Hui-Ling S Malone, Ph.D. is an assistant professor of education at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her research concerns K-12 education regarding culturally sustaining pedagogies, critical pedagogy, and youth activism to advance equity in schools and their surrounding communities. Dr. Malone is a former secondary teacher who has taught in Detroit, MI, Los Angeles, CA and the Bronx, NY. Her work centers young people and draws on community centric pedagogies to strengthen relationships between students, schools and surrounding community members toward self-determination and social justice. She received her doctoral degree in Teaching and Learning, with a focus on urban education from New York University.

Dr. Vannessa Falcón Orta is Transfronteriza (transborder) from the San Diego-Tijuana borderlands and the daughter of working-class immigrant parents from Mexico and Peru. She graduated from SDSU’s Joint Ph.D. Program in Education (JDP) with Claremont Graduate University. A scholar and organizer dedicated to the social justice of Transfronterizx students, her research, teaching and service center on preparing Critically Conscious Border Educators along the California-Baja California Borderlands. For the past decade, she has implemented innovative initiatives informed by her interdisciplinary research in borderlands studies and education centered on the advocacy of Transfronterizx students at the San Diego-Tijuana, Imperial Valley-Mexicali and Douglas-Agua Prieta border regions. In 2022, she founded the Building Bridges Graduation Initiative, the first-ever transborder graduation at the U.S.-Mexico border, providing SDSU graduates whose immediate family members cannot cross the border an opportunity to celebrate graduation with their loved ones in México.

Dr. Steve Lemerand (he/him) recently earned a Ph.D. in Higher Education from the University of Arizona. His research advances postsecondary experiences for LGBTQ+ and other strategically undervalued communities in education. For example, his dissertation, theoretically grounded in queer failure and anti-homonormativity frameworks, explored how institutional agents conceptualize and influence bisexual+ college student success. Drawing upon his student affairs and non-profit practitioner experience, Steve sees “Reimagining Education for an Ever Changing World” as anchoring practice and scholarship in mutual aid frameworks, building liberatory worlds that transcend institutional boundaries, and repurposing institutional resources toward more equitable, community-centered ends.

Bailey McCraner is an educational researcher and alumna of UC Santa Barbara. With a strong commitment to enhancing environmental education opportunities, she currently serves in the Outdoor Education Specialist appointment with the San Diego County Office of Education and the Cuyamaca Outdoor School. Prior to this experience, she was an elementary school teacher and earned an M.Ed. degree from Vanderbilt University as a Professional Promising Scholar. Starting in Fall 2025, Bailey will collaborate with Dr. Asli Sezen-Barrie at UC Irvine to support pre-service teachers with environmental awareness training and resources through the UC and Cal State systems. Her research passions highlight STEM education, the interdependence of formal and informal education experiences, place-based learning, and community partnerships for social learning.