Speaker Bios

Ariana Chavez is graduating with a MA in TESOL at San Francisco State University after completing her BA in Linguistics. She is currently the President of Project SHINE at SFSU. Project SHINE is a community service learning program that places SFSU students in ESL classrooms at CCSF. As President, Ariana interviews and assigns class placements to coaches, and also leads regular meetings with the leadership team and students volunteers. She has many years of English tutoring experience, both privately and within programs such as TASC at SFSU. This work influences Ariana’s research interests regarding how neoliberalism and the larger political economy of language learning impacts the motivations and outcomes of EFL learners. 

Jackson Harris is graduating from San Francisco State University with an M.A. in Linguistics and a Certificate in Computational Linguistics. Prior, he studied at UC Berkeley received his B.A. in Linguistics coupled with Spanish and Portuguese from UC Berkeley. Before entering the graduate program at SFSU, Jackson spent time working as a linguist in the tech industry at companies like Google and Samsung working on voice assistants. His graduate research has been centered around analyzing real-world morphosyntactic phenomena while leveraging computational methods, with his capstone project focusing on compounding.

Houxue An is graduating with her M.A. in TESOL from San Francisco State University. She has three years EFL teaching experience in China, teaching over 1000 students with diverse English proficiency levels. She incorporates interesting group activities to make learning enjoyable and help students sustain motivation.Drawing from her past teaching experience, she believes a student-centered and motivating classroom can foster L2 learners’ communicative competence. She is interested in enhancing ESL/EFL learners’ Willingness to Communicate by integrating various games into the curriculum. After graduation, she hopes to teach at a community college where her students thrive together on their educational and enjoyable learning journey with her.

Filiberto Perez is graduating with an M.A. in Linguistics from San Francisco State University. He obtained a undergraduate degree in Spanish, then a single-subject credential at Cal State East Bay. His teaching philosophy includes values such as respect, responsibility, and self-direction. His goal is to provide students the values and language skills they need to become successful academically and professionally. He has directed courses in diverse learning environments such as Berkeley and Oakland High School. His research in Linguistics focuses on varieties of Chicano English and their phonetic characteristics. After graduation, he intends to continue his professional career in the Bay Area with the aim of instructing Spanish at a community college.

Raz Parker is graduating with an MA in Linguistics and a Certificate in Computational Linguistics from SFSU. Prior to this he attended Leeds University in the UK, earning a BA in German and Japanese and an MA in Applied Translation Skills. Before enrolling in the MA Linguistics program, he worked as a technical translator and writer. Over the course of his career and his studies he has developed an enduring interest in Japanese linguistics, emergent language trends in online communities and natural language processing. His current research is focused on the computational approaches to analyzing sound symbolism in Japanese.

Cassia Reddig is graduating with an M.S. in Interdisciplinary Studies with an emphasis in Language, Cognition & Computation and a Graduate Certificate in Ethical Artificial Intelligence at San Francisco State University, where she also received a B.A. in Psychology and a certificate in Computational Linguistics. She is a non-traditional, first-generation, and community college transfer student who has gained substantial academic experience in computational linguistics, cognitive science, and media psychology. Her professional experience includes roles in UX engineering, software development, and currently she is working as an AI prompt engineer, training and fine-tuning AI models. Her research is focused on human-centered design in artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing, and large language models.

Hannah Gradowski is graduating with an MA in TESOL and Graduate Certificate in Teaching of Composition. In the last three years, Hannah has gained experience as a high school English language teacher and is now currently an ESL instructor at the San Leandro Public Library. However, her experience teaching in the San Leandro community inspired her to research how to expand adult ESL education in communities. Her pedagogy prioritizes a community of practice and learner-centered instruction, with a focus on how to develop more learning spaces in partnership with local organizations. She hopes her work will inspire all ESL practitioners to create innovative spaces beyond traditional classrooms to expand adult ESL education access in their communities across the United States.

Maxwell Goodwin is completing his MA in Linguistics and a certificate in Computational Linguistics at San Francisco State University, where he previously received his BA in English Linguistics. His primary academic interests are in the relationship between sound and syntactic structure in language and how cognition overlaps with and influences language. His current research is concerned with how spatial cognition helps explain polysemy in phrasal verbs. With a background in teaching and interest in pedagogy, he would additionally like to investigate the application of cognitive frameworks in ESL instruction and the utility of computational methodology in more formal cognitive studies.

Noha Almutairi is graduating with a Master’s degree in Composition from San Francisco State University, where she has focused on English language communication and critical thinking skills. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in English from Temple University, where she developed a strong appreciation for literature and its impact on culture. With a lot of experience tutoring Kuwaiti students at different levels of English, Noha is committed to improve students confident in English communication. In her research, Noha is interested in interpretation and translation between Arabic and English and how interpretation, in general, can be a theme addressed in the composition classroom.