Meet the 2024-2025 KQED Media Literacy InnovatorsMeet the 2024-2025 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.
Jim Bentley
Multiple Subjects
Foulks Ranch Elementary School
Elk Grove, CA
@Curiosity_Films
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.
Merek Chang
High School STEM
Hacienda La Puente USD
City of Industry, CA
Merek Chang is a high school science teacher in Hacienda La Puente Unified School District in Southern California. He received his B.S from UC Davis in Food Science and Technology and worked full-time in the food industry prior to entering education. He also received an M.A in education from San Diego State University. He is a KQED Media Literacy Innovator and is passionate about uplifting student voice and connecting the community to the classroom through the lens of environmental literacy and civic engagement.
Giavanni Coleman
Math and Digital/Visual Arts
East Avenue Elementary
Hayward, CA
Giavanni’s LinkedIn
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.
Rachel Collay
ELA
Westwood High School
Mesa, AZ
@heyheymscollay
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.
Saul Duarte
Middle School STEAM Coordinator
Los Angeles USD
Los Angeles, CA
@Saul_Duarte1
Dr. Saul Duarte is an LAUSD, CSULA, and UCLA alumni who has taught at all school levels in K-12 general and special education, to teacher training and graduate university programs. He strives to utilize current technologies and applications to promote the purposeful interdisciplinary integration of technology into instruction by utilizing approaches such as digital citizenship, game-based learning, computer science, physical computing, robotics, artificial intelligence, AR/VR, and all-new multimedia video/audio digital tools that can help students learn and teachers leverage instructional technology to educate students and their parents/communities.
Lisa Ernst
ELA, Social Studies/History, STEAM
Alice Fong Yu K-8
San Francisco, CA
@lae121
With over thirty-two years of teaching middle school students, Lisa teaches at the First Chinese Immersion Public School in the Nation, Alice Fong Yu K-8. She has developed integrated content through a Makerspace environment. In order to create the culture of learning, Lisa has had 81 projects funded through Donors Choose. Her vast commitment as a lifelong learner, has enabled her to participate in various fellowships from NASA, Department of Energy, the Yale National Initiative, Exploratorium, the 1990 Institute, to the Strategic Education Research Partnership with Stanford. With these experiences, Lisa has co-developed a vast assortment of curriculum which includes the San Francisco Unified School District Science NGSS in Middle School Science. Leading to a variety of presentations and speaking events from the NSTA, Donors Choose,1990 Institute, CUE, CSTA, CABE, to Sino-USA in Shanghai. Recently, Lisa was selected as a Wipro Fellow at Stanford as well as a Fellow with Food Education through Pilot Light. Through all of these experiences, she was honored to receive the Sylvia Shugrue Award from the National Science Teacher Association as well as the RAFT Bay Area 2020 STEAM Teachers of the Year.
Nina Fabunmi
Digital/Visual Arts
Marina Middle School
San Francisco, CA
@penguinartsf
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.
Mia Gittlen
Librarian
Milpitas High School
Milpitas, CA
@miagittlen
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.
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.
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.
Ajalee Hood
ELA, Journalism
Southwest High School
El Centro, CA
@shs.eagles
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.
Jodi Hwang
ELA, Journalism
Los Altos High School
Los Altos, CA
Jodi’s LinkedIn
Jodi Hwang teaches tenth grade World Literature Honors and Yearbook Publication and Design at Los Altos High School. 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 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.
Bob Kelly
History/Social Studies
Minarets High School
O’Neals, CA
@MrKellyIII
Bob Kelly teaches college US History, AP US Government and AP Macroeconomics at Minarets HIgh School outside Yosemite National Park and lives with his wife and teenage kids in the Sierra Nevada foothills of California. Bob has taught for 25 years in all sorts of social studies content areas and school settings including Palo Alto, Mariposa, and the Central Valley. He is a teacher trainer and speaker on US history, social studies, technology integration, and project based learning and has been an AP US History consultant for the College Board as well as a Google Apps for Education Certified Innovator, and a KQED Medial Literacy Innovator. Bob was also a football coach for 25 years and a basketball coach for four years.
Alisha Lindsey
History/Social Studies
Bradford K8 North
Littleton, CO
@alisha.lindsey15
Bob Kelly teaches college US History, AP US Government and AP Macroeconomics at Minarets HIgh School outside Yosemite National Park and lives with his wife and teenage kids in the Sierra Nevada foothills of California. Bob has taught for 25 years in all sorts of social studies content areas and school settings including Palo Alto, Mariposa, and the Central Valley. He is a teacher trainer and speaker on US history, social studies, technology integration, and project based learning and has been an AP US History consultant for the College Board as well as a Google Apps for Education Certified Innovator, and a KQED Medial Literacy Innovator. Bob was also a football coach for 25 years and a basketball coach for four years.
Mary Kate Lonergan
Social Studies
Eagle Hill Middle School
Manlius, NY
@ms_lonergan
Mary Kate Lonergan teaches 8th grade Social Studies at Fayetteville-Manlius Central Schools in New York. She empowers students to critically engage with media and information by making media literacy the foundation of her Social Studies curriculum. Mary Kate has developed and implemented media and digital literacy professional development courses and has presented at conferences from the national to local levels. She 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 written lesson plans featured on PBS LearningMedia in support of Ken Burns’ films including Benjamin Franklin and The U.S. and the Holocaust as well as other media literacy centered lessons in support of several other PBS productions including The Bigger Picture and Historian’s Take. She lives in Cazenovia, NY with her husband and two sons.
Samantha McMillan
History/Social Studies Science
Ashland Middle School
Ashland, OR
@emergingedu
Samantha McMillan is a 7/8 Humanities teacher at Ashland Middle School in Ashland, Oregon. She has over 13 years of teaching experiece in 5th-8th grade social studies in STEM. Her experience includes the Fund for Teachers Fellow (2023), IDEO Teacher’s Guild Design Thinking Teacher Fellowship (2017/2018), IREX Teachers for Global Classrooms (2016/2017) and SCCOE TI STEM Teacher of the Year (2017). She is a certified California Naturalist and contributor to the UC Berkeley/SCCOE Informed Action Civics Teacher Research Group. She is passionate about developing social studies curriculum that emphasizes design thinking, global issues and civic action. She stays connected with educators on Twitter @emergingedu.
Aspen Mock
ELA
Forest Hills Junior-Senior High School
Sidman, PA
@AB_Mock
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. 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.
Judith Okolie
Technology/Engineering, Digital/Visual Arts
Tennyson High School
Hayward, CA
@mylifeinmedia
Judith Okolie teaches multimedia at Tennyson High School in Hayward and really enjoys working with students on audio and video projects. She’s worked with KQED Youth Takeover for two years and is very grateful for the opportunity to showcase student work to a larger audience. In addition to this program, Judith is also enrolled in a CS program at San Francisco State University and hopes to obtain her supplementary computer science credential next year. When she’s not working, she’s traveling the world in search of new adventures.
Belinda Shillingburg
ELA
Antioch High School
Antioch, TN
@britlitlover91
A high school English teacher, Belinda Shillingburg has been an instructional leader and ELD and English Language Arts educator for twenty-four years. A San Francisco Bay Area ex-pat she currently works closely with her library 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 Literacy 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 may become voices, not echoes. She enjoys keeping up with EdTech innovations and best practices in teaching and learning via X @britlitlover91 and is an Adjunct Professor at National University.