Jaime Aquino
Superintendent
San Antonio Independent School District
We are honored to have Dr. Jaime Aquino, Superintendent of San Antonio Independent School District, as the keynote speaker at the 2024 ELSF Annual Convening. Dr. Aquino’s journey from a bilingual teacher in New York City to a leader in education reform has been nothing short of inspiring. With a career dedicated to transforming educational outcomes for multilingual and underserved students, Dr. Aquino’s insights are sure to be invaluable. Join us as Dr. Aquino shares his wealth of experience and vision for the future of high-quality instructional materials for multilingual learners.
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Superintendent
San Antonio Independent School District
Rossana Camacho
Consultant
English Learners Success Forum
Rossana Camacho received her BA in International Politics and her MA in TESOL at Brigham Young University. She has been an instructional designer for fifteen years, developing effective computer-assisted language instruction, curricular resources, and assessments in both Spanish and English. She has been a director of curriculum, product manager, and project manager in the K-12 space and in higher-education institutions. Rossana has also been an EFL and ESL teacher in Mexico and the U.S. and has had ample experience mentoring and counseling students and training teachers from diverse cultural backgrounds.
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Consultant
English Learners Success Forum
Rebecca Castellanos
Director of Content Developer Engagements
English Learners Success Forum
Rebecca Castellanos is the Director of Content Developer Engagements. In her role, she creates the systems, structures, and resources to partner with content developers in order to improve curriculum and instructional materials for multilingual learners. Before this role, Rebecca was the Multilingual Education Program Manager for bilingual instruction for Denver Public Schools. Rebecca began her career as a 4th grade bilingual teacher. She holds a B.A in Sociology from the University of Minnesota and an M.A. in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education from the University of Colorado, Denver. Rebecca currently resides in Denver with her husband and two kids.
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Director of Content Developer Engagements
English Learners Success Forum
Altagracia Delgado
Executive Director of Multilingual Services
Aldine ISD
Altagracia H. Delgado, also known as Grace, has been in the education field for 30 years. In those years she has worked as a bilingual teacher, literacy coach, and school and central office administrator. She is an advocate for students in special populations and works in collaboration with multiple organizations to ensure appropriate services for children are in place. Grace is currently the Executive Director of Multilingual Services for Aldine ISD, in the Houston area. She is also an elected Board member of the Texas Association for Bilingual Education.
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Executive Director of Multilingual Services
Aldine ISD
Jack Dieckmann
Senior Advisor, Mathematics
English Learners Success Forum
Jack is Senior Advisor, Mathematics at ELSF. He advises on reviews of math curricular materials to support language development. Jack currently also has an academic appointment as the Director of Research at youcubed at Stanford University, documenting the effectiveness of youcubed’s learning opportunities including Jo Boaler’s online courses in mathematical mindset and other youcubed research-based practices and materials. Prior to joining youcubed, Jack was the associate director for curriculum at the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning, and Equity (SCALE), where he led the math team in performance assessment development. As a scholar of teaching, Jack’s additional research interest is in the area of “language for mathematical purposes”, especially for English learners. Jack received his doctorate in mathematics education at Stanford GSE in 2009, co-advised by Jo Boaler and Linda Darling-Hammond. For the past 16 years, Jack has served as an instructor in the Stanford Teacher Education Program (STEP), Jack continues to consult across the country and internationally in China, Brazil, and Chile in the areas of math education and teacher learning.
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Senior Advisor, Mathematics
English Learners Success Forum
Dr. Alexandra Estrella
Superintendent
Norwalk Public Schools
Dr. Alexandra Estrella is the Superintendent of Norwalk Public Schools, in Norwalk, Connecticut. A first-generation Latina-American, Dr. Estrella is a visionary, innovative, change leader who does not accept the status quo on equitable scholar access, development, learning opportunities, and achievement. Dr. Estrella’s accomplishments include the collaborative development of a new five-year strategic district plan. A new mission, vision, values, and strategic priorities now guide the district’s focus. Currently, she is spearheading the district through the implementation of the Portrait of a Graduate, rolling out critical thinking in 2024-25.
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Superintendent
Norwalk Public Schools
Cody Fernandez
Director of Multilingual Education
Austin ISD
Dr. Cody Fernández has spent 20+ years serving in the field of multilingual education. She began her career as a middle school ESL teacher and later took on administrative roles at both the district and campus levels. In these roles she has had the opportunity to create curriculum, design and implement ESL and Dual Language programs, and support instruction for multilingual learners. Dr. Fernández earned an Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Bilingual Education from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley where she has also served as an adjunct professor. She has presented nationally on writing for emergent bilingual students and program design and implementation. Her entire career has been devoted to advocating for equitable education opportunities for all emergent bilingual and bilingual learners. Dr. Fernandez views advocacy as a central tenet to her profession and carries a passion for social justice aligned with culturally and linguistically sustaining pedagogies into each role she takes on.
