About Our Presenters
Learn more about our 2025 LEARN Conference
presenters below!
Keynote
Dr. Socorro Herrera
Socorro G. Herrera is a keynote speaker, district consultant, and trainer of trainers, as well as a professor in the College of Education and director of the Center for Intercultural and Multilingual Advocacy (CIMA) at Kansas State University. Her K–12 teaching experience includes an emphasis on literacy development, and her research focuses on literacy opportunities with culturally and linguistically diverse students, reading strategies, and domestic and international teacher preparation for diversity in the classroom. Dr. Herrera has authored several books and numerous articles focusing on issues of instruction and assessment with culturally and linguistically diverse students.
Presenter Bios
Kelly Blewett (she/her) is an Associate Professor at Indiana University East, where she also directs the writing program and teaches courses in writing and writing pedagogy. She served as president of the Council of Writing Program Administrators from 2024–2025. Her research on the social contexts of editorial work and feedback has appeared in College English, JAEPL, Prompt, Peitho and various edited collections.
Geovanni Castillo is an Adjunct Lecturer in the Department of English at the City University of New York (CUNY).
Dawn Formo is Dean of Undergraduate Studies and a professor in Literature and Writing Studies at California State University, San Marcos. Her teaching includes writing theory and practice, feminist rhetoric, literature, and film. As a teacher/scholar, she facilitates systemic change to support student success and equity.
Michelle Gonzales (she/ella) earned her MFA in English and Creative Writing and BA in English with an Ethnic Studies minor, both from Mills College. She is English faculty at Las Positas College and a linguistic justice trainer for the Puente PD statewide. Her peer-reviewed chapter "Not Just One White Way Down the Middle of the Road..." will be published in Reconceptualizing Response by Utah State University Press.
David A. Housel (he/him) is the Director of the CUNY (City University of New York) Language Immersion Program (CLIP) at LaGuardia Community College. He has worked in the field of adult literacy, primarily with adult, immigrant emergent bi/multilingual learners (EBLs) in the United States, for over 24 years and has been a licensed social worker in the State of New York for over 36 years. Dr. Housel earned an Ed.D. in Instructional Leadership from Hunter College (CUNY). His research interests include trauma-responsive, decolonized pedagogy and linguistic justice.
Jennifer Killam is a PhD candidate in English Composition and Applied Linguistics at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Assistant Professor at Ivy Tech Community College. Her research explores race, identity, and critical literacy.
Kelan Koning (she/her) is a lecturer in the Department of English at Cal State Northridge. She has joyfully served marginalized and underrepresented students on campus for nearly 30 years through her work with Chicana and Chicano Studies, the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP), and her first-year writing courses. She leads workshops across the state and country on Trauma-Informed, Healing-Centered Pedagogy, ePortfolios, and equitable assessment. Her scholarship, including her most recent publication, "Mad Lyrics: Toward an Embodied, Culturally Responsive Pedagogy of Care in Academia,"centers Mad scholarship and heart-centered, inclusive teaching practices.
Denise Maduli-Williams (she/her) is a Professor of English and ELAC (English Language Acquisition) at San Diego Miramar College. With over two decades of experience, her teaching journey spans diverse settings, including a California prison, a village in Botswana as a Peace Corps Volunteer, and New York City public high schools before finding her calling in community colleges. She is a Stanford EPIC Community College Fellow and a Peace Corps Virtual Service Pilot Participant, working with educators in Ethiopia. Her interests include AI, humanized learning, and accessibility.
Makeba Rangel (she/her/they) is an English professor and English Lounge coordinator at Sacramento City College. She brings linguistic justice into all her work and enjoys silly and serious reading alike.
Laura Ruth-Hirrel (she/her) is Associate Professor of Linguistics/TESL and Ana Sánchez-Muñoz is Professor of Chicana/o Studies and Linguistics/TESL at CSUN. They co-lead the Sociolinguistics Justice en Comunidad project to foster linguistic justice in schools.
Rachel Spangler (she/her) is an English professor and Puente practitioner at Sacramento City College where she incorporates linguistic justice in all of her courses. Her anti-racist work also includes teaching at Folsom State Prison.
Michele Sweeting-DeCaro is adjunct faculty and Writing Center Director in the Division of Interdisciplinary Studies (CWE) at City College of New York (CUNY).