Meet the 2023-2024 KQED Media Literacy InnovatorsMeet the 2023-2024 KQED Media Literacy Innovators
Meet this year’s KQED Media Literacy Innovators cohort! These educators successfully integrate critical thinking about media and media-making skills into their classrooms, or to the teachers they coach or lead. They are leaders from across the country who collaborate with KQED to create and share the best professional development and classroom resources on media literacy. Follow them throughout the year via #KQEDInnovators on Twitter.
Jim Bentley
Multiple Subjects
Foulks Ranch Elementary School
Elk Grove, CA
@Curiosity_Films
Jim Bentley teaches 5th grade in Elk Grove, California. He integrates research, reading, and writing with GIS, audio storytelling, filmmaking, civic action and environmental literacy in a project-based learning classroom. Bentley is a National Faculty Member for PBLWorks, a curriculum writer for PBLNow, a National Geographic Society Fellow and Explorer, and a KQED and PBS Digital Innovator. As National Faculty, he leads professional development on implementation and refinement of Gold Standard Project Based Learning. As a PBLNow writer, he creates PBL learning experiences for use by teachers and students. As a Fellow, he’s reviewed and refined National Geographic’s Geo-Inquiry Process materials, trained teachers at national institutes, and contributed to the development of an online Geo-Inquiry course. As an Explorer, Bentley and students have researched and mapped how plastic moves from suburb to sea. They’ve studied the rise of orbital space debris and its parallels to marine pollution. More recently, they’ve begun using geographic information systems to analyze their community to understand how diversity, opportunity, and inequality are distributed spatially. Working with KQED and PBS, Bentley has supported media creation and literacy initiatives to empower teachers and students to be creators and consumers of digital media. Bentley graduated Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo with a B.S. in social sciences and an emphasis in cross-cultural studies.
Merek Chang
Science TOSA
Hacienda La Puente USD
City of Industry, CA
@workman_chang
Merek Chang is a Science Teacher on Special Assignment for Hacienda La Puente Unified School District He received his B.S from UC Davis in Food Science and Technology and worked full time in the food industry prior to entering education. It is his desire to incorporate media literacy and technology in to his lesson plans whenever applicable and, if possible, through the lens of food. He is currently serves on the teachers working group for California’s Environmental and Climate Change Literacy Projects.
Giavanni Coleman
Math and Digital/Visual Arts
East Avenue Elementary
Hayward, CA
@giacoleman
Giavanni Coleman is a 5th and 6th grade STEAM teacher at East Avenue Elementary School in Hayward, California. This past school year, she spent time working with the Geo-Inquiry Process and Storytelling through National Geographic. She has been a member of the California Teachers Association Instructional Leadership Corps for seven years with a focus on equity and access in mathematics. Previously, she was an instructional math coach for ten years, developing math curriculum and assessments. As a health educator, she is committed to bringing health education curriculum into every elementary classroom.
Rachel Collay
ELA
Westwood High School
Mesa, AZ
@heyheymscollay
Rachel Collay thrives on sharing her passion for literature, music, art, and sustainability with her students. Teaching with technology allows her to help students master the content standards while learning meaningful ways to present their work to a larger audience. Building off the obvious appeal of media to young people, she works to find the intersection of ELA standards and modern literacy modes so that reading and writing skills are authentic and relatable. She has a passion for the power of protest songs and for the last ten years she has taught students to analyze protest music and write songs of their own based on the headlines. Currently, she is the co-chair of the English department, AP Literature and senior English teacher, and sponsor of Westwood High School’s Earth Club and Word! Poetry Slam. She lives in Mesa, Arizona with her husband, two sons, two “daughters-in-law” and two hound dogs and spends most of her spare time writing, sewing, listening to music, and camping with her squad.
Saul Duarte
TOSA (Elementary)
Los Angeles USD
Los Angeles, CA
@Saul_Duarte1
Dr. Saul Duarte is an LAUSD, CSULA, and UCLA alumni who has taught at all school levels in K-12 general and special education, to teacher training and graduate university programs. He strives to utilize current technologies and applications to promote the purposeful interdisciplinary integration of technology into instruction by utilizing approaches such as digital citizenship, game-based learning, computer science, physical computing, robotics, artificial intelligence, AR/VR, and all-new multimedia video/audio digital tools that can help students learn and teachers leverage instructional technology to educate students and their parents/communities.
Ricardo Elizalde
TOSA, Dept. of Technology
San Francisco USD
San Francisco, CA
@elizaldericardo
Dr. Ricardo Omar Elizalde, Sr. honed his craft of teaching for 18 years in the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD). A lifelong learner, Ricardo started to experiment with multimedia projects early in his teaching career as an English and English learner teacher. From puppet shows to film festivals, Ricardo enjoyed creating a classroom community of storytellers and media-makers. Currently he works as a teacher on special assignment in SFUSD trying to weave content and technology into powerful learning environments. He is a doctor of education in learning technologies. His dissertation blends language learning with multimedia making and sharing across digital platforms.
