Meet the 2025-2026 KQED Media Literacy InnovatorsMeet the 2025-2026 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. 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.
Ajalee Hood
ELA, Journalism
Southwest High School
El Centro, CA
Aja Hood teaches grades 9-12 in El Centro, California. She received her B.A. in creative writing from UC Davis and holds a Master’s in curriculum. She is also certified to facilitate social-emotional learning through Breathe for Change and meditation through Meditation Alliance International. This year, she is teaching 10th grade English, ESL support, and journalism. She is passionate about teaching students how to create media and content that allows them to express themselves and their views of the world. Outside of the classroom, she is a photographer and co-founder of a local cosplay club who participates in community events and fundraisers throughout the Imperial Valley.
Alisha Lindsey
History, Social Studies
Bradford K8 North
Littleton, CO
Alisha Lindsey teaches middle school in Littleton, Colorado. Currently, she focuses her teaching on Eastern Hemisphere studies and 19th Century U.S. History. She’s had the opportunity to serve in Title 1, Gifted and Talented, and as a reading interventionist. Alisha believes in the power of Project Based Learning and has supported PBL initiative in her current school. This belief in PBL provided Alisha with the opportunity to serve as a 2019 Grosvenor Teacher Fellow through National Geographic. For the past three years, Alisha has served on the iCivics Educating for American Democracy teaching fellowship supporting inquiry based learning for US History students and teachers. In her free time, you can find Alisha enjoying the Colorado mountains, gardening or reading a good book.
Alisia Engelhard
Social Studies, History
South Pasadena High School
South Pasadena, CA
Alisia Engelhard is Social Science teacher and former EdTech TOSA at South Pasadena High School in Southern California. She has 13 years of teaching experience in middle and high school classes and 5 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.
Arjuna Sayyed
Digital/Visual Arts
Park Day School
Oakland, CA
Arjuna is an Oakland-based, career-long educator and school/non-profit leader with a love for creating dynamic, equity-based school systems and experiences. Arjuna’s commitment to equity design is deeply rooted in his mixed race identity and experience attending 11 public schools across 5 states. In addition to his work as a liberatory play organizer and consultant, he currently serves as Park Day School’s founding Director of Equity, Inclusion and Belonging. Arjuna is passionate about using the power of digital media and audio storytelling to center student voice “…from the margins of our school and community”. Outside (and sometimes inside) of school, Arjuna is a fervent football freestyler, DJ, avid vinyl record collector and community arts-related podcast producer. Recently, he’s challenging himself to learn to play afrobeat drum patterns in the style of Tony Allen.
Aspen Mock
ELA
Forest Hills Junior-Senior High School
Sidman, PA
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. 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, Governor’s Proclamation 2024 and Pennsylvania Teacher of the Year Finalist 2024. She holds the following certifications: PBS Media Literacy Educator Certification, K-12 Principal Certificate, National Geographic Certified 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 recently completed a “Rain Poetry” Project with PA Humanities, and she currently serves as the Higher Education Chair and Southwest Regional Board Member for PAECT. 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 educational conferences and by using the Twitter handle @AB_Mock.
Belinda Shillingburg
ELA
Antioch High School
Antioch, TN
A high school English teacher, Belinda Shillingburg has been an instructional leader and ELD and English Language Arts educator for twenty-five years. A San Francisco Bay Area ex-pat she currently works closely with her 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 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 and PBS News Hour. 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 become voices, not echoes. An Adjunct SEL Professor at National University, she enjoys keeping up with EdTech innovations and best practices in teaching and learning via X @britlitlover91.
Edward Hill
Community Health, Educational Psychology
Skyline High School
Oakland, CA
Edward Hill is a teacher and Pathway Director at Skyline High School, teaching Intro to Community Health and Education (10th graders) and Intro to Educational Psychology (11th graders) in the Community Health and Education Pathway (CHED). For the past two years, Mr. Hill has participated in the KQED Youth Takeover as a guest, and this year, he worked with staff and his students to create content and record their perspective at the KQED offices in February. Mr. Hill’s extensive background in K-12 education has allowed him to find creative ways to center student voices in his classes, and he looks forward to building his capacity to continue this work with the help of KQED’s fantastic staff and resources. When Mr. Hill is not in the classroom, he spends time outdoors with his friends and family, exploring California’s beautiful parks and spaces. He is entering his second year as a volunteer leader for the not-for-profit national organization Outdoor Afro, which he leverages to connect the content from his class to actual outdoor activities, community issues, and general wellness overall.
Giavanni Coleman
Math and Digital/Visual Arts
East Avenue Elementary
Hayward, CA
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.
Jim Bentley
Multiple Subjects
Foulks Ranch Elementary School
Elk Grove, CA
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 National Geographic Society Education 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 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.
