Eliezer Hernández was born in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, and raised in a bilingual, multicultural household in the South Bronx to a Dominican immigrant. After graduating from high school, he attended SUNY Oswego, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Music and a Master’s in Education. He served as President of Nuestra Esperanza, the Latino Student Union, and a co-founder of Phi Iota Alpha Latino-American Fraternity, Inc. chapter at SUNY Oswego. Dr. Hernández earned his doctorate in Executive Leadership from St. John Fisher University in May 2020. His dissertation focused on the identification and the Influence of Urban School Leaders’ Personal Beliefs, Attitudes, and Behaviors on Leading Urban Social Justice Schools.

Dr. Hernández worked as a Spanish teacher in the Auburn Enlarged City School District for ten years. While in Auburn, he became the Spanish Club advisor and founded the José de San Martin chapter of La Sociedad Honoraria Hispánica. In 2010, Dr. Hernández joined the Syracuse City School District as an administrative intern and later became a vice principal at the Westside Academy at Blodgett. In 2014, he became the principal of Delaware Primary School, where he began building a PreK-5 bilingual school in Syracuse. He now serves as the Coordinator of Data Management for the Syracuse City School District.

In the community, Dr. Hernández serves as the President of the Auburn/Cayuga County Branch of the NAACP, a board of directors of the National Math Foundation, a board of directors of AADUNA, Inc., and secretary of the Minority Professionals Association. He is serving his fourth term on the Auburn Enlarged City School District Board of Education. Dr. Hernández is the secretary and Spanish Language Delegate of NYSABE.

Dr. Gliset Colón is an Assistant Professor with the Exceptional Education Department at SUNY Buffalo State. She is also the Coordinator for the Bilingual Graduate Certificate Program. Dr. Colón teaches courses on topics related to bilingual special education, behavior and classroom management, and foundations of special education. In addition to teaching, Dr. Colón has research interests and expertise in literacy and language outcomes for multilingual students with and without disabilities, multi-tiered systems of support, disproportionality, culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogy, and intersectionality. Dr. Colón is actively involved in several professional organizations including the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), CEC Teacher Education Division (TED), National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE), and the New York State Association for Bilingual Education (NYSABE).

Dr. Jordan González started his career teaching English as a Foreign Language in Madrid, Spain.  He followed his passion for bilingual education and became an ENL and Spanish for Heritage Speakers Teacher for five years, in the New York City Department of Education.

Dr. González then served as the Director of Language Acquisition for Yonkers Public Schools, where he led K-12 programs in Bilingual Education (Dual Language and Transitional Bilingual Education), English as a New Language, and World Languages, across forty schools.  During those four years, he provided leadership and professional learning to principals, teachers and families on ELL-English Language Learner state regulations (CR-Part 154), ELL programs, and instruction for language development.  Dr. González started and cultivated the NYS Seal of Biliteracy program in Yonkers, in 2017, where seniors graduate with formal recognition of their proficiency and academic achievement in English and a World Language.

Currently, Dr. Jordan González serves as the administrative coordinator and lead resource specialist for the Long Island Regional Bilingual Resource Network (L.I.RBERN), where he provides technical assistance, professional development, and support to school districts in Nassau and Suffolk counties as it relates to ELLs.  He participates in NYSED taskforce committees for the Office of Bilingual Education and World Languages (OBEWL) including the NYS Seal of Biliteracy Taskforce and is currently the Chair for the ELL Graduation Rate Taskforce.

Lastly, Dr. González is a TESOL and Bilingual Education faculty member at St. John’s University, where he prepares the next generation of K-12 teachers for certification and ELL instruction.  His research interests include feedback in second language writing development, language and literacy instruction within culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms, and ELL educational policies.

Shirley J. Vargas is an accomplished educator who has dedicated over 20 years of her career to serving multilingual students of diverse backgrounds and has held various roles in the learning community. For 10 years, she served as Chairperson of the Department of World Languages at Westbury High School. She was instrumental in establishing a Home Language Arts program in

the Westbury School District, expanding the department with new teaching positions, and also establishing a language lab as an educational tool for language students via technology. The AP Spanish program has since grown two-folds, gearing students to become high achievers and true commodities to the industries they

will enter post-graduation. She serves as the NYS Seal of Biliteracy Coordinator for her district, and also co-leads as a Grant Advisor at Westbury for Nassau Community College Science and Technology Entry Program. (NCC-STEP)

Ms. Vargas’ experience includes professional development and instructional practices for second language study, English language learners, bilingual education, and college-level language study. Additionally, she holds several board positions, President of HHSRC of Melville NY, Secretary of Club Salitre Ecuatoriano of NY, and board member of Long Island Immigrant Student Advocates; each engaging the community in cultural connections and family-oriented initiatives.

She is a graduate of Hofstra University where she completed a dual major in Elementary Education and Spanish, alumni of Queens College, has completed two Master Degrees, in Education and Educational Leadership, obtained her Advanced Certification in leadership at the College of St. Rose in Albany, NY, and completed the 21 Century Learning Design/STEAM Academy program via NYIT. Additionally, she holds U.S federal clearance and works in pre-trial preparations, for DOJ Offices.

Serving as a co-leader for Latina Moms Connect, has also invited personal and community engagements for her family. Together with her husband, they have nurtured in their children pride in their Ecuadorian and Dominican backgrounds. As a proud parent of four bilingual children of her own, Ms. Vargas has dedicated her life to educating children to embrace the following ideology, “Your fluency in more than one language, pride in your cultural background, and passion to learn, are the core principles to success and the emblem that defines your greatness.”

Lyda Ragonese is the Supervising Director for the Department of English as a New Language, World Languages and Bilingual Education in the Syracuse City School District. She is a Hmong-American from Laos and is a fluent speaker of Hmong. She began her teaching career in 1993 as an English as a Second language teacher at Franklin Elementary before moving to Frazer K-8 School in Syracuse. She has her TESOL certification from Le Moyne College and M.A. in Reading Education from Syracuse University. After leaving the classroom, her experiences varied in the fields of student learning objectives (SLO), APPR, and was elected as the treasurer of the teacher’s union in Syracuse. She has served as an adjunct professor at Le Moyne College and earned her Certificate of Advanced Studies (C.A.S.) from Syracuse University in Educational Leadership.

Analy Cruz-Phommany currently serves as the Director of Bilingual Education for the Rochester City School District. As a former English Language Learner, she considers it an honor to have begun her career as a bilingual pre-kindergarten teacher.  She served students as a bilingual fifth-grade teacher for eight years and three years as an instructional coach at Enrico Fermi School No. 17.  She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Early Childhood and Childhood Education from SUNY Cortland, as part of Cortland’s Urban Recruitment of Educators (CURE) Program. She went on to obtain a Master’s Degree in TESOL at Nazareth and a Master’s Degree in School District Leadership at the University of Rochester.

With a focus on Bilingual Education and Latino Achievement, she currently serves her local community as a member of the Rochester Latinx Leadership Roundtable, the NYSED ELL Leadership Council, and as a newly inducted regional delegate of the New York State Association of Bilingual Education (NYSABE).

Her aspiration is to establish a district culture where there is an individualized learning plan for bilingual students, where the success of each student matters, and where teachers are empowered to meet the language needs of all students.   Working together to cultivate a bilingual, biliterate, and bicultural community.