Michael Bacon works as the Portland Public Schools immersion education coordinator, providing program, professional, and curriculum development for ten immersion programs in Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin and Russian. He manages the new K-12 portion of the Oregon Chinese K-16 Chinese Flagship and the Russian FLAP grant. He served as the president of the Association of Teachers of Japanese in Oregon for three years and presents workshops at state and national conferences. As part of the AP Japanese development by the AP College Board, he serves on the professional development advisory board and was the Project Manager for the PreAP Professional Development Workshop. Previously, he worked eight years as a teacher and curriculum specialist for the PPS Japanese Magnet Program at Mt. Tabor Middle School teaching language arts and social studies in Japanese. Michael also taught Japanese at the high school level and ESL in Japan to children and adults.

Selena Cantor is director of the Chinese language and culture initiatives at the College Board. She oversees programs that support the growth of Chinese education in U.S. K-12 schools. Her previous work experience includes English as a second/foreign language teaching, curriculum development, education technology, and program administration. Ms. Cantor served as a U.S. English Language Teaching Fellow in Kunming and Shanghai. She received her master’s degree in applied linguistics from the University of Southern California.

Dr. Xiaolin Chang received her bachelor’s degree in English language in Beijing, a master’s degree in teaching English as a second language, and Chinese teaching credential from University of San Francisco. Currently, she is teaching AP Chinese at Lowell High School in San Francisco. She has been teaching for twenty-four years as an English, ESL, and Chinese teacher in Beijing and San Francisco. She was in the committee of the Chinese section for the National Standards of Foreign Language Learning for K-12. She served as a member of the AP Chinese Language and Culture Exam Development Committee and the Professional Development Advisory Group. She serves as a College Board AP Chinese workshop consultant.

Robert A. Davis, Jr. is the director of the Chicago Public Schools’ Chicago’s Chinese Connections Program, which oversees all Pre K-12 Chinese world language programs, Chinese exchange programs, curriculum development, and Chinese cultural programs. In addition, Mr. Davis is the director of the Confucius Institute in Chicago, which is housed at the Walter Payton College Preparatory High School. He has visited China twenty-eight times since 1997 and has brought over one hundred CPS educators there to learn about China’s history and culture.

Dr. Susan Duggan serves as the Senior Strategic Planner for The Language Flagship, an initiative of the National Security Education Program (NSEP). The Language Flagship leads the nation in designing, supporting, and implementing a new paradigm for advanced language education. Dr. Duggan’s role is to help shape the innovative partnership between the federal government, education, and business. As part of her role with The Language Flagship, Dr. Duggan will coordinate the 2007 U.S. Language Summit: Roadmap to Language Excellence, a partnership between the Departments of Commerce, Defense, and Labor.

Dr. Carl Falsgraf is director for the Center for Applies Second Language Studies (CASLS) at the University and director for the Oregon Chinese K-16 Flagship. He received his doctorate in linguistics and has been teaching and conducting research on language education for over twenty years. His classroom experience includes teaching ESL, Japanese, and a variety of graduate courses in pedagogy and methodology. Particular interests include proficiency assessment, standards-based approaches to language education, and data-driven professional development.

Amy Harter is the Chinese Flagship coordinator for the Oregon Chinese K-16 Flagship. She provides structural and administrative support between the K-12 and University of Oregon Flagship programs. She coordinates between university departments, recruits and advises students, and maintains program and budget reports. Amy received her master’s degree in international development and cooperation from Nagoya University in Nagoya, Japan. She loves to run, bike, swim, and eat mochi.

Claire Kotenbeutel spent the last three years at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Curriculum and Instruction teaching foreign language methodology and now works there as a consultant developing a MAT degree program for less commonly taught languages. Previously, Ms. Kotenbeutel taught French, German and Chinese in the Madison Metropolitan School District. She taught foreign language methodology to English teachers in Heilongjiang Province, PRC and has led many study abroad tours for students and teachers. She has recieved curriculum development awards locally and nationally, most notably for designing the middle school language curriculum for the Madison School District and the articulated Chinese program for middle through high school. She is currently instituting a long-range program for grades 6-12 that weaves China, Chinese language, and environmental science into the core subjects. She worked on the National and the Wisconsin Chinese Standards. She is the co-owner of PLACES International, LLC that works with corporations for language and culture learning and is an international award-winning Chinese landscape artist.