Jodi Hwang
ELA, Journalism
Los Altos High School
Los Altos, CA
Jodi Hwang teaches Digital Communications CTE classes — Journalism One and Yearbook Publication Design — at Los Altos High School. She previously taught tenth grade World Literature classes in the English department. As a teacher, she finds ways to innovate with media literacy in the classroom through KQED Teach courses and as a PBS certified media literacy educator. Her favorite media projects with students have included identity podcasts and research-based infographics. Prior to her teaching career, she was the editor in chief of Urban Family, an expat family magazine in Shanghai, China, as well as a web show producer and reference coordinator at a cable news channel in New York City. Jodi is currently a graduate student at the San Jose State University School of Information and holds an M.A. in Media Ecology from New York University and B.A in Communication from DePauw University, where she was also a Media Fellow.
Judy Smith
Government, Economics
San Lorenzo High School
San Lorenzo, CA
Judy Smith is a high school government and economics teacher at San Lorenzo High School in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is passionate about students learning the power of their voice. Judy teaches a civic action project (CAP) to her seniors and media literacy has always been a critical piece of that. Students publish their work (podcasts and infographics) on the KQED Youth Media Challenge website. Judy has taught for 23 years, is a KQED Media Literacy Innovator, and Bay Area Writing Project teacher. Judy was trained at UCLA’s social justice Teacher Education Program. She is the proud mom of two Oakland Unified students.
Katie Wolff
ELA
Neah Bay High School
Neah Bay, WA
Dr. Katie Wolff works for the Cape Flattery School District at Neah Bay High School, a public school in the state of Washington that is located on the Makah Reservation. Cape Flattery is the northwestern-most point of the contiguous United States and is called the “beginning of the world” by the Makah people. Dr. Wolff is Neah Bay High School’s Instructional Facilitator and Head of the English department. She also serves on several leadership committees, both for the District and the state of Washington. She is also a curriculum module writer, currently working on the new ERWC 9th and 10th grade curriculum. She has published several English content modules for Washington state. She also teaches English courses for Central Washington University. Dr. Wolff is raising six children and a Great Dane, and enjoys hiking and backpacking in her free time.
Kiara Hasbrouck
Science
Saint Andrew’s Episcopal School
Saratoga, CA
Kiara is a 7th year middle school science teacher with a passion for environmental justice and decolonization of STEM curricula. She has taught across the Bay area at both independent and public schools and is currently on her 4th year at Saint Andrew’s Episcopal School in Saratoga, CA. Her 8th grade students have participated in the Show What You Know Challenge for the past 3 years and have been featured various times on the KQED homepage and in newsletters. Kiara’s passion for nature extends beyond the classroom, viewing media-making and student-centered teaching as ways to foster a love for the Earth in her students. Outside of teaching, she collaborates with educators in her hometown of Fes, Morocco, and enjoys activities like snowboarding, mountain biking, running, and simply being outdoors.
Mary Kate Lonergan
Social Studies Curriculum Specialist
Fayetteville-Manlius Central Schools
Manlius, NY
Passionate about fostering critical thinking, media literacy, informed citizenship, Mary Kate Lonergan serves as the K-6 Social Studies Curriculum Specialist at Fayetteville-Manlius Central Schools. With a background in teaching 8th grade Social Studies, high school World History, and Participation in Government, she emphasizes media literacy as a core element of the social studies curriculum. Mary Kate is a KQED Media Literacy Innovator, acts as a Teacher Collaborator and consultant with Ithaca College’s Project Look Sharp, and is a mentor-coach with the Media Education Lab’s MediaEd Institute. As a PBS certified media literacy educator, Mary Kate has developed social studies and media literacy centered lesson plans featured on PBS LearningMedia in support of Ken Burns projects and other productions including The Bigger Picture and Historian’s Take.
Maura Nugent
ELA
Ogden International High School
Chicago, IL
Maura Nugent has 17 years of experience teaching all levels of English Literature and Language in Chicago Public Schools: at Kelvyn Park High School, John Hancock College Prep High School, and her current home at Ogden International High School. Ms. Nugent holds a bachelor’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis where she studied English literature, Spanish, and educational studies and a master’s degree from DePaul University. In addition to a love of poetry and great works of literature, Ms. Nugent brings a passion for social justice and student voice to her work, and is always interested in finding new ways for students to share their brilliance with an authentic audience beyond the classroom. During breaks from the school year, Ms. Nugent enjoys traveling and spending time biking and camping with her family.
Merek Chang
STEM
Los Altos High School
Hacienda Heights, CA
Merek Chang is a National Board Certified Science Educator who currently teaches high school at Hacienda La Puente Unified School District. His passion is to connect the community to the classroom and to build lessons that are relevant and provide opportunities to elevate student voices. He also is a curriculum developer whose work typically sits at the intersection of media and environmental literacy.
Mia Gittlen
Librarian
Milpitas High School
Milpitas, C
Mia is the School Librarian at Milpitas High School in Milpitas, CA. Her 20 years of experience in education include teaching Humanities in middle and high schools in Massachusetts and California, serving an instructional technology teacher on special assignment, as well as working in school libraries. 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. She is the founder of Active Educators, a monthly fitness meetup for educators in and around the Bay Area.