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Director of Multilingual Education
Austin ISD
Crystal Gonzales
Executive Director
English Learners Success Forum
Crystal Gonzales is the Executive Director of the ELSF where she collaborates with national experts, organizations, educators and content developers to increase the supply of quality of K-12 instructional materials that meet the needs of the growing EL population. Previously, as a program officer at the Helmsley Charitable Trust, she collaborated with national K-12 organizations with a focus on teacher professional development, quality instructional materials, and advocacy for underserved communities. In this role, she worked with EL experts to elevate the needs of ELs among grantees and her grantmaking peers. Crystal began her career as a 4th grade bilingual teacher in Houston ISD. She is currently a member of Education Leaders of Color, Latinos for Education, and is a Pahara NextGen fellow. Crystal holds a master’s in Social Service Administration from the University of Chicago and a B.A. from the University of New Mexico. She is a proud native New Mexican and currently resides in Albuquerque, NM.
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Executive Director
English Learners Success Forum
Chalon Jones
ELA Content Specialist
English Learners Success Forum
Chalon Jones is the Content Specialist, ELA at ELSF. In her role, she is responsible for the design, delivery, and implementation of literacy content for different audiences such as content developers, state personnel, and other clients. Prior to joining ELSF, Chalon served as a school and district leader managing MTSS, Special Education, and Multilingual Learner programming for schools in New Orleans, LA. and Washington, DC. Passionate about creating inclusive, culturally and linguistically sustaining learning environments, Chalon has partnered with school systems across the United States as an instructional coach, curriculum developer, and independent consultant.
Chalon holds a B.S. in Middle Level Education from Wilmington University, an M.Ed. in Education Policy and Leadership from American University, and an Ed.D. in Leadership and Learning in Organizations from Vanderbilt University. Chalon is a native New Yorker and currently resides in a suburb of New Orleans, LA.
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ELA Content Specialist
English Learners Success Forum
Melissa Lambert
Consultant
English Learners Success Forum
Melissa Lambert, M. Ed., Equity & MLL Specialist and co-founder of Fostering Quality Schools and the founder of Create Capacity. Both organizations are dedicated to supporting educational leaders with identifying and dismantling systemic oppression. Melissa believes in the power of a shared vision, and works to challenge the process and build educator capacity. Her work in education spans two decades and always incorporates an equity-centered approach to positively affect outcomes for culturally and linguistically diverse learners. Deeply driven by problem solving, building trust, and challenging educator mindset she brings knowledge and demonstrated results for motivating teams and shifting practice.
Her passion for equity embraces the fostering of interdepartmental collaboration structures and protocols to increase high-quality education for MLLs. Most recently, she served as a Senior Engagement Manager, English Learners Services at WestEd and formerly, as a district supervisor in San Francisco, CA. She has designed, developed, and implemented P-12 core curriculum (ELA, ELD/ENL, and content literacy) and delivers high-quality, on-going professional development for site leaders and teachers in large urban districts and rural settings. She understands the nuances and differentiated work including a multi-tiered system of support and embedded cross-team/department collaboration.
As a former Director in Northern CA, she shaped innovative site leadership through developing strategic site plans to emphasize teacher clarity and a focus on targeting/close monitoring of student impact. This work included designing and leading a new Medical Career Pathway HS, and the recipient of the first Middle College HS Grant in the region. She has served as a secondary math and science teacher, diverse adolescent literacy/reading teacher and instructional coach, and has been involved with women in leadership with a focus on girls in math, science and technology.
She holds to the belief that building capacity to transform the quality of instruction for all students is done through articulation and clarity of vision, designing high impact/manageable plans, cinching opportunities for reflection and feedback that directly impacts student progress. She keeps student equity and student voice at the center of the work as she strives for high-quality professional learning, planning and always includes challenging educator mindset to accelerate & sustain continuous improvement.
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Consultant
English Learners Success Forum
Bethany Lauber
Consultant
English Learners Success Forum
Bethany Lauber serves as a curriculum and professional learning consultant at ELSF. Her background in education includes roles as a high school French & Newcomer ELD/ELA teacher, MLL Teacher Leader, PK-5 MLL Instructional Coach, PK-12 MLL Curriculum & Professional Learning Specialist, MLL Newcomer Program Manager, and a Graduate Instructor for teachers pursuing their M.A. in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education. Bethany holds a B.A. in French and International Studies from the University of Richmond, and a M.A. in Education and Human Development from the University of Colorado, Denver. Bethany resides in Phoenix, Arizona, with her husband and three kids.