Kathleen Leos was appointed to the position of Assistant Deputy Secretary and Director for the Office of English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic Achievement for Limited English Proficient Students (OELA) on September1, 2005. Leos serves as principal advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Education on all matters related to limited English proficient students. Appointed by President Bush, Ms. Leos served as the policy advisor to Secretary Spellings on issues related to the No Child Left Behind Act and Title III. Ms. Leos was charged with developing policy, guidance, and technical assistance, as well as disseminating Title III policy and regulations to all the stakeholders throughout the United States who serve the 5 million non-English-speaking students who attend America’s public, private, and charter schools. This active single parent of five non-English speaking children is the founder of and president of Basic English Inc., a non-profit agency whose mission is to transition non-English-speaking families into English while staying focused on their children's academic achievement.

Carol. T. Lin is the associate director of the Chinese language and culture initiatives at the College Board. She is originally from Sichuan, China. Ms. Lin received her M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University. Her previous work experience includes teaching English in China, teaching Chinese at U.S. colleges and high schools, developing curriculum, managing Chinese programs, and coordinating international exchange programs for teachers and students. She is now managing the Chinese Guest Teacher Program, which has brought thirty-four Chinese guest teachers from China in January 2007. Ms. Lin is actively involved in interviewing and selecting Chinese guest teachers, selecting U.S. host schools, and supervising the Chinese guest teachers' work in the U.S.

Dr. Jay Lin received his Ph.D. from UMC and currently works for the Boeing Company. Jay is active in promoting the learning of the Chinese language, is the president of the National Council of Associations of Chinese Language Schools, and the school board chair of Seattle Chinese School. He served as the president of the Northwest Association of Chinese Language Schools in 2004 and was the principal of the Seattle Chinese School from 2003 to 2005.

Dr. Yu-Lan Lin has been a teacher and administrator for twenty-eight years and is currently working as the senior program director of World Languages of the Boston Public Schools. She is currently the executive director of the Chinese Language Association of Secondary-Elementary Schools (CLASS), board of director on the CLTA and the ACTFL boards. She served on the Chinese AP Task Force Committee for the College Board and serves as a content advisor for the Chinese AP Program.

Eileen Lorenz is project director of the K-5 Chinese FLES Project at the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, DC. Previous responsibilities include: K-5 elementary school principal, foreign language specialist, immersion teacher, project specialist for a Chinese immersion program, FLES, middle/high school foreign language teacher, producer of ten elementary foreign language immersion teacher training videos, and adjunct professor at George Mason University. Eileen holds a master’s of education with a specialization in adult learning.

Dr. Myriam Met is a senior research associate at the National Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland. Previously, she was a supervisor of foreign languages, responsible for designing, implementing, and supervising a variety of K-12 instructional program models, including: new high school programs in Chinese; the first Mandarin immersion program in a public elementary school in the US; one of the first magnet programs in the US to offer Chinese, Arabic, Japanese or Russian to students in grades K-5; content-integrated school wide programs in Chinese and Japanese for students in grades 3-5; and after-school Chinese programs.

Dr. Salam Noor serves as the assistant superintendent for the Office of Educational Improvement and Innovation and is responsible for curriculum and instruction, including second languages. Salam is a native speaker of Arabic and has taught Arabic language and literature at the University of Utah while working on his doctorate. He is fluent in Arabic and English and proficient in Hebrew and Persian. His teaching experience also includes international relations, comparative politics, Middle East history, and educational leadership courses at Portland State University and Western Oregon University. Salam is a former Fulbright scholar and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Utah in Middle East studies-political science.

Mary Patterson, principal of Woodstock Elementary, has managed the expansion of the Chinese Immersion program to include two kindergarten classes with plans for continued expansion through fifth grade. She has also assisted in expanding the program from fifth grade to Hosford Middle School. She has experience working to blend two programs in one building, addressing the cultural differences of staff members, aligning Mandarin and English curriculum and with in working with district, state and local agencies addressing teacher preparation and licensure issues.

Rebecca Richey is the program manager of the Foreign Language Assistance Program at the U.S. Department of Education. Rebecca provides leadership and programmatic expertise by directing activities related to grant competitions; providing outreach to national, regional, and state foreign language organizations; and assisting in policy decisions. In 2006, she was the recipient of the National Network for Early Language Learning (NNELL) Award for Outstanding Support of Early Second Language Learning. Rebecca is a returned Peace Corps Volunteer and served in Medellin, Colombia.

Dr. Marcia Harmon Rosenbusch is the director of the National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center (NFLRC) at Iowa State University. Dr. Rosenbusch leads the elementary school foreign language teacher preparation program at ISU in a joint appointment in the Departments of Curriculum and Instruction and World Languages and Cultures. In 1996, she received the Florence Steiner Award for Leadership in Foreign Language Education and in 2001, the Anthony Papalia Award for Excellence in Teacher Education.

