Past President

Dr. Mary Hudgens Henderson/Funder

Dr. Mary Hudgens Henderson is a professor of Spanish and Bilingual/Bicultural Education at Winona State University. She directs the Bilingual/Bicultural Education Minor program for pre-service teachers. She taught as a bilingual classroom teacher in Colorado before doing her doctoral studies in Hispanic Linguistics. Her research areas include Spanish as a Heritage Language, Critical Language Awareness, and educación intercultural bilingüe with indigenous students in Mexico.

President

Kaari Berg Rodríguez

Kaari Berg Rodriguez has worked in a range of bilingual education settings from preschool through adult and family education. For the past twenty years she has worked at Lakes International Language Academy where she is currently the Language Acquisition Coordinator for their K-12 Chinese and Spanish immersion program and 6-12 world language programs. She earned her MA in Second Language and Cultures Education from the University of Minnesota.

Vice President

Yacoub Alijaffery

Yacoub Aljaffery is a professor of ESL Education at Augsburg University. A former refugee and multilingual educator, his scholarship centers student voice, asset-based pedagogy, ethics of care, and translanguaging. His forthcoming Routledge book (April 27) examines narratives of success and resilience among students from refugee backgrounds in U.S. schools.

Treasurer

Dr. De Zhang

Secretary

Dolly Mariucci

Dolly Mariucci is an ESL educator in Saint Paul Public Schools whose work is grounded in culturally responsive pedagogy, educational equity, and inclusive instructional practices that support multilingual learners. She is committed to recognizing linguistic diversity as an asset and centers her work on equitable access, family engagement, leadership, and identity-affirming instruction to promote student success. Dolly is also a children’s book author whose writing focuses on bilingualism, language development, and inclusive education.

Webmaster

Liliana Rodríguez

Communications Director

Dr. Alejandra Estrada-Burt

Currently serves as Co-Principal at Robbinsdale Spanish Immersion (RSI) in New Hope, MN, part of Robbinsdale Area Schools. Her previous teaching roles include ElementaryELL and Behavior Interventionist and the past thirteen years as an administrator role