Karling Aguilera-Fort

Areas of Expertise: School Reform, English Learners, Instrumental Enrichment

Bryonn Bain

Areas of Expertise: Student Voice & Engagement, Literacy through Poetry & Performing Arts, Spoken Word Poetry

Bryonn Bain is a poet, performing artists, actor, author, and prison activist who “interweaves social justice themes and spirituality with intricate wordplay, song, and soaring stage presence.” With impeccable academic credentials, having earned his Juris Doctorate degree at Harvard Law school, and currently teaching at Harvard, what most moves the students and educators with whom Bryonn Bain works is his ability to expertly weave his knowledge and expertise with a creative artistry that turns what could easily remain one-dimensional “book” knowledge into “breathtaking lyricism” and provocative and extraordinary narratives on and off the stage. When scholars of the caliber of Cornel West and Lani Guinier respectively hail him as “an artist who speaks his truth with a power we desperately need to hear,” and “a spellbinding performer, outstanding spoken-word poet, gifted teacher, and thoughtful chronicler,” these are powerful testimonies to what educators have personally witnessed as he’s worked with students, teachers, and administrators. He is a remarkable teacher, an inspiring mentor, and a passionate advocate committed to changing the world and the way we see our place and our responsibility in that world.

Grettel Castro-Stanley

Areas of Expertise: High School Transformation, Parent Engagement, AVID, Creating a College-Going Culture, Creating Collaborative Professional Relationships

Grettel Castro-Stanley is currently principal of one of the largest and most diverse high schools in California, Independence High School in the East Side Union High School District. With both site-level and district office experience, Grettel Castro-Stanley understands the complex world of principals and administrators in today’s accountability-focused times. Her success in keeping student achievement at the center of the high school professional conversation, establishing a vibrant college-going culture, working collaboratively with teachers and the teachers’ union, and engaging parents as partners makes her a resource for educators concerned with secondary education.

Jorge Cuevas Antillón

Areas of Expertise: English/Spanish Language Arts, Biliteracy Development, State/Federal Programs, Bilingual Education, English Learner Education.

Jorge Arnoldo Cuevas Antillón is a former English Learner raised in California whose passion is supporting schools working on interventions for English Learners and struggling readers. He has worked as a bilingual teacher, a high school Spanish and math teacher, a language arts resource teacher, a district administrator, and a university instructor. As an expert in instruction, he served as a lead reading coach and content expert for high poverty schools in the Escondido Union School District, providing staff development on language arts for all K-8th teachers, especially for the state-adopted standards-based curricular programs. Additionally, he served as a statewide teacher trainer for both English and Spanish literacy instruction through the California Reading & Literature Project and several counties offices of education. As a school district administrator, Mr. Cuevas Antillón worked as an Executive Director responsible for all state and federally-funded supplemental programs for the San Francisco Unified School District. Besides assuring the continued flow and excellence of more than $40 million dollars of supportive programs for public education PreK-12th grade, he co-authored a grant that brought $45 million into the district. He has published monograms at WestEd regarding bilingual education and has written and co-written several tools and training manuals for teachers for bilingual instructors, including the California Language Arts Content Standards: Side by Side, a complete cross-reference inventory of standards for the instruction of language and literacy in Spanish and English. Mr. Cuevas Antillón is also an author for one of California's K-6th grade language arts textbook series.

Marian Currell

Areas of Expertise: PreK-12 Mathematics, Algebra Project

Marian Currell received her M.A. in Mathematics Education from San Francisco State University and is currently teaching fifth grade at Dr. Charles Drew Elementary School in San Francisco. Her twenty-eight years as an educator include middle school classroom teaching, and serving as an assistant principal and program administrator for the San Francisco Unified School District. A strong advocate of hands-on, inquiry-based, experiential learning, she involves her students in a variety of problem-solving activities that provide them with opportunities to use their knowledge to help others. Her professional interests focus on acquisition of mathematical concepts in middle-school aged students. Currently, Ms. Currell is working on The Flagway Game, which is a part of The Algebra Project and is designed to build prime number understanding through the use of competitive games. In addition, she serves as a trainer, coach, and professional developer for The Algebra Project. Ms. Currell has participated in a study published by Teachers College Press, Improving Access to Mathematics: Diversity and Equity in the Classroom (2007).

Claudia Lockwood

Areas of Expertise: English Learners

Claudia Lockwood retired as the Director of Multilingual Education at San Joaquin County Office of Education. Her office was the recognized leader in the greater Sacramento, San Joaquin, and Stanislaus counties areas, serving educators in the development of institutional capacity to provide appropriate education to English Learners. As a professional development provider for educators responsible for English Learners, she offered a broad range of services to wide geographic areas. She administered the largest Bilingual Teacher Training Program grant, providing over 20 percent of the training in California. This included the provision of SB395/AB2913 training opportunities, having provided the opportunity to obtain EL authorizations through staff development programs to over 15,000 teachers. Most recently, she has worked with Sacramento County Office of Education on the delivery of CELDT training to teachers throughout California. This work includes the development of training models and anchor pulling of Speaking and Writing items. She continues to work with school districts in developing and implementing programs for English Learners.

Mary-Louise Newling

Areas of Expertise: School Turnarounds, Literacy Development, English Learners, Standard English Learners, Multicultural Education

Helen Pettiford

Areas of Expertise: English Learners, Dual Language Education, Parent Engagement, Migrant Education, Student Voice & Engagement, Visual/Performing Arts, Gifted & Talented Programs, Quiet Time.

Helen Pettiford served as a bilingual public school elementary and secondary teacher for ten years, and a site and district office administrator for six years. As a classroom teacher and central office administrator, she has written, integrated and organized various content area curricula for both elementary and secondary level students. Currently, she supervises various educational services and projects along with facilitating professional development for teachers and administrators. Most recently, Helen partnered with a community-based organization to implement the “Quiet Time” approach that prepares underserved youth for rigorous learning experiences while recovering high school credit towards graduation. She is passionate about serving, exploring and facilitating novel learning opportunities for underserved youth.

Ramona Webb

Areas of Expertise: Spoken Word Poetry, Performing Arts, Student Voice & Engagement

 

Steven Zuieback

Areas of Expertise: Facilitation, Systems Change Implementation, Leadership Development, Team/Community Building

Steve Zuieback is president of Synectics and a member of Dalmau Consulting based in Australia. Steve has extensive consulting and training experience with private business, governmental organizations, schools, communities and non-profit organizations in the areas of leadership, creative planning, change implementation, team development, and community building. He has worked with BHP, ALSOC, Coles Myer and Transport South Australia in intensive leadership development and planning sessions in Australia and with Ernst & Young in South Africa, Australia and Indonesia. The key focus of work now is in the area of building deep leadership and facilitation capacity within large organizations, especially in educational systems. Steve lives in Ukiah, California with his wife Joyce Paterson and he is very involved as a community volunteer in Mendocino County. He is one of several founders of MendoFutures, which is a volunteer-based organization that facilitates community dialogue and solutions on environmental, economic and social issues in Mendocino county.