Dr. Madeline Spring is the academic director for the Oregon Chinese K-16 Flagship program. Her research interests lie in two main areas: literature and language pedagogy. Author of the multi-level textbook entitled Making Connections: Improve Your Listening Comprehension in Chinese, she is a frequent presenter at national foreign language conferences and symposia and has offered workshops nationwide in technology-enhanced language learning, the use of authentic and simulated authentic audio and video, reading strategies, and issues in testing.

Vivien Stewart serves as vice president for education at Asia Society. She is responsible for Asia Society’s programs to promote the study of Asia and other world regions, cultures, languages, and global issues in America’s schools and for building connections between U.S. and Asian education leaders. In the U.S., this includes working with a network of state and national education leaders; creating a national initiative to expand the teaching of Chinese; managing a prizes program to recognize excellence in international education; providing professional development and award-winning Web resources for teachers and students; and developing a model network of internationally oriented schools in cities around the U.S. Internationally, she has developed a series of exchanges to share expertise between American and Asian education leaders on how to improve education to meet the demands of globalization.

Dr. Jacque Van Houten is the world language and international education consultant at the Kentucky Department of Education, president of the National Council of State Supervisors for Languages (NCSSFL), and on the board of directors for Central States Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and the University of Kentucky Asia Center. She recently represented the United States at the Council of Europe’s Intergovernmental Forum on Language Policy and has published several articles on LinguaFolio.

Jeff Wang, born and raised in Shanghai, completed his B.A. at Connecticut College in 2004. He is currently completing a master’s program at the University of Connecticut and is tri-lingual in English, Mandarin, and German. Currently, Jeff serves as the program associate for Chinese Language Initiatives at the Asia Society.

Dr. Shuhan C. Wang is executive director for Chinese Language Initiatives at the Asia Society, whose mission is to expand and strengthen the Chinese language field in the United States. Shuhan was the supervisor for world languages and international education for the state of Delaware and directed the Chinese Teachers Summer Institute at the University of Pennsylvania. She is involved in numerous national and international projects and has published many articles in journals and books. She is leading an international effort in developing Flying with Chinese, a Chinese language textbook series for K-6 learners.

Tom Welch has served in a variety of education-related positions, first as a classroom teacher in Kentucky and then curriculum consultant at the Kentucky Department of Education. More recently, he was principal of East Jessamine High School in Nicholasville where for six years he was a teaching principal, insisting that all administrators also teach one class every day. In the past few months, Tom has visited schools and universities across the U. S. as well as in France and China. Since leaving the Kentucky Department of Education, he has been working extensively as an independent consultant with the International Center for Leadership in Education the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), and other state and national agencies. One of his current projects is focused on the establishment of a series of national virtual magnet schools.

Margaret Wong was born in China. Her family fled the country in 1949 and eventually emigrated to Sao Paulo, Brazil. She came to the United States as a teenager to begin her education in the U.S. After majoring in foreign languages, she taught French and Spanish for several years before starting her career teaching Chinese language and culture in the Minneapolis Public Schools and Breck School. In the thirty years of her Chinese teaching career, she has founded Chinese language programs for many public and private schools in Minnesota and in the country as well as the Concordia Language Chinese Village. This past year, she was a founding board member of the first Chinese immersion school in Minnesota, Yinghua Academy, and an advisor for the Asia Society’s publication, Creating a Chinese Language Program in Your School. She was the founding member of the Chinese Language Association of Secondary and Elementary Schools and has also been active in a number of organizations as a board member, including USCPFA-MN, OCA-MN, Chinese Heritage Foundation and the China Center of the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Wei-ling Wu has taught Mandarin to American students in grades 6–12 for over nineteen years. Since 1997, she has worked with K-5 Chinese teachers in developing effective teaching techniques. She is a well-known teacher trainer in Chinese language instruction. Dr. Wu is the lead author of a series of Chinese textbooks: Chinese for Youth (Grades 7-12), Everyday Chinese (Grades 4-7), My Chinese Book (K-3), and Listen, Read, Think and Learn.

Linda Yang is co-founder and executive director of Xilin Association and the director of Xilin Asian Community Center of Naperville. Since its founding in 1989, Linda Yang has helped Chicagoland’s Chinese community maintain its unique heritage through educational and cultural arts programs. She developed the first Xilin Chinese Language School at the University of Illinois, Chicago, and the another one in 1991 in Naperville, to aid the children of Chinese graduate students. The program later expanded to include English, art, culture, and mathematics programs. Linda also founded Xilin Associations’ Senior Services, which includes adult daycare service, senior congregate meal program, and health education and screening program to ensure that the special medical and wellness needs of Asian seniors were being maintained. In 1997, she initiated development of the Xilin Art Center that has taught over 1,000 students traditional Chinese and Asian dance.