About CARE Coaching

Learning Forward Language of Coaching Graduate

Amy King has more than 20 years of experience in the field of English language teaching and learning both in the US and overseas. Before joining WCEPS, Ms. King was a Senior Professional Learning Specialist at WIDA for more than six years. She taught ESL in K–12 public schools, private language schools, and adult education programs. Internationally, she has taught in both Slovakia and South Korea. In Banska Bystrica, she was a visiting lecturer at Mateja Bela University. In Seoul, she worked at Shin–il High School as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant and at the Foreign Language Institute of Yonsei University. She was an English Language Fellow at Hanoi Metropolitan University in Vietnam through a program sponsored by the US State Department. In addition, she worked as an English Language Specialist through the same program to write, record, and produce a 10-episode fictional travel show to designed to teach American English and increase awareness of American history, culture, and values. She holds a BS in Speech and an MS in Journalism from Northwestern University near Chicago. She earned a TESOL Certificate from American University in Washington, DC and a Multiple–Subject Teaching Credential from National University in San Diego. In addition to certificates in Blended Learning, Microlearning, and E–Learning, she earned a Master of Instructional Design from the Association of Talent Development. She also holds a MS with distinction in Educational and Instructional Technology from National University.

Learning Forward Language of Coaching Graduate

Anna Sargent has 30 years in education serving various roles in public education.  She has served in the capacity of a middle and high school teacher, elementary and middle school administrator, and system-level director of federal programs. 

She teaches the ESOL endorsement to current and future teachers and serves as an adjunct online professor at Kennesaw State University teaching ESOL courses to future teachers. She received her BS and Masters in Education from UGA, Ed.S. from Clemson University in Educational Leadership, and Ed.D. from Georgia Southern University in Curriculum Studies.

Anna’s passion is advocating for MLL students and empowering teachers of MLLs with the tools they need to help support students and make them successful.  She also enjoys working with teachers and building-level administrators analyzing data to make informed decisions for MLLs.

Learning Forward Language of Coaching Graduate

Babatunji Ifarinu (Tunji) graduated from Florida A & M University with an undergraduate degree in History and Geography with teacher certification and earned an M.Ed at Georgia State University in Educational Leadership and Supervision. Conducting workshops on equity and access for culturally and linguistically diverse students, Tunji has advocated for students and teachers.  Tunji has been in the field of education since 1998 with 15.5 years in the classroom. He was formerly a sheltered social studies teacher who delivered instruction to immigrant students many of which had refugee status.  His other classroom experience includes primary, middle, and secondary inner-city schools. As an Assistant Principal of one of the most diverse elementary schools in America, he participated in raising the school’s score from 61 to 81. He has also authored and co-authored articles and book chapters on advocacy, equity, and access for Black Immigrants (Ch 7 Black Immigrants in the U.S. Peter Lang Publishing 2021) (Ch.15 Advocacy in EL Teaching and learning  Routledge Group 2019) (No Longer The Silent Subgroup Language Magazine 2016). Tunji builds collaborative teams and fosters instruction to improve and maintain the vision and climate of organizations.

WIDA Español Licensed Facilitator

Dr. Claudia Martinez is an ESOL leader at North Tattnall Middle School. She was the 2020 GATESOL Teacher of the Year. Dr. Martinez received the Best Example of Teacher & Student Wellbeing Programs award at the 2022 Georgia Tech and Learning Summit. 

Her personal story proves that students can accomplish anything under the right conditions. Dr. Martinez is a first-generation immigrant and high school graduate. She is a product of public education in a southern rural district. She is passionate about educating others and believes in the importance of critical and culturally sustaining pedagogy. She became an ESOL teacher because she knew firsthand the struggles of EL and Migrant students. "I became an ESOL teacher to help create better learning experiences and opportunities for other minorities," she said. “I want to show other minority students they can attend college and make a difference. I want them to see me and think, “If she could do it, I can do it too.”

