2025
Multilingual
Special Education
Virtual Symposium:
Perspectives and Practices
to Transform Learning Landscapes
May 1 & 2, 2025
Event Description
Our 5th annual virtual symposium is designed for educators and practitioners who work at the dynamic and complex intersection of multilingual education and special education. During this collaborative learning opportunity we seek to amplify the voices of multilingual learners with special educational needs while working together to redesign and optimize their learning environments. Our two day virtual event features strength-based, dynamic, and culturally-sustaining practices that optimize educational opportunities for multilingual learners with exceptionalities. Leading scholars and experienced practitioners interact with participants to present their current work, showcase a wealth of resources, host breakouts, and discuss their latest ideas. All sessions will be synchronous live with recordings and handouts available for registered participants to access after the close of the symposium.
Featured Speakers
Professor - School of Education and Human Services, Molloy College
Andrea Honigsfeld, EdD, is professor in the School of Education and Human Services at Molloy College, Rockville Centre, New York, where she teaches graduate courses related to cultural and linguistic diversity and TESOL methodology. Before entering the field of teacher education, she was an English-as-a-foreign-language teacher in Hungary (secondary and adult) and an English-as-a-second-language teacher in New York City (elementary and adult). She also taught Hungarian at New York University. She was the recipient of a doctoral fellowship at St. John’s University, New York, where she conducted research on individualized instruction. She has published extensively on working with multilingual learners and collaborative instructional practices. She received a Fulbright Award to lecture in Iceland in the fall of 2002. Over the past 20 years, she has been presenting at conferences across the United States, Great Britain, China, Denmark, Japan, Thailand, Sweden, the Philippines, and the United Arab Emirates. She coauthored over 60 articles and chapters and coauthored or coedited over 30 books, 11 of which are national bestsellers.
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Senior Dean for Research, Scholarship and Graduate Studies, Molloy University
Audrey Cohan is Senior Dean for Research, Scholarship, and Graduate Studies at Molloy University, New York. She has been at Molloy for 29 years and has served as Professor, Chairperson, and Interim Dean. She began her career as a special education teacher in New York City working in self-contained and resource room settings. In addition to special education, she has TESOL certification and spends much of her time combining these two areas of interest. The textbook, Serving English Language Learners (2016) earned the Textbook & Academic Authors Association’s Most Promising New Textbook Award. Her recently co-authored book with Andrea Honigsfeld is titled Collaboration for Multilingual Learners with Exceptionalities: We Share the Students (2024). For this book, the authors have conducted field-based research and aligned the UDL principles with best practices for MLEs.
Head of the Dept. of Communication Disorders, University of Louisiana, at Lafayette
Ryan Nelson, PhD, CCC-SLP is the Head of the Department of Communicative Disorders at the University of Louisiana, at Lafayette. Trained as a clinical speech-language pathologist, he earned his doctorate in Applied Language and Speech Sciences from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He holds the Doris B. Hawthorne-BORSF Endowed Professorship in Communicative Disorders I. Dr. Nelson’s research considers the strengths of children with language learning differences and disorders who experience literacy construction challenges. In addition to many peer-reviewed publications, he is the co-author of Counseling in Communication Disorders: A wellness perspective and co-editor of The Handbook of Qualitative Research in Communicative Disorders.
Valley View District Leadership Team
Director of Multilingual Education, Valley View School District 365
Araceli has been an educator for 17 years. She is the proud daughter of immigrants who taught her the value of hard work, resilience, and staying connected to her roots. Spanish was the language of her home and heart, even when growing up as a bilingual student wasn’t always easy. Repeatedly hearing “No Spanish in this class” ignited a fire within her that led her into education.
Throughout her career, Araceli has served as a bilingual teacher, an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher, a newcomer teacher in the 3rd-5th grades, and a Multilingual Administrator. She is currently Director of Multilingual Services for her school district.
Collaboration has always been a cornerstone of her work, a value instilled in her through her upbringing. Araceli believes that teamwork among colleagues is a powerful force, essential for unlocking our collective potential and achieving meaningful success for our students.
Assistant Director of Student Services, Valley View School District 365
Linde is the Assistant Director of Student Services in Valley View School District, where she has played a pivotal role in supporting the co-teaching program throughout the district over the past five years, including Dual Language Co-teaching. With over 20 years of experience, Linde brings an understanding of the need for fostering inclusive learning environments for our students.
Linde regularly collaborates with educators to enhance specially designed instruction within general education settings. Her expertise lies in empowering teachers to implement effective strategies that cater to diverse learners, ensuring that all students have access to high-quality education. She is excited to share her insights and experiences, aiming to inspire others in the field of student services.
Symposium Organizers and Hosts
Co-President-Paridad
Symposium Co-Host
Cristina collaborates with educators on developing culturally and linguistically sustaining multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS); mathematics; literacy across the content areas; multilingual education; engaging parents, special education, and supporting Pre-K educators who serve Multilingual Learners. Cristina has taught at the elementary, middle school and university levels in the US and Mexico. At present, Cristina teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in the areas of Biliteracy, Assessment, and Foundations of Language Minority Education.
Speech Language Pathologist-
Symposium Co-Host
Theresa began her career on the Pacific island of Saipan, in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands where she worked with multilingual students and families in home, school, and medical settings. She coordinated a team of speech-language pathologists to develop culturally and linguistically responsive assessment and intervention practices for Pacific Islanders. Upon returning to Canada, Theresa worked in schools in the highly diverse Toronto area, while providing professional development and writing collaboratively on multicultural, multilingual topics in education. She has been working with local First Nations to design and implement programs and services for children in preschools and schools in home communities.
Cristina's & Theresa's Work Together
Cristina and Theresa's collaborative work melds the fields of multilingual education and special education into a framework for culturally and linguistically responsive practice for educators and practitioners in schools. Their solution-seeking process is featured in Special Education Considerations for English Language Learners: Delivering a Continuum of Services , 2023 (3rd Ed). They have collaborated on a volume in the Oxford University Press Key Concept Series for Language Learners, Focus on Special Educational Needs (2018) as well as: Welcoming Bilingual Learners with Disabilities into Dual Language Programs with Fred Genesee and John Hilliard (2022), and a chapter in ¡QUE BUENO! A History of Advocacy and Care for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education (2023).