Shumin Fang received her master degree in secondary education from Indiana University. She joined Indianapolis Public School and has been teaching K-8 Mandarin classes since 2014. She designs Chinese language curriculum based on International Baccalaureate program. She also created Mandarin standard test for IPS district. She was recognized as the excellent Chinese teacher by Confucius Institute in 2015, and 2019 Raising Star in teaching foreign language by Indiana Foreign Language Teachers Association. She also served as the educational coordinator for Indy-Hangzhou Sister City Committee, and has been establishing school-to-school partnership between Indianapolis and Hangzhou, China. 

Yingling Bao has over ten years of experience in teaching Chinese at post-secondary level in the U.S.  As a senior lecturer at the Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures at Indiana University, she continues to adopt innovative pedagogical approaches in language teaching. As a certified OPI tester, she also has rich experiences training novice teachers and designing proficiency-oriented curriculum. She has presented regularly at conferences such as ACTFL, CLTA, NCOLCTL, and etc. She received IU Trustee Teaching Award for lecturer and clinical professional in 2013 and 2020, and was recipient of FACET Dr. James E. Mumford Excellence in Extraordinary Teaching Award in 2021. She has also served teaching and administrative roles in intensive summer programs such as IU Summer Language Workshop, Middlebury College, and University of Virginia.  

Guili Zhang graduated from her master’s degree in Central Michigan University on Early Childhood Education in 2017. Currently she is a Ph.D. student on Mathematics Education in Purdue University. Zhang Laoshi has been working in Batesville Primary School since 2017 in the Dual Language Immersion Program. She is one of the participants that established the DLI program and created the Chinese literacy curriculum before the current curriculum was adopted. Zhang Laoshi is also an ESL certified teacher and always dedicated to serve language learners of any level. She believes that all students can learn and want to learn well. It is the teacher’s responsibility to provide scaffolding and support.

Ying-Sin Chen is presently employed as an Upper School Mandarin Teacher at the International School of Indiana. She holds a Ph.D. in Literacy, Culture, and Language Education from Indiana University, Bloomington, along with an M.S. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to her current role, she taught at Westchester Country Day School, the Hamilton Lugar School Language Workshop, and the Chinese Flagship Program at Indiana University, Bloomington. Additionally, she served as a lecturer at the Indiana University School of Education and as a mentor/tutor trainer for the Chinese Flagship Program. In terms of assessment, Ying-Sin worked as an Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) tester/rater and an Assessment of Performance toward Proficiency in Languages (AAPPL) rater for the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). She is currently an Advanced Placement (AP) rater/reader for the College Board. She is actively involved in various foreign language and Chinese-related PD programs and conferences to improve her teaching.

Sydni Lockeby Catalano received her M.A. in Chinese Pedagogy from Indiana University Bloomington and is now working towards her Ph.D. in the same field focusing on heritage language learning, with other research interests including the relationship between language and identity, multilingualism and translanguaging. She has been responsible for teaching beginner and intermediate level coursework at IUB and online heritage learner classes through Holistic Education since 2021. Sydni also has years of experience working with students and instructors through STARTALK programming and weekend Chinese schools in both New England and the Midwest. As a non-native speaker of Chinese who has grown up in the Chinese language classroom since age four, she believes the unique experiences of heritage learners both in- and outside the classroom may be transformed to create greater access to language learners of all backgrounds. In addition to being grounded in linguistic and second language acquisition theory, Sydni’s teaching philosophy is also informed by her over 10 years of experience teaching Chinese performing arts as well as her own experience as a language learner.

Yi-Fan Lin is a Mandarin Chinese teacher and a sponsor of Asian Student Union at Mt. Vernon High School since 2016. Born and raised in Taiwan, she received her Master Degree of English Education at National Taiwan Normal University. She is actively involved in the professional development of the world language teaching to improve her curriculum and lessons and was the recipient of 2020 Indiana Chinese Teacher Rising Star. She also enjoys creating opportunities that encourage her students and Mandarin-speaking students to learn more from each other.  

Zhang yan is currently a preschool teacher, education director, and a member of the School board at the Chinese School of Indianapolis Chinese Culture Center Inc. She has taught Chinese language and culture for eight preschool classes in two missionary private schools, and IB Chinese in Grade 9-12 at  Shortridge High School (an IB School) in the Indianapolis Public School district. She became a member of the Indiana Chinese Teacher Association in 2016. She has served as the secretary of the Association since the end of 2018.