Learning Forward Language of Coaching Graduate

Ivonne Perez has been a Special education teacher for more than 20 years in rural middle and high schools.  She got a masters in Bilingual Special Education from the University of Texas at El Paso and a Masters in Education with a focus on Autism from the New Mexico State University.  She has worked with verbal and nonverbal students. Ivonne has worked in different areas such as mathematics and reading with students with learning disabilities.  Prior to this she worked teaching ESL to maquiladora workers in Ciudad Juarez.

Jessica Fundalinski is a seasoned educator and scholar dedicated to fostering humanizing and inclusive learning environments for multilingual learners. She has more than ten years of experience in public schools working with multilingual learners as a middle school English learner teacher and department chair. She has also worked as a division-wide English learner specialist to support teachers and administrators in the D.C. metropolitan area.  

Currently, Jessica is pursuing a PhD in Teaching and Curriculum at Syracuse University.  Her research focuses on teacher education and preparation and presently is exploring the intersections of multilingual learners' linguistic development and humanizing pedagogy rooted in social justice, art and storytelling. 

She is a graduate of SUNY Oswego (B.S. Childhood Education), Syracuse University (M.S. Teaching English Language Learners) and The George Washington University (M.A., International Education).

Katie earned her Bachelor's degree at Central Washington University with an endorsement in ELL. She currently teaches as an ML and Academic Coach at an elementary school in the Kent School District in Washington State. Kent School District, is one of the largest districts in Washington state and serves students that speak nearly 130 different languages. Katie has taught in the Kent School District for the last 10 years and loves the diversity that is celebrated daily throughout the school district. 

WIDA Español Licensed Facilitator

Learning Forward Language of Coaching Graduate

With over 25 years of experience in both private and public education as an English, ELL and Bilingual instructor, Laura Chávez-Dávalos is currently the director of the Office of Learning Services at Trinity Christian College in Palos Heights, Illinois (a suburb of Chicago). In this role she oversees the provision of the college’s Bridge Program, academic strategies courses, peer tutoring, peer mentoring, academic coaching, study tables and disability services. 

A former high school ELL department chair, she has taught all levels of high school ELL and team-taught content courses to multilingual learners at the high school level. At the college level, she has taught ELL Composition and Bilingual Methods to aspiring educators.  

Chávez-Dávalos is a native of El Paso, Texas, who obtained a BA in English and MA in Curriculum and Instruction from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Cross-cultural and bilingual, Chávez-Dávalos is dedicated to removing barriers to student success at all levels and excited to serve as a CARE Coach at WCEPS.

WIDA Español Licensed Facilitator

Learning Forward Language of Coaching Graduate

Margarita Marrero has 15 years of experience in public education with a passion, and focus on improving school systems to integrate literacy instruction and content instruction to provide access and equity to English Learners. Her experience includes teaching Spanish and math at a dual-language elementary school in Miami, Florida, high school math in El Paso, Texas, and she has served on campus leadership teams at the high school level as an instructional coach and as an assistant principal.

Margarita’s guiding educational philosophy is that learning is inherently a socio-cultural process, therefore, learning occurs with a balance of finding and leveraging unique strengths while creating accountability for growth that is culturally responsive to the learner. She was born and raised in El Paso, Texas, and is of Mexican and Cuban descent. She received her Master’s Degree in Educational Administration from the College of Human Development at Lamar University and her Bachelor's degree from Saint Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas, with a major in Psychology and a minor in Mathematics. She is fluently bilingual in both English and Spanish.

WIDA Español Licensed Facilitator

Learning Forward Language of Coaching Graduate
Mishelle is a veteran bilingual teacher from the state of New Mexico. In her 20+ years in the classroom she has taught Spanish as a Modern Language, Spanish for Heritage Speakers, and for the last ten years was instrumental in developing and aligning Spanish and English language arts for emergent bilingual students and multilingual students in a secondary environment. She has been a Bilingual Coordinator and now she currently works as the Biliteracy Coach in Albuquerque, New Mexico for her local school district. Together with her colleagues, she helped develop a portfolio process for multilingual students to attain the Bilingual Seal of Literacy offered by Albuquerque Public Schools and the State of New Mexico Department of Education. She now coaches full time individual teachers, Professional Learning Communities and administrators. 

