Gliset Colón,Ph.D. is currently an Assistant Professor in the Exceptional Education Department at SUNY Buffalo State. She has the distinct pleasure of coordinating the Teaching Bilingual Exceptional Individuals Graduate Certificate Program. She is also the owner of and an educational consultant for Valley Equity Consulting. She is actively involved in several professional organizations including the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE), and the New York State Association for Bilingual Education (NYSABE). Dr. Colón teaches courses on topics related to bilingual special education, behavior and classroom management, and foundations of special education. In addition to teaching, she has research interests and expertise in literacy and language outcomes for multilingual students with and without disabilities, multi-tiered systems of support, disproportionality, and culturally relevant and sustaining pedagogy.
Tamara O. Alsace, Ph.D. is an independent scholar who is currently working with several organizations, including the Council of the Great City Schools, the Regional Bilingual Education Resource Network of the New York State Education Department, and the City University of New York Initiative on Immigration in Education (CUNY-IIE). She is also happily teaching as an adjunct in the Bilingual Exceptional Education Program at SUNY Buffalo State College. Retired from the Buffalo, New York Public Schools following a 32+ year career as a bilingual educator and Director of Multilingual Education, Dr. Alsace continues to be a voice in the fields of Bilingual Education and Bilingual Special Education. A past president and current Advocacy Committee co-chairperson of the New York State Association for Bilingual Education (NYSABE), she is actively engaged in professional activities, organizations, and advocacy efforts at the local, state, and national levels. Tamara serves on the boards of several non-profit organizations and is heavily invested in their diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.