George C. Bunch is Professor of Education and Department Chair at the University of California, Santa Cruz. An experienced K-12 and adult ESL teacher and teacher educator, he holds a PhD in educational linguistics from Stanford University and an MA in bilingual education and TESOL from the University of Maryland Baltimore County. His research focuses on language and literacy challenges and opportunities for multilingual learners in K-12, adult education, and higher education and on policies, curricula, and teacher preparation designed to serve them. He was a founding partner of the Understanding Language initiative, received a Spencer Foundation Midcareer Grant to serve as a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and is a former National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow. In 2017, he received the Midcareer Award from the Second Language Research Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association. His 2019 book with Aída Walqui, Amplifying the Curriculum: Designing Quality Learning Opportunities for English Learners, is a Teachers College Press bestseller. He is author of the most recent module, Equitable Policy and Practice for English Learners: What Should Teachers and School Leaders Know and Do, in the open-access series of professional learning resources from the National Research and Development Center to Improve Education for Secondary English Learners, funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES).

Opening Keynote: Amplifying Opportunities for Multilingual Learners: Where Do We Begin?