About Our Presenters
Learn about our 2025 LEARN Conference
keynote, breakout session presenters, and panelists below!
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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.
Breakout Presenters
Kelly Blewett
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
Geovanni Castillo is an Adjunct Lecturer in the Department of English at the City University of New York (CUNY).
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Michelle Gonzales
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
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
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 L. Koning
Kelan L. 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, a chapter entitled "Mad Lyrics: Toward an Embodied, Culturally Responsive Pedagogy of Care in Academia," centers Mad scholarship and heart-centered, inclusive teaching practices.
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Denise Maduli-Williams
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.
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Lauren M. Mecucci Springer
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.
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Marci Prescott-Brown
Marci Prescott-Brown received her PhD in English from the University of Toronto in 2019 and her Diploma in TESL in 2020; she is an Ontario Certified English Language Teacher. She is an Assistant Professor (Teaching Stream) in Writing Studies and the Acting Director of the New College Writing Centre at the University of Toronto. Passionate about helping students come to voice using the full complement of their linguistic abilities, she practices antiracist and decolonial writing pedagogies in her classrooms and in one-on-one writing centre consultations.
Kisha Quesada Turner
Kisha Quesada Turner (she/her, yo/yo’s) is a former emcee and child of 90s Hip Hop, and these positionalities explain her approach to being an educator and professional development trainer. Linguistically and stylistically, she describes herself as part Jay-Z and part Barack Obama with dollops of Bahamadia and The Lady of Rage. As a Black graduate of PWIs, yo is long- and hyper-aware of the richness of Black Englishes and the unfortunate under-utilization of them in classrooms. Yo’s languages and dialects of nurture include AAVE, Spanish, Spanglish, text talk, and Queer vernaculars.
Makeba Rangel
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.
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Laura Ruth-Hirrel
Laura Ruth-Hirrel (she/her) is Associate Professor of Linguistics/TESL at California State University Northridge (CSUN). Dr. Ruth-Hirrel and Dr. Ana Sánchez-Muñoz co-lead the Sociolinguistics Justice en Comunidad project to foster linguistic justice in schools.
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Dr. Ana Sánchez-Muñoz
Dr. Ana Sánchez-Muñoz is Full Professor in the Departments of Chicana/o Studies and Linguistics/TESL at California State University Northridge (CSUN). Dr. Sánchez-Muñoz and Dr. Laura Ruth-Hirrel co-lead the Sociolinguistics Justice en Comunidad: A Community Engagement Project that aims to promote sociolinguistic knowledge in local high schools and increase awareness about linguistic justice among minoritized communities.
Shawna Shapiro
Shawna Shapiro teaches courses in writing, linguistics, and education at Middlebury College. Her research focuses on college transitions and asset-based pedagogies for multilingual/L2 writers. Shapiro has published in numerous peer-reviewed journals. Her most recent book is Cultivating Critical Language Awareness in the Writing Classroom (Routledge 2022).
Rachel Spangler
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.
Karin Spirn
Karin Spirn (she or they) is an English instructor, writer, and martial artist living in Oakland, CA. She holds a BA in English with a minor in linguistics from UC Berkeley, and a PhD in English from the University of Michigan. She has twenty years of community college teaching experience and currently teaches at Las Positas College in Livermore, CA. Her article "The 'I' in History: Bad Indians and the Future of Academic Writing" was recently published in Alta Magazine.
Inge Stockburger
Inge Stockburger (she/her) teaches writing and linguistics in the English Department at Santa Rosa Junior College. She also works as a writing tutor in the Tutorial Center. Along with a growing squad of Linguistic Justice (LJ) co-conspirators at her college, Inge collaborates to reject the status quo and engage LJ in the classroom, tutoring spaces, and beyond!
Michele Sweeting-DeCaro
Michele Sweeting-DeCaro is adjunct faculty and Writing Center Director in the Division of Interdisciplinary Studies (CWE) at City College of New York (CUNY).
Lizbett Tinoco
Lizbett Tinoco is an associate professor of English and director of writing across the curriculum at Texas A&M University-San Antonio. Her research focuses on writing program administration, two-year college writing studies, and antiracist writing assessment. Her publications appear in Community College Journal of Research and Practice, Journal of Writing Assessment, Composition Forum, The Peer Review, and various edited collections.
Lan Wang-Hiles
Lan Wang-Hiles is Associate Professor of English at West Virginia State University. Her research interests include L2 writing, writing center theories and tutorial practices, multilingualism, and non-native English-speaking teacher identity. Her studies have been published as journal articles and book chapters in these fields. She is the Chair of the Non-Native English-Speaking Writing Instructors (NNESWIs) Standing Group for CCCC.
