Lilly B. Padía is a PhD candidate in Teaching & Learning and adjunct professor at New York University, where she also works for the Metro Center’s Regional Educational Bilingual Resource Network (RBERN), serving on the New York State taskforce for students labeled as English Learners with Disabilities. Born and raised in Oakland, California, she now resides in the Bronx, where she taught grades K-8 for seven and a half years as a certified bilingual special education teacher. She also worked in the Bronx as an Instructional Coach and as a Training Academy Director for the New York City Teaching Fellows helping other teachers develop their classroom practice. She is an adjunct professor and academic advisor for graduate Bilingual, English as a New Language (ENL), and Special Education teachers at CUNY’s City College of New York & Hunter College. She consults and teaches for Hunter College on their Bilingual Special Education New York City Teaching Fellows program. Her own research looks at the intersections of language learning and dis/ability identity, with a specific focus on the communication practices of nonspeaking bilingual children and their families. Her work challenges the white supremacist norms that position dis/ability and language learning as deficit and inferior in United States schooling. She believes that liberatory learning involves young people and their families as the experts and guides in the learning process.
