Dear HEIS Community,

TESOL 2018 is just around the corner, and I am looking forward to seeing many of you in Chicago in March! HEIS has 46 sessions that will be included in the program this year. Topics among our accepted sessions included emphases on building community for and with our students, equity and access for both students and faculty, building and supporting institutional resources for our learners outside of the classroom, as well as some of the challenges that some of our programs have faced over the last several years.

Our HEIS Academic Session will be on “Sustaining Dialogues Across TESOL: Women in Higher Education Leadership Roles” with Katherine Earley, Michaela Colombo, Christine Montecillo, Kara Viesca, Julie Whitlow. The brief abstract is below:

Women hold 51% of doctoral degrees yet represent 41% tenure track/tenured faculty, 30% full professors, 30% college presidencies, (Ward&Eddy 2013;Texas A&M 2015): A stark underrepresentation in the leadership positions that help shape US HE institutions and policy. This five-woman panel seeks to promote a dialogue calling upon HE institutions to support women's professional advancement in leadership positions.

Our HEIS Intersection Session with the NNEST-IS will be on “Roundtable on Overcoming NNEST Workplace Discrimination” with Kevin Martin, Brock Brady, Rashi Jain, and Bedrettin Yazan. The brief abstract is below:

Non-native English speaking teachers sometimes face discrimination and marginalization in US-higher education ESL settings. In this roundtable, we explore a case study of an NNEST who faced discrimination in the workplace. Participants will focus on possible solutions to this marginalization as a community of practitioners who value diversity.

The theme of advocacy underlies many of the accepted presentations this year, and I hope that you will find our sessions to be ones that spark debate and conversation that goes on long after the convention ends.

Finally, I would also like to congratulate Maria Rossana who will be our incoming Chair for HEIS starting at the close of TESOL 2018.

This is an exciting time to be with TESOL and HEIS, and I am looking forward to our collective journey.

Very best,

Kevin Martin

Chair, TESOL Higher Education Interest Section

Kevin J. Martin is the Associate Dean for the School of Education for Virginia International University in Fairfax, Virginia, USA.