Melissa Livings is a native Texan who began her musical study in the Paris ISD band program. She later served in the US Military on goodwill missions as a member of the 531st Texas Air National Guard Band.

Mrs. Livings graduated cum laude from the University of Texas at Arlington with a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education with an emphasis on string pedagogy and orchestral studies. She completed her Master’s Degree in Music Education from UTA with a focus on Music Theory Pedagogy. She is currently pursuing her Doctor of Musical Arts though Boston University.

Mrs. Livings has been the Head Director of Orchestras and AP Music Theory at Pearce High School in Richardson, TX since 2000. She is an active member of TMAA (2008-Present), TODA and TMEA and regularly serves as leadership for her TMEA Region. In the summer, she serves as a Reader and Table Leader for the College Board AP Music Theory Exam and regularly works as a Consultant for AP Music Theory workshops around the country.

Mrs. Livings resides in Richardson, TX with her husband, Forrest, and her daughter, Echo.

Melissa Livings is teaching one workshop at Augsburg this summer. See our registration site with the button below.

Mary Lopez has taught US History and American Studies at all levels at Schaumburg High School since 1995. In that time, she has structured the US History curriculum for all levels taught in her district. She has also served as a Reader at the AP Reading for sixteen years, serving as a Question Leader or Exam Leader for the last seven years, including the online Readings in 2020 and 2021. Mary served as a member of the US History Development Committee for the College Board from 2015-2019, helping to guide the direction of the course and constructing the AP Exam. In the last seven years, she has presented in multiple states through the College Board, Organization of American Historians, and National Council of History Education. She has two B.A.s from the University of Illinois, an M.A. in History from DePaul University, and is A.B.D. status in the History Department at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her areas of academic specialty are American Women’s History and US History since 1763. She has four children, the youngest of whom took AP US History last year and does not want to talk about rubrics with his Mom. She is very excited and a little nervous about being an “Empty Nester” next year.

Mary Lopez is teaching two workshops at Augsburg this summer. See our registration sites with the buttons below.

As the first Chinese teacher in Central California since 1991, Lili is strongly committed to promoting Chinese language in the Central Valley of California and bringing forth the interest and attention of Chinese culture to her community. Lili earned her B.A. in English from Fu-Jen Catholic University in Taiwan and her M.A. in Linguistics from California State University, Fresno. She has a Professional Clear Single Subject Credential in Chinese, a Professional Clear Multiple Subject Credential, a SDAIE Certificate (Specially Designed Academic Instruction in English), and a CLAD Certificate (Cross-Cultural, Language and Academic Development). Lili has been a teacher in Clovis West High School, Buchanan High School, and Clovis Community College in California since 1991. She has received the Teacher of the Year and Educator of Merit Awards multiple times, and is a recipient of the Crystal Award as the best educator in the district. She has reviewed multiple Chinese textbooks, including “Chinese in Action” from Pearson Publishing. Lili has also served as a Scoring Leader in AP Reading since the launch of AP Chinese Exam in 2006. She was a member of AP Chinese Language and Culture Committee in 2012—2016. She is currently a member of SAT Subject Test in Chinese Language Committee, and the AP consultant of the College Board. She has presented on her Chinese teaching expertise at numerous AP conferences and workshops. She also works as an Assessor at CalTPA (California Teaching Performance Assessment) World Languages since 2017.

Lili Wong is teaching two workshops at Augsburg this summer. See our registration sites with the buttons below.

Kristin Shapiro received her undergraduate degree from Austin College, in Sherman, TX and her graduate degree in Biology from Texas A&M University at Commerce. She is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Denver in the Curriculum & Instruction – Gifted Education program. She has been a teacher for the past 15 years. For the first 10 years, she taught AP Environmental Science and AP Biology in Plano, Texas. For the past five years, Kristin has taught in southeastern Colorado at Florence Junior Senior High School where she is the instructional coach and teaches AP Environmental Science, Dual-Credit Biology, 9th grade Biology, and is the Gifted and Talented Coordinator. In addition to teaching, Kristin works as a consultant for College Board, and presents at trainings across the US. In her free time she enjoys hiking, gardening, traveling, and spending time with friends and family.

