*PRESENTERS*

Lisa Bernhagen is English Faculty at Highline College. She spent 2 1/2 years deeply involved as a grant-funded student of antiracist writing assessment and curriculum building. The work resulted in an overhaul of curriculum and assessment, relieving Lisa of judging student writing against one standard and assigning a grade to that judgment. Lisa’s course now focuses on making students aware of linguistic bias, rhetorical and personal choices they have, and ways to find their voice for an authentic audience and purpose. 

Dr. Bita Bookman is an award-winning educator, assessment consultant, and equity advocate. She holds a Ph.D. in Composition and Applied Linguistics and an M.Ed. in TESOL and has over two decades of experience teaching English to multilingual students and training teachers in the US and abroad. She currently serves as the Department Chair for the English for Multilingual Students Department at Santa Rosa Junior College where she teaches advanced academic reading and writing.

Rachel Collins is an Assistant Professor of English and Director of the First-Year Writing Program at Arcadia University. She teaches writing, as well as courses in US literature and the geohumanities, with a particular focus on issues of socio-economic class. 

Chloe de los Reyes is an Associate Professor of English and Multilingual Faculty Lead at Crafton Hills College. Her scholarly interests include academic hierarchies and positionality, multi/translingual identities and literacies, and community-building. Her most recent work appears in the Fall 2023 issue of Teaching English in the Two-Year College. In her downtime, she enjoys gardening and cooking.

Willow DiPasquale is an adjunct instructor at Arcadia University, Bryn Mawr College, and Jefferson University. She teaches composition, speculative fiction, eco-criticism, animal studies, and research writing courses. 

Jeremiah Gilbert is a professor at San Bernardino Valley College. He is also an award-winning photographer and travel writer. His travels have taken him to over a hundred countries spread across six continents and his photography has been published internationally and exhibited worldwide. His most recent book, On to Plan C, documents his return to travel in a post-pandemic world and is the first to include his photography. 

Michelle Gonzales, a LEARN Conference board member, is English faculty at Las Positas College, and she is a linguistic justice pd trainer for the Puente statewide office. Her peer reviewed chapter on identity in writing and strengths-based assessment will be published in Reconceptualizing Response by Utah State University Press. 

An immigrant from El Salvador. Herberth “Alex” Jaco had quite a transformative educational experience upon his arrival. Not only was he labeled as an English learner and undocumented student, but he was also the first person in his family to attend college. Alex had to discover resources and find support to reach his goals. Due to his own life experiences, he has become a passionate advocate for English learners and undocumented students. Alex has over five years of experience working with nontraditional students, and he is currently working with adult school students facilitating their transition to higher education or the workforce. Alex’s education consists of a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry and a master’s degree in counseling from California State University, San Bernardino. 

Dickson Lam is a Professor of English at Contra Costa College and lives in Oakland. He is also author of Paper Sons: A Memoir. 

Lauren M. Mecucci Springer is an associate professor of English at Mt. San Jacinto Community College in Southern California, an HSI, where she teaches composition and literature. Her research centers on feedback practices for writing classrooms, as well as across the curriculum; bringing STEM into first-year writing courses; and linguistic justice in writing classrooms. She is also the faculty professional development and distance education coordinator. 

Ann Shadden is a lecturer in the English department at Sacramento State University. She's currently working on her doctorate in Educational Leadership at the same institution studying the impacts of linguistic justice pedagogies on student authorial identity. 

Rachel Spangler is a Puente practitioner and English faculty at Sacramento City College. She also takes her equity-minded teaching to Folsom Prison where she teaches English composition. As a language person, linguistic justice is where her nerdy interest in linguistics and her social justice calling intersect.

Camillia Trombino is a language instructor based out of Los Angeles California who came to teaching through chance and stayed for the positive impact it has generationally on people’s lives. She works with her community in supporting language proficiency and the equity of communication through dialog and instruction. She believes that people of all ages and origins should have access to quality resources, translations, and education- and strives to provide this. She has lived and worked in California and abroad as language instructor, and currently teaches Noncredit ESOL at Glendale Community College in Glendale, California.

Kisha Quesada Turner is a Black graduate of PWIs which has made her long and hyper aware of the richness of Black Englishes and the under-utilization of them in classrooms. At Las Positas College, where she works as a full-time professor, she has been driven to facilitate conversations with her colleagues about antiBlackness in the field of teaching composition. Apart from this, she is an Umoja Learning Community practitioner, Puente Professional Development Trainer, Black Student Union advisor, daughter of 90s Hip Hop, and a retired--but DOPE!--emcee.

Alexandria White is a community advocate, a teacher, a writer, an idealist, a dreamer and a mother.  Alex teaches English composition, creative writing and literature at Sacramento City College. She is also currently the Teachers for Equity coordinator; T4E is SCC’s anti-racism and educational equity professional development program. Alex is proud to be a part of the UMOJA-SBA learning community at SCC, which is an academic support program for African-American students.  She currently resides in Sacramento with her husband and two children.