NAELPA Advisory Members

ACooper Consulting

Ayanna Cooper, Ed.D. is an educator, author, storyteller, and keynote speaker whose passion for advocacy centers around primary and secondary linguistically diverse student populations. She is also a U.S. Department of State English Language Specialist alumna. As a lifelong learner she's earned advanced degrees in education including a Certificate of School Management and Leadership (CSML) from Harvard Graduate School of Education and Harvard Business School. Ayanna is the author of several publications including the bestseller And Justice for ELs: A Leader’s Guide to Creating and Sustaining Equitable Schools, Black Immigrants in the United States; Essays on the Politics of Race, Language and Voice (co-edited), and as founding editor of Language Magazine’s Pass the Mic series.

WestEd

Molly Faulkner-Bond is a national leader in English learner policies, programs, and research. She currently leads several multistate initiatives focused on English learners, including a 30-state study of entrance and exit policies and a cross-REL working group on multi-language, bilingual, and heritage language learners. She has collaborated with SEAs across the country to support them in evaluating, implementing, and updating or changing state-level English learner policies related to language instruction, reclassification, and assessment implementation. She currently leads multiple federally funded research grants and contracts focused on English learners and also regularly contributes products, thought partnership, and technical advising to various federally funded centers including Regional Educational Laboratories (RELs), regional Comprehensive Centers (CCs), the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition (NCELA), the National Charter School Resource Center, and the National Research & Development Center to Improve Education for Secondary English Learners. 

UC San Diego

Dr. Megan Hopkins’ research focuses on policy and leadership with a specific emphasis on the education of multilingual learner students in the K-12 education system. Over the last decade, she has engaged in numerous applied research projects that examine the implementation of state policies related to bilingual education programming and the preparation of teachers of multilingual learners. She co-leads a research-practice partnership that leverages and conducts research to build state education agency leaders’ capacity to advance equity for multilingual learners in their unique contexts. Dr. Hopkins serves as co-advisor to the English Learner Collaborative of the Council of Chief State School Officers, the largest professional association for state education agency leaders in the country. Her work has been published widely in the form of academic journal articles, books, and policy reports and briefs. 

Language Educator & Advocate

David Rogers supports the work of Dual Language Education of New Mexico-DLeNM whose mission is to promote the effective design and implementation of dual language education in New Mexico, and beyond.  A founding member of DLeNM, David is a respected national leader in the dual language community who works with regional and national partners.
David has been serving the bilingual community as an educator for over thirty-seven  years.  In 1996 David and his colleagues helped to organize the first La Cosecha Dual Language Conference, which is hosted by DLeNM, where David served from 1999 until 2022 as its first Executive Director.

David is an advocate for culturally and linguistically diverse communities, and has provided leadership support for advocacy groups like Transform Education New Mexico and NM Hispanic Education Advisory Council, and NCEL.  David has been recognized for his contributions by being honored with several awards – la Orden de Isabel la Católica, from the King of Spain (2013), Promoting Bilingualism award from the Association for Two-Way, Dual Language Education (2014), the Earl Nunn Recognition (2017) from the New Mexico Coalition for Educational Leadership and most recently the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce President’s award (2022). 

David is husband to dual language educator Rosie González-Rogers, and together they have four bilingual/multicultural daughters and call Albuquerque, New Mexico their home.