked within community mental health settings providing mental health services in English and Spanish.

Dr. Ortiz is both a licensed clinical psychologist and a Nationally Certified School Psychologist. She has expertise providing culturally responsive psychological services, including the assessment of culturally and linguistically diverse children. Her scholarly work focuses on assessment and intervention practices for culturally and linguistically diverse individuals. In addition to her work, Arlene enjoys salsa dancing, hiking, and relaxing on a beach.

My name is Celene Rodriguez, I am currently a school psychologist at Santa Rosa City Schools where I am assigned to a Dual Bilingual Immersion school and our Autism RISE program. I graduated from CSU, Sacramento in 2019 with my M.A. and Ed.S in School Psychology. I am a proud member of CASP and NASP, and speak Spanish fluently. My interests include working with Dual Language Learners, and students on the Autism Spectrum Disorder and helping them reach their full potential academically, socially, and emotionally. During my free time, I enjoy hiking, and spending time with my Shepsky Luna.

Evelyn Sandoval is the School Psychologist at the Language Academy of Sacramento, a K-8 dual immersion school. She is fluently bilingual in English and Spanish. She has been a practicing school psychologist for 14 years. Evelyn is passionate about working with students and getting to know them thoroughly to help them get support services they need. She enjoys working with various stakeholders and loves that her job incorporates many different aspects of education—communicating and working with parents, teachers, administrators and a variety of school teams. Evelyn is interested in learning more about dyslexia: what it is, what it looks like for students that are learning to read in Spanish, how to assess it properly, how to provide support and so on. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking and traveling with her partner and son.

Pronouns: She/ Her/ Hers

Cristina (she, her, hers) is a school psychologist that displaced from Puerto Rico in 2018 after the island was impacted by Hurricane Maria. She has a Master's ins School Psychologist (M.A.) and a Masters' in Clinical Psychologist (M.S.). In the past, she worked in Marin County working in a school district with early intervention, elementary school, and support for Spanish-speaking populations. After this, she worked in Marin County Office of Education in a program with kids with emotional difficulties, Juvenile Hall, and supporting the post-graduate program. Her current role is in Santa Clara Unified School District in the Preschool Assessment team.

My biggest joy is my family and I’m a proud mother of 3 kids. I love warm beaches, plants, and being with my family. I have a true passion for inclusion and advocation for the Autistic community, mental health, and second language learners.

Pronouns: He/Him/His

John works as a bilingual school psychologist in the West Contra Costa Unified School District. He received his Masters in School Psychology at Alliant International University and Bachelors in Integral Liberal Arts at St. Mary’s College of California. He has also practiced school psychology in Pennsylvania with the School District of Philadelphia. Here, he joined the district’s Evaluation Team conducting psychoeducational evaluations for the district’s litigious cases.

John’s interests include psychometrics, bilingual evaluation, behavior analysis, trauma-informed schools, and adult learning. John is a first generation American, which informs his practice of serving culturally and linguistically diverse families. He is a certified trainer for PREPaRE and Triple P (Positive Parenting Program).

In his spare time, John likes playing video games, anime, and, of course, watching scary movies. He enjoys surprising his students when he lets them know he knows exactly who Goku is.