2026 Virginia TESOL Conference

October 8 and 9 - Richmond, VA

"Together We Thrive: Community, Compassion, and Multilingual Learner Success"


                                        Opening Keynote

     

Dr. Carol Salva is an award-winning educator, author, and consultant who specializes in supporting multilingual learners, especially those categorized as SLIFE (Students with Limited or Interrupted Formal Education). She has taught elementary, middle and high school. Carol received her doctorate while researching factors that contribute to the persistence of learners who are SLIFE. She serves as a lead educational consultant with Seidlitz Education, where she provides training, modeling, coaching, and professional development to teachers and school leaders. 


Keynote Session: Supporting Multilingual learners in Challenging Times

Concurrent Session: Rapid Literacy for Older MLs


                                          Closing Keynote

  

Dr. Conchita Hernández Legorreta was born in Mexico and grew up in California. She advocates for the rights of blind children and their parents in the public-school setting in the United States and abroad through a lens of intersectionality focusing on social justice. Conchita is the founder and Chair of METAS (Mentoring Engaging and Teaching All Students) a non-profit organization that trains educators in Latin America that work with blind/low vision students and other disabilities, as well as Spanish speaking families in the United States.   

Keynote Session: Reclaiming the Narrative: Multilingual Learners with Disabilities in Public Education


Featured Speaker


Dr. Marie Heath brings over 30 years of experience in education, serving as an ESL teacher, district leader, curriculum writer, and adjunct professor. Prior to joining Seidlitz Education, she was the ESL curriculum coordinator for a North Texas district serving more than 14,000 multilingual learners. Dr. Heath specializes in supporting newcomer students and designing effective multilingual systems. She is the author of Strategic by Design: A Blueprint for Multilingual Programs, which outlines a systems-based approach to multilingual education. Her research focuses on acculturation and bicultural identity development among immigrant adolescents. As the child of an immigrant, she brings both professional expertise and lived experience to her work supporting multilingual learners and the educators who serve them.

Concurrent Sessions:

Beyond SEL: Harnessing a Bicultural Identity Through Literacy and Language

Practical Strategies for a Diverse Classroom: Examples from the Field

Strategic by Design: A Systems Health Analysis for Continuous Improvement


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