Meet the Experts

Meet our team of top experts, hand-picked to address your frequent questions and concerns about learning a second language.

• Ann Bentley, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist with over thirty years of experience working with adults, families and children in Northern California. She is the mother of two grown sons, both of whom started Spanish classes in grade school and went on to study, travel and work extensively in Spain and Latin America. Her elder son ended up marrying a young woman born in South America. They are raising their two children to be bilingual.
• Talía González is Head Spanish Teacher at The School at Columbia University in New York City. She is a veteran of the Teach for America program where she was a team leader and taught in kindergarten and 1st grade bilingual classrooms at New York’s Public School (P.S.) 5 for three years. In 2001, she organized a month-long trip for high school students throughout Spain, serving as teacher of Spanish language and literature as well as tour guide, mentor, and cultural liaison. As a founding faculty member of The School, Talía has taught Spanish in kindergarten to 8th grade classes, sharing her love of dance, reading, cooking, and exploration with her students.
• Phil Hubbard, Ph.D., is a senior lecturer in linguistics at Stanford University, where he also directs the English for Foreign Students program. A specialist in computer-assisted language learning, he is the author of over twenty software products for teaching English as a second language, serves on the editorial boards of four journals, and has published widely in the field. He is also a member of the Bilingo Club advisory board.
• Kendall King, Ph.D., and Alison Mackey, Ph. D., are linguistics professors at the University of Minnesota and Georgetown University, respectively, and are co-authors of the book The Bilingual Edge. Between them, they have written nearly a hundred research articles and books on bilingualism and language teaching methods. Also, they are both parents, teaching their children more than one language.
• Lori Langer de Ramirez, Ph.D., began her career as a teacher of Spanish, French and ESL. She holds a Master's Degree in Applied Linguistics and a Doctorate in Curriculum and Teaching from Columbia University. She is currently the Chairperson of the ESL and World Language Department for Herricks Public Schools in New York. Her interactive website offers over 40 virtual picture books and other curricular materials for teaching Spanish, French, and ESL, as well as multicultural education. She is the recipient of the Nelson Brooks Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Culture, several National Endowment for the Humanities grants, and a Fulbright Award.
• Mercedes Niño-Murcia, Ph.D., is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Iowa and is an expert in sociolinguistics. A native of Colombia, South America, she is proud to have raised a son who is fluent in both English and Spanish and proficient in Japanese and French.
• Elisa Niño-Sears is a bilingual mom of two young children and has been teaching, consulting, writing and editing for over fifteen years. She’s particularly proud of: her work developing educational programs to support socio-economically disadvantaged kids and homeless families in her community; her work organizing Stanford University’s Summit Series on Race in America; and her work training graduate students through her role as “mentor teacher” with Stanford’s Teacher Education Program (STEP). An award-winning educator, Elisa specializes in English as a Second Language and has written extensively on language acquisition and parenting for Nickelodeon.
• Carly Shuler is a researcher, developer, and author in the children's media and toy industry. Currently, she is a Fellow focused on industry initiatives and research at The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, where she recently researched and authored the reports D is for Digital and Pockets of Potential. Throughout her career, Carly has worked with a host of children's media and entertainment groups, including Sesame Workshop, Spin Master Toys, the Michael Cohen Group, and WGBH. She holds a master's degree in Technology, Innovation, and Education from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, where she studied how media and technology can be used to educate children effectively. Carly is passionate about the magic that happens when fun, research, and education converge, and is dedicated to working on quality children's products that inspire thought and creativity.
• Naomi Steiner, M.D., is a developmental-behavioral pediatrician and clinical researcher at the Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center/University where she is also an assistant professor in pediatrics. Dr. Steiner has a longstanding interest in bilingualism and multiculturalism, a topic that she enjoys teaching and discussing. After more than a decade of working closely with families around these issues she has written a book, with Susan Hayes, called 7 Steps to Raising a Bilingual Child. She is multilingual and is raising multilingual children.
• Catalina Zapata-Vial, the mother of three young boys, lives in Northern California. A native Spanish speaker, she married an Italian-American and together they have taught their kids to enjoy speaking in Spanish, Italian and English. In fact, their family has been the subject of a university study on trilingualism. Even their German shepherd Anka has joined in on the multilingual act, adding the family’s three languages to the words she had been taught in German by her breeder and obedience trainer!