| Keynote Speaker: Hiram Ruiz“Refugee Students: Hopes and Challenges”
Saturday 10:00am to 11:15am
River City Brunch in the Port & Windward
Hiram Ruiz is the Director of Refugee Services in the Florida Department of Children and Families. Born in Cuba and raised in Miami, Ruiz holds a Master of Social Work degree from Florida State University. He worked as a social worker in both England and Scotland, as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Somalia and the Sudan. He spent 16 years as a senior policy analyst with the U.S. Committee for Refugees (USCR), a private, Washington, D.C.-based refugee advocacy and public information group. He was a staff writer for USCR’s World Refugee Survey and Refugee Reports, has written more than 20 publications, spoken at numerous national and international conferences and testified before Congressional Committees.
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| Plenary Speaker: Staci Johnson“Building the Bridge from Accuracy to Fluency”
Saturday 1:30pm to 2:45pm
Staci Johnson has taught all levels of adult ESL, including credit, non-credit, and workplace English. She holds an MA in Linguistics with a Teaching ESL Certificate from California State University at Long Beach, which is supported by more than 12 years in the English language classroom. She is one of the two authors of Stand Out: Standards –based English, Grammar Challenge, and Reading and Writing Challenge published by Heinle ELT, Cengage. Her passions are teacher training and curriculum development, both of which she does on a continual basis.
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