Board of Directors

Xinyi Wu is currently a lecturer in the Chinese Language and Culture Program at the Joseph H. Lauder Institute of Management & International Studies at University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining the Lauder Institute, she was the Lead Instructor at the Chinese Flagship Center at Brigham Young University (BYU) and Assistant Professor at Defense Language Institute at Monterey, California. She is also a certified ACTFL OPI tester and a proficiency test developer. Her professional interests include intercultural and global competence, cross-cultural communication, international education, critical discourse analysis, language and identity, and language testing and assessment. She is specialized in teaching Chinese for special/professional purposes and content-based instruction. As a regular conference presenter, proposal reviewer, attendant, and occasional organizer, she also coordinates and holds language teacher training workshops. Her most recent book Educational Journeys, Struggles, and Ethnic Identity published by Springer addresses some issues concerning language and culture. Dr. Wu received her Ph.D. in Comparative and International Education from University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and M.Ed in Educational Leadership and Foundations from BYU.

Wol A Kang is a Senior Lecturer in Chinese in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Swarthmore College. She has been serving as the Chinese Language Coordinator since November 2022. Kang graduated from Peking University with a Master of Arts in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language. Over the past 30 years, she has taught Chinese language classes at all college levels, collaboratively and independently, in the United States, China, and Korea. Additionally, she has been coordinating the Swarthmore-EdUHK internship program since 2013. Kang specializes in the study of the phonology, grammar, and pedagogy of Mandarin Chinese. Her research also focuses on methods for interdisciplinary curriculum development and the effectiveness of incorporating interdisciplinary work in teaching Chinese in collaboration with faculty across the college or university community.

Huang Yan is a native speaker of Hakka, Cantonese and Mandarin. She has been teaching Chinese language and culture for 20 years and Cantonese for 10 years. She is a senior teacher at Friends Select School in Philadelphia, where she expanded Mandarin classes to middle and lower schools. She teaches high school Mandarin at all levels. She designs and directs courses and teaching materials, and develops partnership programs for Mandarin students with international Chinese students. She also founded the Chinese Culture Club in Friends Select School to introduce Chinese history, culture and arts. The club hosts a school-wide assembly every year in partnership with her Mandarin students and the Asian Student Union. A lifelong learner, she regularly attends conferences and sometimes serves as a speaker. Huang Yan has been a mentor to young Chinese teachers. Huang Yan received a master's degree in Chinese fine arts from Beijing Capital Normal University.

 Mengyao Chen is a Chinese Dual Language Immersion (DLI) Specialist in the Delaware DLI Program. Dr. Chen provides regular and ongoing professional learning opportunities and coaching for Chinese immersion teachers and administrators, as well as collaborating with the DLI team at the Delaware Department of Education to support the implementation of a high-quality Chinese immersion curriculum. She also assists the Chinese DLI districts in implementing the Delaware DLI model with fidelity and supports Chinese DLI administrators and teachers in understanding and analyzing immersion data. Dr. Chen is an educator and researcher with a diverse teaching background in K-12 and university programs. Her research interests include preparing and training Chinese immersion teachers and developing open educational resources. Dr. Chen has published her work and served as a reviewer for peer-reviewed journals. She also frequently presents her work at international and national conferences related to language education.

Dr. Shuhan C. Wang (王周淑涵) is the President of ELE Consulting International, LLC; she is also the Project Director of the Chinese Early Language and Immersion Network (CELIN) at the Asia Society. Dr. Wang has held a variety of prominent positions in language education, including Deputy Director of the National Foreign Language Center (NFLC) at the University of Maryland and Co-Principal Investigator of the STARTALK Project. She was the Executive Director for Chinese Language Initiatives at the Asia Society and Education Associate for World Languages and International Education for the State of Delaware. Since 2012, she has been serving as an advisor to the Ministry of Education in Singapore on the Mother Tongue and Chinese Primary Curriculum Projects. She served on the boards of the Chinese Language Teacher Association, Foreign Language Annals, Joint National Committee for Languages, National Council of State Supervisors for Languages, National Council of Association of Chinese Language Schools, and Longview Foundation for World Affairs and International Understanding. Dr. Wang has provided consultations, program evaluations, curriculum, material, and assessment development, and professional development for schools, school districts, international schools, universities, and state governments, and the Sesame Workshop Mandarin Project. She has co-authored a number of textbooks, including Flying with Chinese, a series of standards-and performance-based learning system for K-6 learners and a high school textbook. She is co-editor of a series of CELIN Briefs published by the Asia Society. Her work has been published in books and peer-reviewed journals. Dr. Wang has two MAs, one in Communication from Ohio State University, and the other in Bilingualism and Teaching English as a Second Language from the University of Delaware. She received her PhD in Educational Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania.

Kim is currently a full time Mandarin Chinese teacher in Hempfield High School in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania.  She has taught Chinese at Hempfield High School since 2011.   Kim was one of the instructors for the Berks County Intermediate Unit’s Summer Chinese Academy for two summers.  Her responsibilities for the summer Chinese Academy including curriculum planning and teaching for K-6.  In the summer of 2012, she was involved with the very first Startalk student program in Berks County, and was the Lead instructor for the Berks County Startalk Student program for 5 years.  Kim received her Bachelor degree in Music Education from Clearwater Christian College in Florida and taught music both in elementary and high school.  After relocated to Pennsylvania, she obtained the teaching certificate of Pennsylvania both in Music and Chinese.  Kim attended a Startalk Teacher Training Program that was held in the Pedagogy Institute in Indiana University, Indiana.  She also has a Master of Science degree in Instructional Media from Wilkes University.

Maiheng Shen Dietrich is a senior lecturer in foreign languages in the department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania. She is the coordinator and chief instructor of Beginning Chinese. She has been actively involved in classroom instruction, curriculum design, new teacher training and action research since 1995. She has taught a wide range of courses, from language to literature in both Chinese and English. She has initiated and completed various curriculum and material development projects, including compiling a Chinese reader for literature courses, and co-authoring (serving as the lead author and editor) a textbook for beginning Chinese. A regular conference panel organizer and presenter, she has mentored many young instructors in this capacity. Since 2012 she has also served as instructor in several Startalk teachers programs. Her research interests include teaching methodology, pedagogical grammar, language and culture as well as language and literature. Maiheng S. Dietrich holds a MA in English language and literature and a PhD in Chinese language and literature from the University of Minnesota.