Rebecca Blouwolff has taught French at Wellesley Middle School in MA since 1998, but fell in love with middle schoolers while serving as a Fulbright teaching scholar at a collège in Saint-Omer, France. Novice students inspire her to create engaging, age-appropriate lessons focused on global awareness. Together with her husband, she speaks non-native French at home to her own two children. She earned a B.A. magna cum laude in American Civilization and Judaic Studies at Brown University, and an M.Ed. in Teacher Leadership at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She is a certified MOPI tester, a National Board Certified Teacher, 2019 MaFLA and NECTFL Teacher of the Year, and 2020 ACTFL Language Teacher of Year.

Sara Chao teaches Mandarin Chinese at New Trier Township High School in Illinois.  She is an enthusiastic educator with over 20 years of experience.  She serves on the Board of Directors for the Chinese Language Association of Secondary-Elementary Schools (CLASS).  Sara regularly presents at CLASS and ACTFL, and has been serving as a Team Leader for STARTALK Read-On Literacy Program since 2012.  Sara regularly facilitates workshops and presents on numerous topics such as literacy development, using authentic materials, technology integration for world languages, and fostering an inclusive community.

Bertha Delgadillo is a high school Spanish teacher who teaches levels 2, 3, and AP Spanish Language & Culture in Savannah, Georgia. She is also a National Board Certified Teacher and serves as the lead facilitator for the high school Spanish professional learning community sponsored by the Georgia Department of Education World Language & Global Workforce Initiatives.

Iman Hashem is the 2019 California World Language Teacher of the Year. Iman has designed courses for teaching Arabic as a world and heritage language. She is the author of published and unpublished textbooks and multimedia course materials. Iman has shared her exceptional expertise by serving as a consultant for Arabic teaching programs at public and independent institutions, developing standards-based curricula and instructional resources, supervising teacher candidates, and serving as a STARTALK Team Leader.

Thomas Sauer is the codirector of PEARLL, a Title VI language resource center at UMD, where he has facilitated face-to-face and online annual professional development for language teachers. He previously worked as an independent consultant and a K–12 world language specialist for several school systems in Kentucky. Mr. Sauer taught German at the University of Kentucky, Georgetown College, the Kentucky Institute for International Studies, and Kentucky Educational Television. He is a sought-after workshop facilitator, curriculum developer, and keynote speaker. He previously served as an instructional lead for several successful STARTALK teacher programs. Mr. Sauer holds an MA in instructional leadership and school administration from Bellarmine University.

Laura Terrill is a nationally recognized independent consultant who recently worked as the senior associate for professional development for the National Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland. She taught French at all levels for 21 years before becoming the coordinator of foreign language and English as a second language and then director of curriculum for a school district in Missouri. She has taught methods courses in St. Louis and Indianapolis and continues to present at the local, state, regional, and national levels. She has served on the board of directors for the Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and ACTFL. She coauthored the second edition of The Keys to Planning for Learning: Effective Curriculum, Unit, and Lesson Design. Ms. Terrill holds a BA in French from the University of Missouri and an MA in secondary administration from Northeast Missouri State University.

Mike Travers is a Spanish teacher at Wellesley High School in Massachusetts and has taught learners both Spanish and French at the novice and intermediate levels. Mike is very active in professional learning communities through MaFLA, NECTFL, and ACTFL, where he presents, facilitates or participates in conferences and workshops to continue learning more about proficiency-based teaching. Mike is a member of the MaFLA Board of Directors and NECTFL’s advisory board and the winner of multiple awards for his presentations at MaFLA and NECTFL.