She has a BA in Spanish and Sociology, an MA in Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies with an emphasis in Bilingual Education, and is ABD at the University of New Mexico. Mishelle has also been on the board for Dual Language of New Mexico for 12 years. She has worked with WIDA in her state and as an employee. She is very excited to come back and work with WCEPS as a contractor. She believes that true innovation and collaboration are at the hands of empowered teachers. The more knowledgeable the educator and administrator, the better we are able to serve students. 

Mishelle and her husband Aldo, have two bilingual children in college, one who is on her way to becoming a bilingual educator like her mamá and the other a professional storyteller. In her home, bilingualism is celebrated and exalted to the point that her children could someday become stand-up comedians dedicated to the fusion of Spanish and English. For Mishelle and her family, bilingualism is not just something out of a book or a theory—it’s a way of life.

WIDA Español Licensed Facilitator

Dr. Ryan Rumpf is an educational leader whose work focuses on comprehensive and effective structures, systems and strategies for multilingual learners. He currently serves as the principal of an elementary newcomer program in the Midwest and as an adjunct professor for Missouri Western State University where he teaches courses on laws, policies and programs for multilingual learners.  

Dr. Rumpf has 20 years of experience working in K-12 schools as an EL specialist and coordinator both in the United States and Vietnam. He also served as the Director of English Language Development for the Missouri Department of Elementary Education during the development and implementation of Missouri’s ESSA plan and led the state’s Seal of Biliteracy initiative. Dr. Rumpf earned his Ed.D in educational leadership in 2023 from William Woods University.

Dr. Silvia Romero-Johnson is an educational leader in the field of K-12 education. She started her career as a paraprofessional working as liaison, interpreter and translator for Spanish-speaking students and families. She became a bilingual mathematics teacher in bilingual programs. Later, she became a principal for a whole school dual language education community school. She has been serving in cabinet level administrative positions in urban and suburban districts. She is the co-author for the book “Advancing Equity in Dual Language Education: A Guide for Leaders” by Velazquez Press. Her passion is to provide leadership for continuous improvement for leadership teams to sustain culturally and linguistically sustaining and inclusive instruction.

WIDA Español Licensed Facilitator

Veronica, a seasoned Special Education Teacher from Elgin, IL, brings a wealth of experience to her role. With a career spanning fifteen years, she has successfully taught a wide range of students with diverse needs, including those with ADD/ADHD, autism, learning disabilities, speech impairments, and noncompliant behavior. Her academic qualifications are equally impressive, with a BA in Communication and a minor in American Studies, an MA in Elementary Education with LBS I endorsement, and a Ph.D. in Educational Leadership, for which she is currently finalizing her dissertation. Her research interests are sensory rooms and behavioral interventions, which she is passionate about and has significantly contributed to her classroom program. Her skills in differentiated instruction, assistive technology, and multi-sensory lesson planning allow her to meet the needs of every student and create a space that will enable special education teachers to explore their ideas in their classrooms.

WIDA Español Licensed Facilitator

Wilma Valero served as director of the ELL Program for School District U-46 which is the second largest pre-k – 12 district in Illinois.  It is within the comprehensive lens of culturally and linguistically responsive instruction that Wilma, in collaboration with teachers, is given to the task of designing thematic units from kindergarten through sixth grade that integrate in an organic manner the relevance and rigor of language and content.

Her educational vision revolves and focuses on students within an environment of social and academic relevance.  This is complemented by expectations of rigor of language and content standards that ensure the student’s successful role in this global society.  Under her leadership, one of the most ambitious and successful transition at the national level of the Bilingual Program to the 80:20 Dual Language Program took place.

In 2012, the organization CABE awarded Wilma the prize Promoting Bilingualism District of Distinction for her strong commitment to promoting bilingualism. Wilma is a firm believer that success occurs every day in our schools when teachers are valued with a relevant support infrastructure that sees emerging bilingual students as their greatest strength. Under this premise Wilma implemented, in U-46, the Dual Language Academy, a forum of teachers, for teachers; all collaborating in the development of fairness and social justice in the journey of the teaching and learning process.

Wilma has master’s degrees in Elementary Education and in School Administration and Supervision. She also has endorsements from the state of Illinois in bilingual education and English as a Second Language.