The Oklahoma Association for Bilingual Education Executive Board

and History of the Organization

Savanna Payne , President
Savanna Payne has worked in education as a teacher, OELA grant coordinator, and facilitator for the past 10+ years.  She received a Bachelors and Masters degree from the University of Central Oklahoma. Her educational background includes a Bachelors in Elementary Education and advancing with a Masters Degree in Bilingual Education/TESL.

Beyond the school building, Savanna passionately develops and retains educators by serving as the current board chair for the Urban Teacher Preparatory Academy for Oklahoma City Public Schools and newsletter editor for the Oklahoma Association for Bilingual Education. She also works on the side as an adjunct instructor in the TESL department at UCO for undergraduate and graduate courses to reach new and current educators. 

Savanna learned to accept a variety of cultures while developing her identity as a child through frequent moves along the east coast of the United States with her Navy father and family. Embracing her Chicana background on her mother’s side, showed her the importance of representation within a classroom and the value of cultural knowledge. 

In her free time, Savanna supports local conferences for multiculturalism and bilingualism, purchases art from the local OKC art scene with her husband, and spends quiet time reading. 

Ron Sandoval, President-Elect

Ronald Mauricio Sandoval was born in San Luis, Jilotepeque Guatemala. He grew up in Guatemala and El Salvador during its Civil War. After high school, he served a 25 month mission in the mountainous region of Momostenango Guatemala where he learned to speak Quiché. After his mission, He completed his undergrad work in education at the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala.

Early in his career in Guatemala he was a retail salesman and manager. He moved to the United States in 1997 where his first job was washing the machine that made bread at little convenience shop in the O'hare Airport. A diligent study of English, hard work and the right people in his path led him from that job to being a truck driver, an ELL teacher, assistant principal, principal and director of language programs in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Oklahoma.

He currently continues to have the opportunity to serve as a trainer, speaker and presenter at the national level in the area of ​​bilingual education and especially in the development of dual language education programs. He also had the opportunity to work as the founding principle of a Bilingual School in Kuwait. He earned his masters degree in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Wisconsin, Whitewater. He also attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison to complete his Wisconsin school principal & leadership licensing. Through his connections with the University of Wisconsin, the Department of Public Instruction, and network through out the nation he was a part of the WI Seal of Biliteracy work group that would lead to Wisconsin’s adoption of the Seal of Bilteracy.

At the state level in Oklahoma, he was influential in broadening the Oklahoma State Board of Education’s scope for international educator hiring For over 20 years, Mr. Sandoval has empowered adults and children, particularly English Learners, by helping them acquire English and develop professional skills, and/or learn content through language acquisition programs and services. His data-based design of Dual Language programs has helped English Learners acquire English at faster rates than the US national average, promoted cultural unity, and closed achievement gaps. Furthermore, English proficient students, as well as English learners, have had the opportunity of becoming fully bilingual and bi-literate through instruction in English and Spanish.

He currently works for the Western Heights School District where he is building the new Dual Language Program. When he is not helping students become bilingual, bicultural and biliterate, he can be seen riding bikes with his family, serving in his church, reading, streaming movies, resurrecting houseplants or working in his bonsai trees.

Dr. Chris Culver, Past-President

Dr. Christopher Culver is a proud product of Oklahoma education, growing up in Tulsa and Wyandotte, and has served educational communities since 2013, as a classroom teacher, secondary principal, and now as a cabinet level administrator. Dr. Culver also serves as an enthusiastic, optimistic keynote speaker and presenter exploring the power of culture/motivation/teacher retention, understanding Gen Z, empowering educators, engaging multilingual families, and understanding the importance of grit, gratitude, and hope.

Dr. Culver is the current Past-President of the Oklahoma Association for Bilingual Education, where he has championed work to bring awareness to the importance and benefits of multilingual and dual language education. In addition, Dr. Culver also serves as a Member for the Board of Directors for a local non-profit who aims to ensure our nation’s military, veterans and first responders are safe on the road. Lastly, Dr. Culver serves as an adjunct professor for Oklahoma City University in the teacher preparation program.

Culver has also been a voice on a national level, contributing to panels that focus on improving public education and shaping federal educational policies. He holds a Bachelor's in English Education and a Master’s in Educational Leadership from Northeastern State University, and a Doctorate of Education in Educational Leadership and Administration from Southern Nazarene University where he explored the power of motivation and a positive school culture.

Above all, Dr. Culver believes in the power of education, kindness, and the transformative nature of a smile, urging us all to be agents of positive change.

Marisela Esparza, Treasurer

Marisela Esparza grew up in Joliet, Illinois with her mom and four siblings. She moved to Oklahoma City in 2014 to live closer to her dad and continue her education. As a first generation college student, she made it her mission to excel in her studies and become a role model as well as a resource for other first generation college students.

She earned her first college degree in 2016 from the Oklahoma City Community College in the field of business. In 2018, she received her Bachelor’s Degree in Special Education from the University of Oklahoma and signed her first teaching contract. After a year of focusing on her teaching career, she was accepted into a Graduate program at the University of Oklahoma, fully funded by a grant that she was awarded. In 2021, she succeeded in achieving her Master’s Degree in Special Education with double certifications in Applied Behavior Analysis and Transition.