Alisia Engelhard
History/Social Studies, EdTech TOSA
South Pasadena High School
South Pasadena, CA
@mylifeinmedia
Alisia Engelhard is Social Science teacher and EdTech TOSA at South Pasadena High School in Southern California. She has 11 years of teaching experience in middle and high school classes and 4 years of working with teachers in her district to integrate technology in meaningful ways in the classroom. She is passionate about providing students with an opportunity to discover their own voice in advocating for change and developing their civic online reasoning skills to be active and informed citizens.
Lisa Ernst
ELA, Social Studies/History, STEAM
Alice Fong Yu K-8
San Francisco, CA
@lae121
With over thirty-two years of teaching middle school students, Lisa teaches at the First Chinese Immersion Public School in the Nation, Alice Fong Yu K-8. She has developed integrated content through a Makerspace environment. In order to create the culture of learning, Lisa has had 81 projects funded through Donors Choose. Her vast commitment as a lifelong learner, has enabled her to participate in various fellowships from NASA, Department of Energy, the Yale National Initiative, Exploratorium, the 1990 Institute, to the Strategic Education Research Partnership with Stanford. With these experiences, Lisa has co-developed a vast assortment of curriculum which includes the San Francisco Unified School District Science NGSS in Middle School Science. Leading to a variety of presentations and speaking events from the NSTA, Donors Choose,1990 Institute, CUE, CSTA, CABE, to Sino-USA in Shanghai. Recently, Lisa was selected as a Wipro Fellow at Stanford as well as a Fellow with Food Education through Pilot Light. Through all of these experiences, she was honored to receive the Sylvia Shugrue Award from the National Science Teacher Association as well as the RAFT Bay Area 2020 STEAM Teachers of the Year.
Mia Gittlen
Librarian
Redwood Day School
Oakland, CA
@miagittlen
Mia is the Head Librarian at Redwood Day School in Oakland, CA. Her 15 years of experience in education include teaching Humanities in middle and high schools in Massachusetts and California as well as three years as an instructional technology teacher on special assignment. Mia is passionate about amplifying student voice, media literacy, and maker-centered learning. In her spare time, she enjoys bullet journaling and reading young adult fiction.
David Greenbaum
Principal
St. Thomas More School
San Francisco, CA
David Greenbaum (aka Mr. G) is a San Francisco native who has produced, directed and taught drama and music throughout the Bay Area for more than 20 years. David currently teaches performing arts and serves as the principal of St. Thomas More School in San Francisco and previously served in SFUSD’s Arts Department. He has taught more than 5,000 in students grades K through 12 and beyond, and holds a BA (Communications), a MAT (Theatre Arts), and a MA (School Administration). David was SFUSD’s first Performing Arts Master Teacher (Teacher Leader Fellowship) and a 2018 Dreamcatcher Honoree. He is also a certified practitioner (Six Seconds Emotional Intelligence Network) and former regional program specialist (Music Will / Little Kids Rock) and Modern Band Summit presenter.
Bob Kelly
History/Social Studies
Minarets High School
O’Neals, CA
@MrKellyIII
Bob Kelly teaches college US History, AP US Government and AP Macroeconomics at Minarets HIgh School outside Yosemite National Park and lives with his wife and teenage kids in the Sierra Nevada foothills of California. Bob has taught for 25 years in all sorts of social studies content areas and school settings including Palo Alto, Mariposa, and the Central Valley. He is a teacher trainer and speaker on US history, social studies, technology integration, and project based learning and has been an AP US History consultant for the College Board as well as a Google Apps for Education Certified Innovator, and a KQED Medial Literacy Innovator. Bob was also a football coach for 25 years and a basketball coach for four years.
Ken Kusactay
ELA, Journalism
Oakland Military Institute
Oakland, CA
Ken Kusactay is a 6th year teacher from Queens, NY. He has taught both middle school and high school ELA, ELD, and AP courses as well as acted as English Department Chair. He is currently working at Oakland Military Institute as a 10th grade ELA teacher and Instructional Coach. As of December 2020, he achieved National Board Certification and continues to pursue professional development in the mission of serving his students and amplifying his pedagogical skills. He is passionate about philosophy and enjoys integrating critical thinking and theory into his curriculum. Outside of school he enjoys traveling to new places, trying new foods, cooking, baking, and punk and 90s hip hop music.
