Leadership Team
Meet our Leadership Team and the authors of With a Little Help from My Friends Conversation-Based Instruction for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) Classrooms.
Interim Director
Associate Director of Professional Development
Associate Director of Program Development and Research
CLASE Coaches
Our CLASE Coaches help us with our on-the-ground, (wo)manpower when it comes to ongoing support for professional educators in the IC Pedagogy.
Elizabeth (Beth) Pridgen is a retired educator and administrator with 30 years’ experience in upper elementary and middle school. As an Instructional Coach, Beth provides support for teachers both in and out of the classroom. She also facilitates during training institutes.
Julie Eldridge joins the CLASE team with nineteen years of experience in education in Georgia. She has worked as an elementary ESOL teacher and a district coordinator of programs for multilingual learners (MLs) in grades K-12. In her previous district role, she was responsible for professional learning for teachers and administrators of MLs and has worked closely with CLASE for more than a decade. In her current role with CLASE, she will be supporting the implementation of the Instructional Conversation pedagogy with a focus on Newcomers.
Dianne Hall is a retired Gwinnett County teacher. She has taught grades 1-8 in Tennessee and Georgia. Her duties at CLASE include online coaching, teacher observations, Webinars, lesson planning support and approval, and Learning Labs in various counties.
Cindy Tu is a CLASE Coach with 29 years of experience in education. One of her deepest transformations as an educator was witnessing first-hand the impact of the Instructional Conversation pedagogy and the joy it brings to the learning environment. This experience has led her to join the CLASE Team to support teachers with IC implementation.
Shawn Thomas is a Lead ESOL Teacher in Gwinnett County Public Schools. She has 25 years of experience in the classroom, teaching Kindergarten, Second Grade, Third Grade, and ESOL throughout her career. Shawn supports Gwinnett County Public Schools, as well as CLASE Institutes, Renewals, Webinars, and On-line Coaching.
Graduate Assistants
Our Graduate Assistants help us with the logistical, administrative, and research aspects of our Professional Development. They happen to be our in-house tech gurus as well and we love them so very, very much!
Frank is pursuing a PhD in Philosophy and a Master’s Degree in Musicology. He is interested in the intersection between Philosophy for Children (P4C) and Instructional Conversation Pedagogy (IC). He is involved in research and professional development projects with CLASE.
Monica is pursuing a doctorate degree in Counseling Psychology. Her clinical and research interests are broadly in trauma work within the Latinx community particularly with children and families. At CLASE, Monica will be assisting in professional development projects.
Gisselle Velez is pursuing her Master’s in TESOL and World Language Education. During her time in her program and at CLASE, she hopes to learn different strategies to help support academic gaps with multilingual learners in her future classroom. At CLASE, Gisselle will be assisting with different projects and research in order to best support our educators in Georgia.
Dominique La Barrie is pursuing a doctorate degree in Developmental Psychology. She works to examine how CLASE impacts youth social-emotional state. Broadly her interests are in traumas impacts on families and child emotion regulation.
Julia Duncanson is pursuing her PhD in Language & Literacy Education. She is interested in bilingual education, dual language immersion, and supporting multilingual learners through Instructional Conversation Pedagogy (IC). She is involved in research and professional development projects with CLASE.
Kimberly is a PhD student in the School Psychology program. She aids CLASE with administrative tasks for the IC institute. Her research interests include bilingual language development and its effects on autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis.
Diego Morgado Innocencio is an Master’s student in the Learning, Design and Technology program. He works at CLASE as a graduate assistant providing tech support, and works on different projects related to audio-visual.
Libia Jiménez Chávez is pursuing a PhD in History and studies the formation of Latinx racialized identities and citizenship in the U.S. South. She holds BAs in Political Science and Philosophy from the University of Rochester and an MA in Human Rights from UCL.
Undergraduate Assistants
Our Undergraduate Assistants help us with the logistical, administrative, and research aspects of our Professional Development. They come alongside our Graduate Assistants as jacks of all trade!
Leslie Velasquez is an undergraduate student majoring in Health Promotion and pursuing an MPH in epidemiology. She supports CLASE’s outreach mission through communication channels such as social media and platform management.