About CARE Coaching

Our Values

  • Educator expertise and experiences
  • On-going coaching relationships built on mutual respect, trust and commitment
  • Responsive coaching styles and techniques within a cycle of action and reflection
  • Collaboration among coaches, teachers, administrators, students, and families
  • Voice and choice in all our partnerships
  • Neutral, non-judgmental reflection that fosters learning and growth
  • Analysis of multiple data points, including both qualitative and quantitative measures
  • Critical lens towards educational systems, policies, and instructional and assessment practices

Lead Coaches

Yvonne Williams
Director of MLL Educator Engagement at WCEPS, CARE Coach

Learning Forward Language of Coaching Graduate

Yvonne is the Director of Multilingual Learner Educator Engagement at WCEPS.  She collaborates closely with LEAs to discuss educator goals, needs, and develops the best path to topics that align with those goals. Prior to WCEPS, she spent three years with WIDA, as a Professional Learning Specialist working in both international and domestic settings. She has worked in education for 20+ years, teaching a variety of language ...

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Amy King
Assistant Director of Educator Engagement at WCEPS, CARE Coach - Advanced Cognitive Coach Certified

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 v...

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Talia Gray
Coordinator of Educator Engagement at WCEPS, CARE Coach

Learning Forward Language of Coaching Graduate

Talia Gray is Coordinator of Multilingual Educator Engagement at WCEPS.  Talia is a veteran teacher with over 18 years of classroom experience.  She has taught every elementary grade level in many capacities including Special Education, ESOL, and EIP.  Talia has served teachers and students in her role as an Academic Coach.  In 2020, she became a consultant for WCEPS and has delivered professional development...

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Consultant Coaches

Anna S. Sargent, Ed.D.
CARE Coach at WCEPS

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 teache...

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Babatunji Ifarinu
CARE Coach at WCEPS

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 sin...

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Colleen LeCompte
CARE Coach at WCEPS

Learning Forward Language of Coaching Graduate

Colleen LeCompte has over 30 years of experience in the field of education. She continues to teach at the Elementary level and works with grades K-6. Her teaching experience includes classroom teaching, special education, interventionist, and English Language Development.  As a Lead Teacher in her district, Colleen provides educational coaching and staff development focusing on academic, linguistic, and social-emotional cha...

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Daniel Yip
CARE Coach at WCEPS

Learning Forward Language of Coaching Graduate

Daniel Yip has been an educator of multilingual learners (MLLs) for 17 years in PK-12 public school environments and university-level, both in the USA and in China. He has provided direct and co-taught support to MLLs at every grade level. His mission is to provide differentiated coaching that allows teams of educators to develop an instructional program that serves every student; using race, language, culture, and experience as...

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Ivonne Perez
CARE Coach at WCEPS

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 wi...

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Jacqueline C. Ellis, NBCT, Ed.D
CARE Coach at WCEPS

Learning Forward Language of Coaching Graduate

Dr. Ellis is an ESOL and ELA Specialist. Jacqueline has a very strong background in both ESOL and English language arts programs.  Jacqueline’s doctorate is in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis on TESOL.  Jacqueline also has a master’s degree in TESOL education, and she is NBCT certification in ESOL.  In addition, Jacqueline has K-12 state certifications in ESOL, English language arts, and educational le...

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Katie Vázquez
CARE Coach at WCEPS

Learning Forward Language of Coaching Graduate

Katie is a dual language educator from Woodstock, Illinois. She began her career as a primary Spanish-English dual language teacher and has spent nearly 15 years as a dual language facilitator, working to help grow and strengthen the dual language program which spans PreK-12th grade. 

Katie enjoys working with teachers to expand their capacity to help language learners thrive. She has undertaken various professional d...

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Laura Chávez-Dávalos
CARE Coach at WCEPS

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, stud...

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Margarita Marrero
CARE Coach at WCEPS

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 schoo...

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Mishelle Jurado
CARE Coach at WCEPS

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 la...

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Silvia Romero-Johnson
CARE Coach at WCEPS

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 f...

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Tamisha Sampson
CARE Coach at WCEPS

Learning Forward Language of Coaching Graduate


Mrs. Sampson has been an educator for over twenty years. She has worked in the university and public school settings.   Her mission is to provide tar...

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