Gretchen Bernabei has devoted her professional life to learning, developing, and sharing best practices, particularly through the National Writing Projects. The National Writing Project (NWP) is a United States professional development network that serves teachers of writing at all grade levels, primary through university, and in all subjects. The mission of the NWP is to improve student achievement by improving the teaching of writing. She has taught middle school and high school for 32 years
A sought-after speaker, Gretchen has authored several books including Reviving the Essay: How to
Teach Structure Without Formula (2005, Discover Writing Press); The Good Writer’s Guide(2006, Hampton-
Brown/National Geographic School Publications); The Story of My Thinking: Expository Writing Activities for
13 Teaching Situations(Heinemann, 2012); Fun-Size Academic Writing for Serious Learning (Corwin, 2013); and Grammar Keepers (Corwin, 2014).
For her work, the National Council of Teachers of English honored her in 2010 with the James Moffett Award offered by the Conference on English Education, in conjunction with the National Writing Project, to support teacher research projects.
She currently lives with her husband and two children in San Antonio, Texas.
Dr. Michelle Yzquierdo has become a very popular and sought-after trainer and presenter, receiving accolades from individuals from all facets of education. She has presented at the local and state level on a variety of

topics including best practices for ELLs, implementation of effective new arrival centers, and addressing state and federal accountability and compliance concerns. Dr. Yzquierdo has received numerous awards and honors during her time in education including teacher of the year, commendations from the Texas House of
Representatives, and fellowships in both Switzerland and Swaziland.
She holds an undergraduate degree from Texas A&M University, a Master’s Degree from the University of
Houston, and most recently completed a Doctorate Degree from Lamar University in 2013. Her doctoral research focused on the factors contributing to the success of high school immigrant students and she continues researching and presenting on this important topic. As the child of an immigrant, the teacher of numerous immigrant ELLs throughout the years, and a researcher, Dr. Yzquierdo has seen first-hand what it takes to support ELLs and immigrant ELLs so they may see success. She has dedicated her career to providing educators with the appropriate and necessary research-based strategies and tools to assist ELLs in becoming proficient in both English-language and content acquisition. Dr. Yzquierdo lives in Baytown, TX with her husband.
Alice Savage is a professor of ESOL at the Lone Star College, North Harris Campus. She has a degree in English from the University of Washington, a Master of Arts in Teaching from the School for International Training in
Brattleboro, Vermont, and a certificate in English Language Teacher Training.
Alice has presented multiple times at the International TESOL Convention, and TexTESOL. This past year she has also presented at both the Colorado and California TESOL conventions as well as a webinar for Oxford
University Press, “Writing Your Way to the TOP”. She authored and co-authored several textbooks, including her most recent publication “TRIO: The intersection of vocabulary, grammar, and writing, levels 1, 2, 3”,
Oxford University Press (2015), which she co-authored with Colin Ward. She states, “My strength is in figuring out how new developments in the field of English language teaching can inform materials for the classroom.”
In her spare time, Alice likes to go hiking in the Pacific Northwest with her two boys.

Colin Ward is a Fulbright Scholar who has a BA from the University of Massachusetts-Boston with a minor in
French and an individual major entitled “A Social Analysis of the Built Environment”, and an MA in TESOL from the Institute of Education, University of London. He is a professor of ESOL and Department Chair at Lone Star
College, North Harris Campus.
Colin has been authoring ESOL textbooks and ancillary materials for ten years and has taught ESL at the community-college level for almost fifteen. He enjoys bringing current theory and research into the materials he writes as well as his own observations from the classroom. His interests include the teaching of secondlanguage writing and the role of technology in language learning.
Colin has frequently presented at International TESOL Conferences and at TexTESOL Conferences. His most recent publication with Oxford University Press is “TRIO: The intersection of vocabulary, grammar, and writing, levels 1, 2, 3”, (2015), which he has co-authored with Alice Savage.
He lives in Spring, TX with his wife and two daughters. Some of Colin’s other interests include traveling, cooking, biking, gardening, and djembe drumming.