Kristin Shapiro is teaching one workshop at Augsburg this summer. See our registration site with the button below.

Katrina Griffin is a nationally recognized leader and award-winning German teacher at North County High School in Glen Burnie, Maryland. She served as an elected ACTFL Board Member from 2019-2021 and has written articles for The Language Educator. In 2016 Katrina was named Anne Arundel County Teacher of the Year and in 2017, she was named the ACTFL National Foreign Language Teacher of the Year.

As a founding member of the STEM magnet program at her high school, she instituted an annual German STEM Immersion Day for students at local elementary, middle, and high schools in 2014. Katrina has developed numerous STEM resources for language teachers and is passionate about teaching students and teachers how STEM skills can benefit them now and in the future. In honor of her work with STEM and languages she earned the 2017 ACTFL National Leo Benardo Award for Innovation in K-12 Language Teaching.

Katrina was the first chair of ACTFL’s Advocacy & Outreach Committee during her term on the ACTFL Board. From 2013-2017 Katrina served as chair of the Maryland Foreign Language Association’s Advocacy Committee, and since 2016 has lobbied for support of languages on Capitol Hill during the annual JNCL-NCLIS Advocacy Day. Her collaboration with both ACTFL and JNCL-NCLIS leadership over the course of three years was instrumental in getting the Seal of Biliteracy passed in the state of Maryland in 2016.

Katrina served as the Treasurer for the American Association of Teachers of German, authors the National German Exam and is an AP College Board Consultant and the AP German Community Moderator. She is a prolific workshop presenter, invited consultant and keynote speaker on topics such as student engagement and agency, proficiency-based instruction, fostering interpersonal discourse, AP German, and STEM for languages.

Katrina holds a Master’s degree in German from Middlebury College, an Administration I certificate from McDaniel College, a B.S. in Secondary Education from Bloomsburg University, and B.A. degrees in International Politics and German from Penn State University.

Katrina Griffin is teaching one workshop at Augsburg this summer. See our registration site with the button below.

Kamasi Hill, Ph.D. is a historian, theologian, art curator, filmmaker, and educator who has been teaching high school students for the past 28 years. He was born and raised on the West side of Detroit by parents who were curators of the Black arts, both visual and musical. He attended Howard University and graduated with a degree in Film Production. He moved to Chicago in 2004 and attended Northwestern University and received his PhD in Religion and Historical Studies. He has been collecting from contemporary artists of African descent for the past 15 years and has amassed over 300 pieces of original African and African-American art.

Dr. Hill has been teaching AP courses for the past 15 years and serves on the development committee for the AP African-American Studies course. Finally, as a comic book fan, Dr. Hill is creating a series of non-fiction graphic novels to help reorient students to the power of literacy and imagination.

Kamasi Hill is teaching one workshop at Augsburg this summer. See our registration site with the button below.

Jorge embarked on his teaching journey in 2002 at Glenbrook South High School in Glenview, IL, a suburb of Chicago, where he has dedicated his career. His expertise spans across various levels of Spanish education, from introductory to AP courses. For the past 17 years, Jorge has been instrumental in instructing AP Language and Culture, concurrently participating as an AP Reader since 2016. His roles as a Reader, Table Leader, and more recently as a Question Leader have contributed significantly to the selection of benchmarks, sample assessments, and leadership tasks during the Reading.

Extending his influence beyond the classroom, Jorge is an accomplished presenter at local, national, and international forums, focusing on the pedagogy of AP Spanish and leveraging technology within World Language instruction. His contributions to Spanish textbooks and related publications reflect his commitment to educational advancement. Jorge earned a bachelor’s degree in Spanish Language and Literature from Northern Illinois University and furthered his academic pursuits with a master’s degree in educational technology from Concordia University in Chicago.