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Consultant
English Learners Success Forum
Rebecca Blum Martinez
Dual Language National Advisor
English Learners Success Forum
Rebecca Blum Martínez joined ELSF as Dual Language National Advisor in March 2023. In 2021 she retired as Emerita Professor of Bilingual Education in the Department of Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies at the University of New Mexico, where she specialized in bilingualism, second language learning and language maintenance and revitalization in language minority communities—particularly Spanish-speaking and American Indian populations. Her research and scholarly interests have long centered on the study of language development in bilinguals and second language development across varied learning contexts.
Dr. Blum Martinez also served as the director of Latin American Programs in Education, where she served as a liaison between the UNM College of Education and Latin American educational institutions. Her recent publications include a co-authored chapter in the forthcoming Dual Language Handbook of Bilingual Education and a co-edited volume, The Shoulders We Stand On: A History of Bilingual Education in New Mexico. She continues to advocate for bilingual and second language learners as chair of the NM Coalition for the Majority and board member of NABE and DLENM.
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Dual Language National Advisor
English Learners Success Forum
Kia McDaniel
Consultant
English Learners Success Forum
Kia Myrick McDaniel, Ed.D., is a lifelong educator, committed to promoting equitable educational opportunities for culturally and linguistically diverse students. Her extensive and varied background includes roles as a classroom teacher, Reading Specialist, ESOL teacher, Instructional Specialist, Supervisor of ESOL, Director of Curriculum and Instruction, and consultant, providing her with a comprehensive understanding of the educational landscape. Driven by a deep commitment to social justice and equipped with a wealth of educational knowledge, Dr. McDaniel is a respected thought leader and advocate for educational equity. Her contributions to the field ensure that all students have access to the opportunities they deserve.
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Consultant
English Learners Success Forum
Diana Mercado-Garcia
Director, Stanford-Sequoia Research Collaborative
California Education Partners
Diana Mercado-Garcia, PhD, is the Associate Director of Research Practice Partnerships (RPP) at California Education Partners. In this role, she serves as the Director of the Stanford-Sequoia K-12 Collaborative, a partnership between Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education and nine school districts in San Mateo, California. Diana has over a decade of experience conducting research. Her content expertise centers on the K-12 trajectories and postsecondary transitions of students labeled and classified by school systems as English learners (ELs). Her most recent work has been published by Teachers College Press and the American Education Research Journal. Previously, she worked at the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and was a UC Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, San Diego. Diana earned her Ph.D. at Stanford University in Education Policy, M.A. in Sociology at Stanford, and B.A. in Sociology and Spanish Linguistics at UC Berkeley.
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Director, Stanford-Sequoia Research Collaborative
California Education Partners
Sandra Osorio
Consultant
English Learners Success Forum
Sandra Lucia Osorio, Ph.D. is the Director of Teacher Education and Professor of Raciolinguistic Justice at Erikson Institute in Chicago, IL. She has worked with ELSF as a consultant on several projects for the past six years. As a teacher educator, she teaches courses in early childhood, bilingual education, and English as a second language. She earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is a former bilingual educator who worked with children from diverse, racial, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds for over 10 years. Her own personal narrative growing up bilingual and having a deficient-based identity placed upon her because of her linguistic and cultural differences has served as source of motivation to become an educator and researcher. Her research interests include looking at the implementation of culturally sustaining pedagogies that put students’ dynamic community languages, valued practices and knowledges at the center of the curriculum and practices implemented in the classroom.
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Consultant
English Learners Success Forum
Jessica Payano
Consultant
English Learners Success Forum
Jessica is a former New York City public schools science teacher. As a full-time educational consultant, she specializes in supporting teachers, organizations and publishers in making grade-level science accessible to diverse learners.
About Jessica Payano
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Consultant
English Learners Success Forum
Yuderquis Santos
Former NYCPS Director of Bilingual Curriulum and Instruction
Retired_ Former NYCPS Employee
With 28 years of dedicated experience in New York City Public Schools, Yuderquis Santos is a passionate advocate for equitable education and is now retired from NYCPS. Her journey began as a monolingual and bilingual elementary teacher and evolved into roles such as literacy coach, assistant principal, and director of bilingual curriculum and instruction. She understands the vital impact educators have on ensuring that all students, especially emergent bilinguals, receive a high-quality education. As a first-generation Dominican American, Yuderquis brings a personal perspective to her work, championing the value of multilingualism and cultural diversity in schools. Yuderquis’ educational path—spanning from NYCPS student to student and adjunct professor at City College and graduate of NYU—reflects her deep understanding of the challenges and triumphs faced by multilingual learners and their families. Even in retirement, she continues to collaborate with experts in the bilingual field to advance research-based practices that transform educational experiences for all students.