Panelists
Scott Gerardo, Student Panelist
Scott Gerardo is a student at Las Positas College looking to pursue a career in accounting. He works as a student tutor at his community college. When Scott is not in class, he enjoys taking scenic road trips into the unknown and watching soccer, specifically the Sacramento Republic FC
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Gabriel Alejandro Gonzalez, Student Panelist
Gabriel Alejandro Gonzalez is a student at Glendale Community College. He shares, "I was born in El Salvador, where he spent most of my childhood and teenage years. Spanish is my first language, and it continues to be the language I use most often at home and with my family. Almost three years ago, I moved to the United States. At that time, I barely spoke any English, so adapting to a new language and educational system was a big challenge for me.
I started in the ESL non-credit program, which helped me build my English skills and understand how college works here. The College Prep program was especially important in helping me feel confident and supported as a new student. Thanks to the encouragement from my teachers and counselors, I was able to move into credit classes and continue pursuing my goals.
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Now I am a full-time student majoring in Spanish and Hispanic Studies, and I also work as a tutor and student ambassador at the Learning Center. I enjoy helping other students like me who are learning English and trying to build a future in this country. My goal is to become a teacher, so I can keep supporting and inspiring others through education.
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Outside of school, I enjoy writing poetry in both Spanish and English. Writing helps me express my experiences and emotions across both languages and cultures. Little by little, I’m growing as a writer and as a future educator."
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Maria Ianekian, Student Panelist
Maria Ianekian is a full-time student at Los Angeles Valley College majoring in Chemistry. She plans to become a doctor.
Maria shares, "I was born in Armenia and spent my childhood there. I can speak and write in Armenian fluently, but unfortunately, when I was eleven, I moved to Russia, so my Armenian grammar isn't good as it could be. I lived in Russia for seven years. The Russian language was very hard to study and master. When I was in middle school pressure from my peers made the process of learning even harder. However, years of hard work paid off, I could speak Russian fluently.
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After Russia, I moved to the United States, where I needed to learn a third language: English. When I did a placement test for ESL classes the first time, the results showed that I could choose either level four or five, but I felt that it was too much for me, and I was correct. I started my classes from the third level. In the Fall semester, I will be an ESL tutor! I am working to improve my English and getting better every day."
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Kelan L. Koning, Moderator
Kelan L. 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, a chapter entitled "Mad Lyrics: Toward an Embodied, Culturally Responsive Pedagogy of Care in Academia," centers Mad scholarship and heart-centered, inclusive teaching practices.
Andralena Panczenko, Faculty Panelist
Andralena Panczenko is an instructor in the noncredit ESL departments at Glendale College and College of the Canyons. She has written several OER texts for ESL courses and has a passion for using technology to support student learning. Andralena enjoys studying languages, currently Spanish and Japanese, as a way to empathize with students learning English and anticipate and address common mistakes made by learners. Her interests also include AI, gamification, and linguistic justice.
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Sofia Pena, Student Panelist
Sofia Pena (she/her) is a Las Positas College student majoring in Global Studies. She was part of the Puente Program during the 2024-25 school year, and her main goals include transferring to a four-year university to earn her Bachelor’s Degree and later attend law school to pursue a career as a lawyer. Sofia deeply values embracing her own Mexican heritage and the influence that American culture has had on her own life, mainly by talking in Spanglish. Ultimately, she hopes to empower many to be proud of themselves, and most importantly, to always embrace their own roots like she does.
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Kisha Quesada Turner, Moderator
Kisha Quesada Turner (she/her, yo/yo’s) is a former emcee and child of 90s Hip Hop, and these positionalities explain her approach to being an educator and professional development trainer. Linguistically and stylistically, she describes herself as part Jay-Z and part Barack Obama with dollops of Bahamadia and The Lady of Rage. As a Black graduate of PWIs, yo is long- and hyper-aware of the richness of Black Englishes and the unfortunate under-utilization of them in classrooms. Yo’s languages and dialects of nurture include AAVE, Spanish, Spanglish, text talk, and Queer vernaculars.
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Sara Sadeghilar, Faculty Panelist
Sara Sadeghilar teaches Noncredit ESL in Glendale Community College. With over twenty years of diverse ESL teaching experience, she has taught at UCLA, UCI, and USC, volunteered at a Bay Area Day Worker Center, and worked with international journalists at San Jose State University. Being equity-minded, Sara incorporates mastery-based grading and promotes AI accessibility by integrating AI tools into her classes. She believes in the power of the written word and sees rekindling her students' relationship with writing as one of her core missions.
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Edgar Zardaryan, Moderator
Edgar Zardaryan is a first-generation Armenian American with a background in Business Law from California State University, Northridge, and a Master of Arts in Teaching English as a Second Language. As both an immigrant and educator, he has personally experienced the challenges of linguistic inequity—fueling his deep commitment to Linguistic Justice. He's proud to have been part of this transformative conference for the past three years, and he looks forward to continuing this important work in the years ahead.
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