From the Board 
 

Published: November 2025 
 

Our Shared Commitment GATESOL Journal 
2025, Vol. 34(1), p. 3 

doi:10.52242/gatesol.208 
ISSN: 2331-6845 

 
Dear Colleagues, 

Across the country, educators of multilingual learners are navigating a period of uncertainty and 
change. Conversations about language policy, equity, and access in U.S. schools have intensified, 
often leaving teachers, families, and advocates feeling both hopeful and anxious about what comes 
next. These shifts remind us how deeply connected our work is to the broader social and political 
landscape of education. While policies evolve and guidance shifts, what remains constant is our 
shared commitment to the rights and success of multilingual learners. 

This moment calls upon us to reflect, not retreat. Federal guidance may change over time, 
but our shared values do not. GATESOL has always stood for the principles of access, equity, and 
justice in education, and those principles continue to guide our mission. On behalf of the 2025 
GATESOL Board, we reaffirm our collective dedication to multilingual students, their families, 
and the educators who serve them with care, professionalism, and heart. 

Even as national directives evolve, our responsibility remains the same. We will continue 
to ensure that educational programs are grounded in sound research, informed by effective 
practice, and responsive to the linguistic and cultural strengths that students bring to their learning. 
We remain committed to creating classrooms that recognize multilingualism as an asset and that 
sustain high expectations for all learners. 

At GATESOL, we also recognize that this moment reinforces the importance of 
collaboration. The challenges before us cannot be addressed by individual effort alone. They 
require coordinated partnerships among educators, families, communities, and policymakers who 
share a common purpose. Our work benefits from listening, learning, and working together to 
support the success and well-being of every multilingual learner. 

We remain focused on promoting meaningful family engagement, preserving and honoring 
heritage languages, and developing learning environments that foster belonging and academic 
growth. Through professional learning, shared knowledge, and community connection, 
GATESOL continues to serve as a trusted resource for educators and leaders throughout Georgia 
and beyond. Rescinded or not, the foundational principles of access, equity, and justice for 
multilingual learners are non-negotiable. These principles define who we are as an organization 
and as a professional community. Our work is not dependent on any single policy but on our 
enduring belief that every learner deserves the opportunity to succeed. 

Together, we affirm our conviction that linguistic diversity is an essential strength of our 
schools and our society. In every classroom, every district, and every conversation about the future 
of education, GATESOL will remain committed to ensuring that multilingual learners are fully 
supported, valued, and included. 

The 2025 GATESOL Board:  

Dr. David L. Chiesa, Ms. Susan Mann, Dr. Anna Yang, Dr. Benjamin Bradshaw, Dr. Alisa Leckie, 
Ms. Maria Gillentine, Dr. Nihal Kote, Dr. Jennifer Pendergrass-Bennefield, Dr. Nadine Lucate-
Pierre, Mr. Terrence Burger, Ms. Rochelle Ememifar, Dr. Geraki Marie Kossonou, Dr. George 
Daniels, Dr. Elizabeth Webb, Dr. Eliana Hirano, Dr. Alexandra J. Reyes; Email info@gatesol.org. 


	GATESOL Journal2025, Vol. 34(1), p. 3
	Our Shared Commitment
	doi:10.52242/gatesol.208
	ISSN: 2331-6845