Focus of Our Work
Learn more about the areas in which the Alliance concentrates its attention.
Alliance Partners
Learn more about the organizations and individuals supporting the Alliance through significant contributions.
About Us
Alliance Staff Biographies
Joy Kreeft Peyton (Ph.D., Sociolinguistics, Georgetown University, 1984) is Vice President of the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) in Washington, DC and former Director of the Center for Adult English Language Acquisition (CAELA). Her primary research focus is ways that teachers understand and implement educational innovations (particularly writing methodologies) and factors that influence their success. She is co-editor of Heritage Languages in America: Preserving a National Resource (with Donald A. Ranard and Scott McGinnis) and Language in Action: New Studies of Language in Society (with Peg Griffin, Walt Wolfram, and Ralph Fasold). She is a member of the editorial advisory boards of the Heritage Language Journal, Language Learning and Technology, and the Modern Language Journal.
Susan Gilson is the Director of Communications for the Center for Applied Linguistics, where she oversees all aspects of communication and marketing for the organization and for a wide range of projects, products, and services. She has a BS in Secondary Education majoring in World and American History and Political Science. Susan has over 30 years of communications, marketing, and advertising experience, including international management and marketing consulting and serving as the advertising director for a major financial institution in the midwest.
Na Liu is a Research Assistant at the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL), where she is involved in the work of the Alliance for the Advancement of Heritage Languages and other projects in CAL’s Foreign Language Education Division and Language and Culture Resources Division. Na received her PhD from Arizona State University in May 2010 on language education and policy. Her research interests focus on heritage language education, second language teaching and learning, language policy, and teaching Chinese as a second language. She actively publishes journal articles and book chapters on heritage language education and Chinese as an immigrant language in the United States.
Jacqueline López is a Research Assistant at the Center for Applied Lingustics (CAL) in Washington, DC, where she is involved in work with the Alliance for the Advancement of Heritage Languages and other projects in CAL’s Language and Cultural Resources Division. She is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley (BA) and Harvard with an MA in Education and a specialization in International Education Policy. She is interested in the development of indigenous languages and cultures as well as those of other marginalized communities. Her work focuses on identifying and profiling heritage language programs, establishing links with Alliance partners, and managing the work of summer interns. In the fall of 2007 she carried out an ethnographic study of how ethnic groups in Nayarit Mexico, including the Indigenous Cora society that her family is a part of, have retained their native language and identity.
Huy Xuan Nguyen is the Software/Database Developer for the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) in Washington, DC. He specializes in developing Web-based applications and databases using the Microsoft .NET Framework. In addition to development work, Huy assists CAL in determining hardware/software acquisitions as well as maintaining and improving CAL's IT network infrastructure.
