SPEAKERS
Dr. Christian Walter
Principal of Sylvia Mendez Newcomers School
Christian Walter is the principal at Sylvia Mendez Newcomers School. Former EL teacher and presenter for the North Carolina Department of Instruction EL Support Team, he was recognized as Guilford County School’s Assistant Principal of the Year Finalist in October 2020. He is also a 2021 Latinxed Fellow and participated in the New Leaders' Assistant Principal Leadership Academy (APLA) in 2019-2020. Born and raised in Argentina, Christian earned his Bachelor’s in English and Broadcasting from the National University of La Plata in Argentina, a MA in TESOL from Greensboro College and a post-Master’s Certificate of School Administration and Executive Leadership from Gardner-Webb University. He also holds a post-master’s certificate for school administrators in Dual Language Immersion Programs from East Carolina University and an Ed.S from East Carolina University. Currently, he is a last year doctoral student at East Carolina University. Passionate about social justice and educational equity, his philosophy is tied to the belief that all students can learn regardless of their ethnicity or socio-economic status provided they are exposed to high academic expectations.
Dr. Priyanvada Abeywickrama
San Francisco State University
Dr. Priyanvada Abeywickrama is Professor of English in the Department of English Language and Literature at San Francisco State University (SF State) and coordinates the TESOL MA program where she teaches graduate courses in second language listening & speaking and curriculum & assessment development. Dr. Abeywickrama also coordinates the Composition for Multilingual Students Program that serves both domestic and international multilingual learners. In addition to coordinating this program, from time to time, she also teaches writing and oral communication to undergraduate multilingual students. Dr. Abeywickrama is Chair of Graduate Council which serves as an advisory body to the Dean of Graduate Studies at SF State and also serves as a senator on SF State's Academic Senate that develops policies and procedures regarding faculty and administrative appointments, curriculum, business and fiscal matters, campus development, academic standards. Dr. Abeywickrama’s research combines language assessment with issues in second language literacy and oral skills. As a teacher trainer, more recently her interest has been on classroom-based assessments that focus on assessment for learning. Being bilingual, a secondary area of her research is discourse analysis; specifically, codeswitching. She frequently presents her research at the annual conferences of CATESOL, International TESOL, and the American Association for Applied Linguistics. Dr. Abeywickrama is co-author with H. D. Brown of Language Assessment: Principles and Classroom Practices, 3rd ed. (Pearson, 2018).
University of North Carolina
Jamie L. Schissel is Associate Professor, TESOL at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, USA. Her community-engaged research focuses on assessment, language education policies, and teacher education specifically affecting culturally and linguistically diverse communities. Through historical analyses and participatory action research collaborations, her research projects emphasize relationship building to challenge inequities and enact more just educational practices. In doing so, Schissel strives to account for the social implications of this research. With Drs. Mario López-Gopar and Constant Leung, she co-founded and has co-facilitated meetings for Asociación Mexicana de Evaluación de Lenguas Indígenas (AMELI) since 2018.
Dr. Frank Giraldo
Universidad de Caldas
Frank Giraldo is a professor at the Foreign Languages Department of Universidad de Caldas in Manizales, Colombia. His main academic and research interest is the intersection between language assessment literacy (LAL) and teachers’ professional development.
Dr. Katherine Bolaños
Universidad de los Andès
Katherine Bolaños is assistant professor at the Universisidad de los Andes, Department of Languages and Culture, in Colombia. Her research has focused on the linguistic description of endangered languages, with a specific focus on languages of lowland amazonia (Kakua, Cabiyarí, Tinigua), producing grammatical descriptions, and linguistic research on typological features of these languages. Dr. Bolaños is also the director of PDEL(Fundación para la Preservación de la Diversidad Étnica y Lingüística www.fundacionpdel.org), an NGO dedicated to collaborative work and support to indigenous youth working on the promotion and preservation of their languages and cultural practices. Bolaños has dedicated the past years in promoting indigenous youth in process of documentation and preservation of the linguistic diversity in Colombia. She has also contributed as a consulter for the Colombian Ministry of Cultures and Arts in matters related to linguistic diversity in the country.
Jorge Mario Perdomo Santacruz
Institución Educativa Normal superior del Quíndio
Jorge Mario Perdomo Santacruz holds a B.A. in Modern Languages from Universidad del Quindío, and an M.A. in Education from Universidad de Caldas. He has worked for Secretaría de Educación in Armenia - Quindío for 17 years teaching English to primary and secondary students.