Marisela has had the opportunity to utilize her skills and experience in different educational settings to provide students in Title 1 schools an experience in education that will follow them beyond high school. As she enters her fifth year as a special education teacher and now the treasurer of OABE, she is excited to gain more information and skills that will allow her to continue meeting the needs of all students.

Yuseli Freire, Secretary

Yuseli Freire has eleven years of experience in education as a teacher, director of English Language Proficiency Assessments, and current coordinator for Title III at Moore Public Schools. She earned a bachelor's degree in Psychology from the University of Oklahoma and a master's degree in Educational Leadership and Administration from the University of Central Oklahoma. 

Yuseli is a doctoral student at Southern Nazarene University exploring the connection between instructors of Emergent Bilinguals, professional development, and teacher transformative learning. 

Yuseli was an Emergent Bilingual as a child, and she is very passionate about bilingualism since she believes that language has spiritual, cultural, and emotional value. Language, both written and spoken, is an art form that enables the transmission of values and traditions across generations. When a language disappears, a component of its culture vanishes as well. Similarly, traditions and conventions continue to exist in the minds and hearts of those who understand the language when it is preserved.  

Jamie Hinds Blank, Newsletter Editor

Jamie Blank has served 10 years with Oklahoma City Public Schools as a teacher, coach, and facilitator, and administrator. In her current position, she oversees English Language Development programming in multiple middle schools. Her educational background includes a Bachelors in Literary and Cultural Studies from the University of Oklahoma and continued education with achieving double Master’s Degrees in both Secondary and Adult Education & Training from the University of Central Oklahoma.

Alongside her duties with OKCPS, Jamie has partnered as an educational trainer with Myriad Education. In this partnership, she continues to provide professional development and training to surrounding school districts with a primary focus on English learners in K-12 schools. Outside of her educational commitments, she also focuses on building an inclusive and diverse soccer program that includes coaching mentorship for fundamental skills and character building in our youth. 

As a second-generation immigrant, Jamie was brought up surrounded by a strong presence of the Filipino community. Growing up as a Filipino-American and Army Brat, the military often moved Jamie and her family to different states, cities, and schools. Through her childhood, each new setting exposed her to a wide range of diverse communities and new sets of challenges. This exposure helped shape her own identity and passion for advocacy, while developing her love for educating others with diversity and inclusion.

In her free time, you can find her mentoring kids at the local YMCA, playing and coaching soccer, or traveling the world with her husband to learn and connect with other cultures.

Cheryl Huffman, Historian

Ms. Cheryl Leever Huffman is a founding member of OABE and has served in every office on the Executive Board over the years, some of them twice. She currently serves as the board-appointed Historian. Ms. Huffman has extensive instructional, administrative, grant writing, advocacy, and evaluation experience in  multicultural and bilingual education, English as a second language (ESL), and Special Education. She has held positions at many different educational levels (District, Private Intensive English Program, University, State Department of  Education, and Federal Regional Resource Center). She is currently a private consultant and program evaluator. 

The History of the Oklahoma Association for Bilingual Education:

In early Spring 1977, a small group of Oklahoma educators interested in promoting effective bilingual, native language preservation and revitalization, and English as a Second Language programming for the state’s Native American students and English Learners (then termed Limited English Proficient students), including Ms. Hope Alvarez, Dr. Agnes Cowen, Dr. Ricardo Garcia, Dr. April Haulman, Ms. Cheryl Leever Huffman, Ms. Faynell Mills, Ms. Monica Sandoval, and Mr. Ron West got together and decided to form an affiliate of the National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE). They named their organization the Oklahoma Association for Bilingual Education (OABE) and began work on a constitution and by-laws, which were approved at the first conference of OABE held in September 1977 at the Wesley Community Center in Oklahoma City.

The first executive board of OABE was composed of the President: Dr. Agnes Cowen, Vice-President: Ms. Hope Alvarez, Secretary: Ms. Monica Sandoval, and Treasurer: Mr. Ron West. The board applied for and received official NABE affiliate status for the organization in March 1978.

OABE has held an annual conference every year since 1978, with only one cancellation due to a blizzard in December 2006. Thanks to Dr. Haulman and the University of Central Oklahoma, the conference was rescheduled to the following February and combined with the 2007 Multicultural Education Institute. Since 1987, OABE has held nine highly successful joint conferences with its sister organization The Oklahoma Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (OKTESOL) OABE has provided a platform for professional development and advocacy for the Oklahoma bilingual/ESL community for over 40 years. Its conference featured speakers have included both state and nationally recognized experts in our field, such as Dr. Steven Krashen, Dr. Eugene Garcia, Dr. Natalie Kuhlman, James Crawford, Drs. Yvonne and David Freeman, Dr. Sue Ellen Reed, and Mr. Roger Rosenthal, Esq.

OABE has never been a large organization, but it has made its presence felt on many issues affecting Oklahoma’s Native American Students and English Learners, including successfully working with other like-minded organizations to avoid the passage of an English Only Amendment to the state’s constitution, lobby against anti-immigrant legislation in the state legislature, and support the establishment of teacher certification in English as a Second Language.