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Former NYCPS Director of Bilingual Curriulum and Instruction
Retired_ Former NYCPS Employee
Renae Skarin
Senior Advisor of Content
English Learners Success Forum
Renae Skarin has almost 30 years of experience working with English learner and minoritized populations through research, advocacy, and program development and implementation with educators nationwide and abroad. She currently serves as the Senior Advisor for Content at the English Learners Success Forum (ELSF) where she leads its research efforts to identify strategies and develop resources for improving education policies and practices with regard to high quality instructional materials for multilingual learners. Before joining ELSF she served as an associate researcher at Understanding Language at Stanford University. She received her M.A. in Second Language Studies at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and did Doctoral studies in Educational Linguistics at Stanford University.
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Senior Advisor of Content
English Learners Success Forum
Brenda Swain
Region Superintendent
Miami-Dade County Public Schools
Brenda L. Swain is an educator with 32 years of experience with Miami Dade County Public Schools. Ms. Swain served as a teacher for 14 years, an assistant principal for seven years, principal for nine years, and a Region Administrative Director for two years.
Ms. Swain has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Bethune-Cookman University, a master’s degree in Reading Education from Florida International University, and a Specialist degree in Educational Leadership from Nova Southeastern University.
Ms. Swain served as the Assistant Principal at Miami Shores Elementary for five years before her direct appointment as the first African American principal of Miami Shores Elementary! After serving the Miami Shores community for nine years, she was appointed to an Administrative Director position with the Central Region Office, within Miami Dade County Public Schools.
Ms. Swain has one son, Dwayne Jr. Her son is now 20 years old and continues to grow daily despite the challenges he faces with having autism. Ms. Swain’s motivation for making it through some of the tough days is simply…. Dwayne. If someone asked Brenda Swain what word describes her and her educational journey, she would reply …. RELENTLESS!
In August of 2024, Ms. Swain was appointed as the Region Superintendent for Central Region Office in Miami Dade County Public Schools. It is no doubt that Ms. Swain will continue to be a champion for children!
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Region Superintendent
Miami-Dade County Public Schools
Mike Torres
Director, Curriculum Frameworks and Instructional Resources Division
California Department of Education
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Director, Curriculum Frameworks and Instructional Resources Division
California Department of Education
Francisco Villegas
Chief Academic Officer
Partnership for Los Angeles Schools
Francisco is a dynamic education leader with over 25 years of experience teaching (with unmatched student outcomes), instructional and leadership coaching, academic leadership, partner management, fundraising, effective team management and school transformation.
He has served as the interim chief academic officer for the last couple of months, and for over a decade in several successive roles at the Partnership. Since 2018, Francisco has served as senior vice president of school transformation and systems advising. He has been instrumental in our math instruction work both within our network schools and in guiding the Gates-funded curriculum system advising work with LAUSD. He has developed relationships with regional district officials, as well as leaders in the Division of Instruction and Educational Transformation Office, and strengthened the Partnership’s visibility across LAUSD.
Francisco became an educator to provide disenfranchised children with an excellent education that will empower them to make positive change in their lives and the lives of others. Prior to joining the Partnership, he worked with the Colton School District for 12 years as a master math teacher, teacher leader, and instructional coach. His passion is working with young people living in generational poverty to support their development as confident individuals who see investing in themselves and their communities as a worthwhile and necessary effort.
As chief academic officer, Francisco will guide a comprehensive education model that addresses key leadership, instructional, cultural, and policy issues to support schools. Managing five direct reports and a total team of approximately 50, he will have overall responsibility for driving academic improvement in schools and codifying learning in support of the roughly 60 school leaders and 250 teacher leaders within the Partnership, while using these successes as guidance to influence the larger district, as well as state and national dialogue on school and district transformation.
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Chief Academic Officer
Partnership for Los Angeles Schools
Joanna Yip
Director of State and District Engagements
English Learners Success Forum
Joanna Yip is the Director of State and District Engagements and oversees the development and implementation of programming and services for states and districts to advance a shared understanding of multilingual learner inclusion in curriculum adoption and implementation. Before joining ELSF, Joanna partnered with educators to support language and literacy development for multilingual learners as a coach, a school and network-level instructional leader, and professional learning facilitator and designer. She has worked for organizations such as Bridges to Academic Success, the Internationals Network for Public Schools, Strategic Inquiry, and New Visions for Public Schools. She has also served as an instructor in teacher education programs at Hunter College, Brooklyn College, and Long Island University. She has a BA in English Literature from Barnard College, a Master's in TESOL from Hunter College, and a Ph.D. in urban education policy from the CUNY Graduate Center. She received her training in school leadership and education administration at The Leadership Academy and a diploma in professional coaching at New York University’s School for Professional Studies. Joanna is a proud Cantonese-speaking New Yorker who was born and raised in Chinatown and still lives in the city with her family.
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Director of State and District Engagements
English Learners Success Forum