Mary Kate Lonergan
Social Studies
Eagle Hill Middle School
Manlius, NY
@ms_lonergan
Mary Kate has taught 8th grade students to critically engage with media and information in the social studies settings for 13 years and has made media literacy the heartbeat of the social studies curriculum. She empowers students to think critically, ask questions, reflect, create and use their voice to take informed action. Mary Kate serves as board member on the Central New York Council for the Social Studies, has written media literacy lesson plans supporting Ken Burns documentaries featured on PBS LearningMedia. She also works as an educator collaborator and lesson writer for Ithaca College’s media literacy organization Project Look Sharp. She has presented workshops and sessions at the National Council for the Social Studies and National Association for Media Literacy Education conferences as well as at state and local social studies conferences. Mary Kate has also developed and implemented professional development courses for integrating media literacy skills and practices across different content areas. Mary Kate holds a Masters in Education and a Graduate Certificate in Digital Literacy from the University of Rhode Island.
Samantha McMillan
History/Social Studies Science
Ashland Middle School
Ashland, OR
@emergingedu
Samantha McMillan is a 7/8 Humanities teacher at Ashland Middle School in Ashland, Oregon. She has over 13 years of teaching experiece in 5th-8th grade social studies in STEM. Her experience includes the Fund for Teachers Fellow (2023), IDEO Teacher’s Guild Design Thinking Teacher Fellowship (2017/2018), IREX Teachers for Global Classrooms (2016/2017) and SCCOE TI STEM Teacher of the Year (2017). She is a certified California Naturalist and contributor to the UC Berkeley/SCCOE Informed Action Civics Teacher Research Group. She is passionate about developing social studies curriculum that emphasizes design thinking, global issues and civic action. She stays connected with educators on Twitter @emergingedu.
Aspen Mock
ELA
Forest Hills Junior-Senior High School
Sydman, PA
@AB_Mock
Dr. Aspen B. Mock is an English language arts educator at Forest Hills Junior-Senior High School in Western PA, and an adjunct professor in the Executive Doctoral program at Saint Francis University. Dr. Mock’s educational philosophy and approach is to provide a creative, collaborative educational environment and writing community with a focus on 21st century skills, service-learning and critical thinking. Her doctorate is in educational leadership and administration; her dissertation focuses on creativity. She currently teaches English Language Arts 9 and 10. Dr. Mock has won several awards and honors, including The Henry Ford Innovative Teacher of the Year Award 2022, YWCA Tribute to Women Award Arts & Letters, a House of Representatives Citation, Keystones Technology Innovator Star, a PSEA House of Delegates featured educator, featured in PSEA Voices, and is currently a finalist for National State Teacher of the Year Pennsylvania. She holds the following certifications: PBS Media Literacy Educator Certification, K-12 Principal Certificate, National Geographic Certified Educator, Nearpod Certified Educator, Flipgrid Certified Educator, Certified Microsoft Innovative Educator, Google Certified Educator, Apple Teacher, and Common Sense Educator. She is also a Yoga Alliance registered yoga teacher and children’s yoga teacher. She is a playwright who has had two plays staged for major charitable organizations and has been featured in the Dramatist Guild’s Magazine, The Dramatist. A two-time National Geographic Education grantee, she led a National Geographic Education grant initiative to empower students to write and publish an Explorer Mindset children’s book. She enjoys spending time playing, laughing, dancing, singing and exploring the world with her two amazing daughters. She connects with other educators by speaking/attending conferences such as ISTE, WPCTE, and PCTELA, and by using the Twitter handle @AB_Mock.
Judith Okolie
Technology/Engineering, Digital/Visual Arts
Tennyson High School
Hayward, CA
@edtechandsocia1
Judith Okolie teaches multimedia at Tennyson High School in Hayward and really enjoys working with students on audio and video projects. She’s worked with KQED Youth Takeover for two years and is very grateful for the opportunity to showcase student work to a larger audience. In addition to this program, Judith is also enrolled in a CS program at San Francisco State University and hopes to obtain her supplementary computer science credential next year. When she’s not working, she’s traveling the world in search of new adventures.
Belinda Shillingburg
ELA
Antioch High School
Antioch, TN
@britlitlover91
A High School English teacher, Belinda Shillingburg has been an instructional leader and ELD and English Language Arts educator for twenty-three years. A San Francisco Bay Area ex-pat she currently works closely with her library team to bring digital media literacy and Project Based Learning to high school students in Nashville, Tennessee. In addition to helping teachers increase their Media Literacy Skills, Belinda has been a Digital Media Literacy Innovator with KQED since 2017 and has presented on student voice and choice at CUE, CATE, ISTE, NCTE, and NCSS in partnership with the KQED Education Department. While grounding students in career and college skills and competencies, her greatest passion is to help facilitate student growth as critical readers, writers, and thinkers, so learners may become voices, not echoes. She enjoys keeping up with EdTech innovations and best practices in teaching and learning via X @britlitlover91 and is an Adjunct Professor in the SEL Master’s degree program at National University.