Nina Fabunmi
Digital/Visual Arts
Marina Middle School
San Francisco, CA
Nina Fabunmi is a contemporary representational artist with an MFA in Painting from the Academy of Art University where she was a member of faculty and an MAE Education with an art teaching credential. She currently teaches multimedia and traditional art classes at Marina Middle School in Pacific Heights, San Francisco, CA. She also has her own private studio practice at the Hunters Point Shipyard Artists Community and is a certified User Experience Designer as well. While vast in both traditional and digital arts, her work has been exhibited in Europe, Africa and America. She has won several art awards and has been published in renowned magazines such as the American Art Collector, Southwest Art, SF Chronicle, San Francisco Magazine and Artist Portfolio Magazine. She was commissioned to make art for the new Golden State Warriors Stadium and is a celebrated Chase Center Artist. She painted the mural at the India Basin Shoreline Park and has her art in permanent collections such at 49 South Van ness and the South East Community Center in San Francisco. She is prolific in a variety of art mediums and known for her emotionally charged expressive technique, which is primarily derived by the use of a palette knife. She is vast in portraiture, figures, landscapes and cityscapes. Inspired by her roots and environment, her paintings capture beauty and energy and other societal themes. She is also the published author of the book “Petals For My Tears” available on amazon. For more on her work visit www.ninafabunmi.com.
Rachel Collay
ELA
Westwood High School
Mesa, AZ
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 15 years she has taught students to analyze protest music and write songs of their own based on the headlines. Currently she teaches senior English and Dual-Enrollment writing and is 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 a hound dog. She spends most of her spare time writing, sewing, listening to music, and camping with her squad.
Ricardo Elizalde
CTE Media Arts
Burton High School
San Francisco, CA
Dr. Ricardo Omar Elizalde, Sr. continues to hone his craft of teaching for over two decades 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. For ten years, Ricardo worked as a Teacher on Special Assignment in SFUSD weaving content and technology into powerful learning environments and communities that share learning beyond the walls of the classroom. Ricardo has presented on media making and culturally responsive portfolios at district, state, national and international conferences.
Ricardo is a Doctor of Education in Learning Technologies. His dissertation blended language learning with multimedia making and sharing across digital platforms. He is also a PBS Certified Media Literacy Educator. In the 2025/26 school year, Ricardo will continue to explore the field of media literacy and portfolio development as a Media, Arts and Entertainment teacher at San Francisco’s Burton High School.
Richard Weiss
Science
Bronxdale High School
The Bronx, NY
I teach 12th grade Environmental Science at Bronxdale High School in The Bronx. Together my students work to tell the story of The Bronx through an environmental lens. We try to understand the history of this place through its geography, people and infrastructure. We then try to tell OUR stories about how that history impacts OUR lives in the present day and present these stories to a wider audience through the production of digital media. In my Astronomy class, students explore the history of human spaceflight through storytelling, illustrating and filmmaking in a course that uses creativity as a launch pad for understanding our place in the Universe.
A B.S. in Geological Science with a minor in Astronomy instilled in me a love for finding inspiration in humanity’s infinitesimal nature. A MA in teaching from the American Museum of Natural History helped me learn how to connect to young people and share that love. Teaching in The Bronx for 10 years has suffused me with a love of this place, and given me a passion for protecting an environment that so few people consider, but so many people rely on. My fellowship through Math for America has allowed me to connect with similarly inspired teachers and organizations across New York City. Now, I can’t wait to help make student voice the center of more classrooms nationwide as a KQED Digital Media Innovator.
Stephanie Ng Yue
Math, Science, ELA
Alice Fong Yu K-8 School
San Francisco, CA
With more than a decade in middle-school classrooms, Stephanie has cultivated a broad foundation in mathematics, science, and most recently English language arts. At Alice Fong Yu K-8, she teaches 8th-grade Algebra and English in the nation’s first Chinese immersion public school, implementing cross-curricular lessons that weave together problem-solving, scientific exploration, and literacy development. Drawing on her Wipro Science Education Fellowship at Stanford University, Stephanie integrates digital media, project-based learning, and culturally responsive practices to bridge concepts and foster curiosity. Committed to inclusive, community-centered classrooms, she looks forward to piloting media-rich, interdisciplinary units that empower every student to think critically, communicate confidently, and reflect on their growth.
Steve Hoffman
ELA
Middle College High School
San Pablo, CA
Steve Hoffman has been teaching for over 20 years and currently teaches English and social sciences at Middle College High School in San Pablo, CA, which is a dual-enrollment program located at Contra Costa College. He incorporates media and the arts into his classes whenever possible, hoping to give students more opportunities to be creative in the classroom. He also oversees the MCHS VAPA program. He is a firm believer in place-based education and uses the San Francisco Bay Area as a classroom to get his students out and exploring the stories and histories that are close to home. He has worked for the National Park Service Teacher Ranger Teacher program for the past eight years – two of them as a TRT at Rosie the Riveter National Historical Site in Richmond, and for the past six years as an instructor for UC Denver’s graduate place-based learning course helping TRTs develop lessons and projects for their own NPS sites. Prior to teaching, he spent 15 years as a recording engineer and touring musician, and he tries to bring this musical experience to lessons whenever possible. During his free time, he loves to get outdoors and travel with his wife.