Dr. Krishauna Hines-Gaither
Dr. Krishauna Hines-Gaither, Ph.D., is the Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships at Mount Saint Mary’s University in Los Angeles. She taught Spanish and methods in higher education for almost two decades in North Carolina. She now resides in Los Angeles, CA. Her publications include two recent books: The Antiracist World Language Classroom (Routledge, 2023) and Mastering Spanish through Global Debate (Georgetown University Press, 2023). She has authored or contributed to over 7 books and published multiple articles. She is the 2026 President of ACTFL, the first African American woman to lead the association in 60 years since its founding in 1967. In 2022, she co-chaired and launched ACTFL’s inaugural Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee. She is the Past Chair of ACTFL’s African American Students Special Interest Group. She is Past President of Fostering Language Acquisition in North Carolina (FLANC). As FLANC President, she helped to organize the state’s first North Carolina Summit on Foreign Languages and Cultures. FLANC named her the Higher Education Teacher of the Year. She was named the 2024 Woman of the Year by the Los Angeles County Commission for Women and Board of Supervisors. She was granted the 2024 Trailblazer Hall of Fame Award by the California Black Women’s Collective Empowerment Institute. Spectrum News named her a Voice for Change for her contributions to a more inclusive society. Dr. Hines-Gaither's ACTFL Presidential platform is I Am My Language: Roots, Rhythm and Resistance. She was recently invited to lead a global team developing an artificial intelligence plan for women to be launched with the United Nations in Geneva Switzerland in December, 2026. She is an advisor to the LAPD, serves on multiple boards and is a frequent speaker. Of all of her accomplishments, her greatest achievement is being the mother to her super talented 11-year old son, Giovanni, and wife to Julian.
Dr. L. J. Randolph Jr.
Dr. L. J. Randolph Jr. (he/any) is a linguist, educator, researcher, and social justice advocate. The youngest of eight siblings, he was born and raised in southeastern North Carolina and attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he studied Romance Languages and Linguistics (B.A.), Language Education (M.A.T.), and Curriculum and Instruction (Ed.D.). Before transitioning to higher education, he worked for a decade as a Spanish and ESL teacher in North Carolina’s public high schools. Dr. Randolph’s scholarly work focuses on how language learning can be a liberating and inclusive experience for all learners, especially for students from minoritized and marginalized linguistic and racial identities. His research and teaching engage with justice-centered, antiracist, and anticolonial pedagogies; the teaching of Spanish as a heritage or community language; and the centering of Blackness and Indigenousness in language education. He is co-editor of the volume How We Take Action: Social Justice in PreK–16 Classrooms (Information Age/Emerald Publishing, 2023). He has also served in leadership roles in multiple professional organizations, including past president of ACTFL (formerly the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages), Fostering Language Acquisition in North Carolina (FLANC), and the North Carolina Chapter of the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese (AATSP). He currently resides in Madison, Wisconsin, where he is a faculty member in World Language Education and Second Language Acquisition at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He enjoys running, cycling, watching horror movies, reading horror and sci-fi novels, playing video/board games, studying languages, and spending time with his wife Davida and daughter Vada.
Tanner Ziegelman
Tanner Ziegelman is an Innovation and Technology Educator with the Palo Alto Unified School District, where he serves as an Innovation and Technology Teacher on Special Assignment (TOSA). Based in Silicon Valley, he brings a background in secondary English and literacy to his work at the intersection of emerging technology and human-centered pedagogy. Tanner is dedicated to fostering learning environments where innovation empowers teachers and students rather than replaces the human element of education.
In his current role, Tanner leads professional learning on the effective and ethical use of Artificial Intelligence in the classroom. His approach balances a critical lens with an openness to innovation, ensuring that developing minds are protected while embracing the transformative potential of technology‑enhanced learning. He designs curriculum for Innovation Design Labs that introduce career and technical education concepts to elementary learners and supports K–12 educators in creating instruction that is purposeful, reflective, and student‑centered.
Tanner has shared his expertise nationally, including at the 2025 Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) Conference in Nashville and at a student-led AI Day at Stanford University. His work is grounded in a belief that technology should amplify creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking in modern education.