Outside the academic sphere, Jorge devotes his time as a soccer coach for both boys’ and girls’ teams, having also coached volleyball and track and field. He finds solace in reading books in both Spanish and English, staying active through workouts, indulging in video games, and cherishing moments with his family.

Jorge Zamora is teaching one workshop at Augsburg this summer. See our registration site with the button below.

My name is Jenny Podel and I have taught AP Physics since 2014 in Northampton Massachusetts. I have taught all 4 AP Physics courses, and I like to spice up my schedule with a regular level class as well.

I started attending the AP Reading in 2017 and have held various leadership positions. Over the past three years I have worked with ETS and The College Board to edit and write AP exam questions. Currently I am part of a working group to review the AP physics redesign for the year 2024/25. During the creation of AP Classroom I assisted in reviewing and editing questions made for the personal progress checks that debuted on the AP Classroom AP C Electricity and Magnetism web page. I also worked as part of the team that created the AP Physics 1 Workbook. Additionally, I have presented at The College Board’s “Pencils Down Conference” to show employees a model AP classroom experience. Over the summer of 2020 I was the lead instructor for Physics C Electricity and Magnetism, AP Daily online instructional videos, an initiative from the College Board to support AP teachers and students during the online learning time.

Outside of standard teaching and College board, I work with Mass Insight, a company that provides AP support to teachers and students in public schools throughout the New England region. My work with Mass Insight has included presenting at two day workshops for teachers, but more regularly includes presenting saturday sessions which provide extra AP prep for students. I also work to help set up and grade mock AP tests for these schools as part of the Mass Insight program.

During 2022 I was awarded the PhysTec local teacher of the year and presented as part of a teacher panel at the annual conference. Additionally I have taught at Smith College during the “Summer Science and Engineering Program.” I am a Smith College graduate, with a Masters Degree focusing in physics education. I have also earned several awards from Smith College and the Five-College consortium for my work in physics and astrophysics. Through this work I have presented at two international conferences. I have also served on a panel at the CUWIP (College undergraduate women in physics) conference here in Massachusetts.

After several years of being an AP consultant, I am even more excited to introduce new strategies that capture students’ attention and teach pertinent skills and content. I very much value this opportunity.

Jenny Podel is teaching two workshops at Augsburg this summer. See our registration sites with the buttons below.

Jennifer Luongo, M.A., has been the Latin teacher at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Austin, TX for 30 years. She has taught every level of high school Latin from level 1 to post-AP, in addition to running study programs in Italy and Greece for students. She is currently serving as Lead Consultant for AP Latin, as Moderator of the AP Latin Online Teacher Community, as the Certamen Chair for the National Junior Classical League, and as President-elect of the American Classical League. She has been a Reader and Question Leader, a member of the Development Committee, and the College Board Advisor for AP Latin. In 2018, she was awarded the St. Andrew’s Teaching Award and given the inaugural Gaylan DuBose Teaching Award by the Texas Classical Association.

Jennie Luongo is teaching one workshop at Augsburg this summer. See our registration site with the button below.

Jennie Edgar teaches high school science. Currently, she is teaching AP Biology, CE Biotechnology and Human Genetics, Astronomy, and STEM Methods for pre-service teachers. She served as an AP reader of both AP Environmental Science and Biology exams. In addition to serving as a reader, she also works as an item developer for AP Biology. Jennie is a National Board Certified teacher in Adolescent and Young Adult Biology and was the 2022 Colorado Biology Teacher of the Year. She also conducts workshops in AP Biology and is passionate about creating a culture of scientific literacy and helping teachers to develop strong biology programs of their own.

Jennie honed her passion for science at the University of Michigan and earned a Master’s in Science Education at Montana State University-Bozeman as well as a Master’s in Biology from University of Northern Colorado. She is an avid skier and enjoys spending time with her family.

Jennie Edgar is teaching one workshop at Augsburg this summer. See our registration site with the button below.