Group: Project Leaders

Dr. Jung Yeon (Ellie) Park is an Assistant Professor of Quantitative Research Methods at GMU. Her research interests cover psychometric assessment, longitudinal analysis, Bayesian analysis, and learning analytics. She received her PhD degree in Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics from Columbia University (2015). During her postdoctoral training in KU Leuven, Belgium (2017-2019), she was a lead statistician for various projects developing computer-based assessment and learning analytics tools to support technology-enhanced personalized learning at schools. Dr. Park’s publication covers both methodological development and application in peer-reviewed journals including Behavior Research Methods, Developmental Psychology, Journal of Applied Statistics, Computers & Education, Applied Psychological Measurement, and International Journal of Quantitative Research in Education. Dr. Park served as a program chair for the European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI; 2020) and a proposal review panel at NSF (2021, 2022).

Joan Kang Shin, PhD is a Professor of Education at George Mason University. She is the Associate Dean for Faculty Success in Mason’s College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) and Director of CEHD’s Global Online Teacher Education Center (GOTEC). Dr. Shin specializes in teaching ESL/EFL/EAL to young learners and teenagers and has provided both in-person and online professional development programs and workshops to English language teachers in over 100 countries around the world. She is also an expert in online TESOL education and conducts research on building international virtual communities of practice for English teachers. In 2016, Dr. Shin was named one of the 30 Up and Coming Leaders of TESOL (New Window) by TESOL International Association. In 2021, she was named as one of the top 30 English Language Specialists (New Window)by the U.S. Department of State in recognition of her lasting impact on the Specialist Program and on the field of TESOL. She is currently serving on the Board of Trustees for The International Research Foundation for English Language Education (TIRF) (New Window).

At Mason, Dr. Shin is PI for a number of externally funded grant projects, including Teaching English to Young Learners (TEYL) Global Online Courses and MOOCs (New Window) through the OPEN Program funded by the Department of State and administered by FHI 360. In her career, Dr. Shin has secured over $12 million in grants primarily focused on developing global online English language teacher professional development programs.

Dr. Shin is a series editor for a groundbreaking 6-level primary English series for National Geographic Learning (New Window) called Our World (New Window), which won the 2014 HRH Duke of Edinburgh English Language Book Awards for Winner of Best Entry for Learners. She is also a series editor and author of a 3-level preprimary series Welcome to Our World (New Window) as well as the host of a professional development video series (New Window) that she designed for Our World. Her book Teaching Young Learners English (New Window), co-authored with Jodi Crandall, received the prestigious 2013 Ben Warren International House Trust Prize. She also served as series editor for an exciting 5-level English series for young teens called Impact (New Window) that highlights the work of National Geographic Explorers and won the 2018 English-Speaking Union English Language Award for “Resources for Secondary to Adult Learners.” Dr. Shin authored and hosted the Impact professional development videos (New Window) that focuses on how to teach teenagers effectively in the 21st century. She published a co-edited volume through Routledge called Contemporary Foundations for Teaching English as an Additional Language (New Window) and a co-authored book through TESOL press called The 6 Principles for Exemplary Teaching of English Learners: Young Learners in a Multilingual World (New Window). Most recently, she co-authored a professional development text with Jered Borup called Breaking Through the Screen (New Window), which was published by National Geographic Learning.

In addition, she is an English Language Specialist for the Office of English Language Programs (OELP) in the U.S. Department of State and has conducted EFL teacher training programs with hundreds of teachers in Brazil, Cambodia, Costa Rica, Egypt, El Salvador, Guatemala, Laos, Libya, Morocco, Peru, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, Venezuela, Vietnam, and the U.A.E.

Dr. Ramos is an Associate Professor in the College of Education and Human Development, School of Education. She is an experienced educator who has been working closely with culturally and linguistically diverse learners and their families since 1992.  She began her teaching career in Pittsburgh Public Schools where she taught Spanish in grades 6-8 for 11 years and ESOL in grades 9-12 for 9 years.  She also served as an Instructional Team Leader, a Clinical Resident Instructor, and a K-12 ESL Curriculum Coach.

Dr. Ramos earned a PhD in Language, Literacy, and Culture from the University of Pittsburgh in 2012 and also holds an M.A. in Foreign Language Teaching earned at Pitt.  She began her work as a teacher educator in Pennsylvania.  Dr. Ramos joined the faculty of Mason’s TCLDEL graduate program in August 2016. As a teacher educator, she is dedicated to supporting preservice and in-service teachers locally, nationally, and globally to strengthen their capacity to serve culturally and linguistically diverse students and their families with excellence and equity.

Dr. Sujin Kim is an Assistant Professor in the Teaching Culturally and Linguistically Diverse and Exceptional Learners Program, College of Education and Human Development at George Mason University. As a Korean-English bilingual, TESOL scholar, and teacher educator, Dr. Kim has worked with teachers of multilingual learners to support their capacity building in content-integrated instruction, family engagement, and asset-based approach to teaching language to students from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. She has published peer-reviewed articles and chapters on the topics of translanguaging and transmodalising theory and pedagogy in multilingual classrooms, STEM education for ELs, critical multiliteracies pedagogy, interactive virtual community of ESOL educators, and critical discourse analysis in education research.