Featured Speakers

Previous Featured Speaker

On October 10, 2024, CEEL had the privilege of welcoming Dr. Jill Kerper Mora, Associate Professor Emerita from the School of Teacher Education at San Diego State University, for a keynote presentation titled "Reaffirming Our Multilingual/Multiliteracies Pedagogical Knowledge Base: Strengthening the Research to Practice Connection".

This workshop centered on transforming the current narrative in multilingual and dual language education by moving beyond the fact-checking of Science of Reading claims and pedagogies. Dr. Kerper Mora presented research-based perspectives and practical strategies that supported educators and enhanced learning outcomes for multilingual students. Through the presentation, educators, administrators, and leaders received insights that challenged current paradigms and advanced literacy instruction for multilingual students. Educators were equipped with knowledge and resources to foster and embrace more inclusive and effective literacy pedagogies for multilingual and dual language students.

Dr. Mora’s career as a biliteracy educator began in Texas where she was an elementary bilingual teacher, a secondary Spanish teacher, and a consultant for the Texas Education Agency’s Region IV Service Center in Houston. She has engaged in scholarship, leadership and teaching as a university teacher educator specializing in preparing teachers for work with culturally and linguistically diverse students in Texas, California, and Mexico. She brings an international perspective to the arena of Spanish language and literacy education. Dr. Mora served as Resident Director of the California State University International Program and Bilingual Teacher Credential Program in Querétaro, Mexico in 2003-2005. While serving the CSU in Mexico, Dr. Mora conducted a comprehensive study of the Mexico National Reading Program reforms with a focus on first grade classrooms with her colleague Diane Taboada.

Dr. Mora has received numerous honors and awards for her activism and scholarship. In 2002, she received the California Association for Bilingual Education Award for Excellence in Research and Scholarly Activity for her MoraModules Website for biliteracy and English language development educators. In 2009, Dr. Mora was recognized with the Promoting Biliteracy Award from the Two-way California Association for Bilingual Education for her strong advocacy for educational equity for language minority students.

In her active retirement, Dr. Mora continues to work as an author of professional books for dual language teachers and as a consulting author with Benchmark Education Company. She maintains her MoraModules Website at moramodules.com. The website includes a Book Companion Website to accompany her textbook Spanish Language Pedagogy for Biliteracy Programs (2016) with Montezuma Publishing. Dr. Mora’s book, co-authored with Silvia Dorta-Duque de Reyes, titled Biliteracy and cross-cultural teaching: A framework for standards-based transfer instruction in dual language programs will be published in January 2025 with Brookes Publishing.

See her presentation here!

Previous Featured Speaker

On March 13, 2024, CEEL had the privilege of welcoming Dr. Ayanna Cooper for an in-person keynote presentation titled, 'Young, Bilingual, and Black."

This workshop centered on asking and discussing the following questions: Who are California’s English learners who are identified as Black? How are their stories included and shared as part of advocacy efforts for K-12 linguistically diverse students? What are their needs and the needs of educators who support them? In honor and celebration of the 70th anniversary of Brown V. Board of Education this session reviewed nationwide and select statewide demographic data in an effort to elevate and affirm Black multilingual students. Participants engaged in thought-provoking questions and discussions and were provided with options for action steps framed around empowering autonomous learners.

Ayanna Cooper, Ed.D., is an educator, bestselling author, and advocate whose work has centered around combating issues related to multilingual students’ civil rights, racism, and anti-Blackness in K-12 English language teaching and learning. She is a U.S. Department of State English Language Specialist alumna, having served on projects in Kuwait and Brazil, and served a term on the Board of Directors for TESOL International Association (2020-2023). At Howard University’s College of Education, she is a part-time faculty member in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction.

Dr. Cooper engages in “real talk” storytelling to bring linguistically diverse student populations to the center. She is the author of several publications that include And Justice for ELs: A Leader’s Guide to Creating and Sustaining Equitable Schools, Black Immigrants in the United States (co-edited), multiple chapters including one in Teacher’s College Press Justice for All: Realities and Possibilities of Black English Learners in K–12 Schools and as the founder of Language Magazine’s Pass the Mic Series editor.

We invite you to view highlights from our previous Featured Speakers below.

The Center for Equity for English Learners regularly hosts events where scholars can present on a variety of topics to the larger educational community. These venues provide an opportunity for renowned researchers to share current findings in the field of language, literacy, learning, teacher preparation, and multicultural studies.

CEEL gratefully acknowledges our featured speakers' willingness to allow us to videotape the sessions and highlight them here.