Yiting Chu, Chair
Dr. Yiting Chu serves as the Multicultural/Multiethnic SIG as chair for 2023-2025. Dr. Chu is an assistant professor serving the Doctor of Education in Educational Program Development at University of South Florida, Tampa. His research is situated in the intersections of diversity and equity in education and teacher education policy and practice. Dr. Chu previously served as the Awards Committee Chair and the Program Chair for the Multicultural/Multiethnic SIG.
Sandra Leu Bonanno, Secretary
Dr. Leu Bonanno serves the Multicultural/Multiethnic SIG as secretary for 2023-2024. Dr. Leu Bonanno is an educational researcher associated with WestEd who focuses on culturally sustaining education and leadership particularly for multilingual learners. Dr. Leu Bonanno previously worked as an assistant professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver and considers herself a social justice advocate that engages educational partners at multiple levels, including students, teachers, leaders, and state agencies, to create structures, policies, and practices that sustain the dynamic identities and experiences of marginalized communities in schools.
Christopher Sewell, Treasurer
Dr. Christopher
Sewell serves as the Treasurer for the
Multicultural/Multiethnic SIG in 2023-2024. Dr. Sewell is the Dean of the Dr. Jewel Plummer Cobb Honors Program and Associate Professor of Education and Humanities at Talladega College. Previously, he was Associate Dean of Students and Dean of First-Year Students at Williams College and as Curriculum Manager at Praxis Labs. He has worked across the educational spectrum. His scholarship focuses on the experiences of gifted students of color with college access, the transition to college, and the experiences of Black students at Predominantly White Institutions. Dr. Sewell serves on the Editorial Board for the Journal of African American Males in Education (JAAME). He has previously served as the Program Chair for the Multicultural/Multiethnic Education SIG. He earned his Doctor of Education degree in Educational Leadership and Policy from Vanderbilt University, Master of Science in Education from UPenn, Master of Arts in Afro-American Studies from UCLA, and Bachelor of Arts in American Studies and History from Williams College.
Crystal E. London, Program Chair
Dr. Crystal London serves as the 2024 Program Chair for the Multicultural/ Multiethnic SIG. Dr. London is an equity researcher at the American Institutes for Research. Her area of specialization include content and technical expertise extends to multicultural issues of education, equity in education, curriculum and instruction, educational leadership, and hybrid and remote learning contexts. Dr. London’s current responsibilities include monitoring and providing support for the implementation of analysis plans. She is also working on projects aimed at improving access to advanced courses for historically marginalized groups and supporting efforts around desegregation and integration of schools. She has methodological expertise in quantitative and mixed methods research designs, protocol development, data management, statistical and qualitative analysis and interpretation, and report writing.
Neisha Terry Young, Graduate Student Council Chair
Neisha Terry Young is a doctoral candidate in the Ph.D. in Education Leadership and Policy program in the School of Education at Drexel University. She has over 12 years of experience as a middle and high school English Language Arts educator in Jamaica and the United States, where she operated in various teaching and administrative roles. She holds a teaching diploma in Double Option English from Shortwood Teachers College in Jamaica, in addition to a BA in English from Georgia State University (summa cum laude) and an MA in English from Southern New Hampshire University. Neisha is an immigrant citizen, having grown up in Jamaica. Her background is reflected in her research focus, which centers around exploring the intersectional identities of immigrant students and exploring ways in which immigrant youth can be empowered to navigate and respond to dominant deficit discourses about their identities through multiliteracies. Her goal is to identify ways to influence which policy and pedagogy to improve the educational experiences and outcomes of immigrant students.
Melisa Valentin, Social Media Chair
Dr. Melisa Valentin serves as the Social Media Chair for the Multicultural/Multiethnic SIG for 2023-2024. Dr. Valentin has loved dedicating more than 20 years to learning from diverse individuals in different contexts, specifically international students and historically marginalized ethnic and racial groups. She has enjoyed educational consulting, research, curriculum development, and instructional design. Dr. Valentin's life experiences have led her to focus her research on how curriculum impacts Latinx children, including their perceptions of their racial identity. She is interested in studying how the curriculum otherizes students through colonial narratives utilizing a theoretical framework merging critical race theory, reader-response theory, and principles of culturally responsive teaching. Her goal is to challenge the hidden curricula to build a shared vision of what all learners could become when they are met where they are and uplifted through cariño pedagogies, race-conscious curricula, and responsive instruction. Most importantly, she intends to foster equitable visions of our children's individual value and academic potential.
Jennifer M. Johnson, Immediate Past Chair
Dr. Jennifer M. Johnson served as the Multicultural/Multiethnic SIG as Chair for 2021-2023. She is an associate professor of higher education at Temple University and an active-scholar practitioner in the fields of college access and student retention. A former Philadelphia middle school teacher with a background in science and mathematics, she has spent several years working as a counselor and advisor for college access and success programs. Her research areas include high achieving students of color, historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs), students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), and graduate student experiences. This scholarship explores the ways race, gender, and class intersects to shape the educational experiences of students across diverse institutional environments.
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