leadership team

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Founding President.  Dr. Shuhan C. Wang is the President of ELE Consulting International, Senior Advisor to Chinese Language Education, Director of the Chinese Early Language and Immersion Network at Asia Society, and Advisor for the Global Seal of Biliteracy. She was the Deputy Director of the National Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland, the Executive Director for Chinese Language Initiatives at the Asia Society, and the Education Associate for World Languages and International Education for the State of Delaware. Dr. Wang was an advisor to the Singapore Ministry of Education on the development of Chinese as a Mother Tongue primary and secondary school curriculum and materials. She has taught and worked with numerous K-12 schools, school districts, states, university Chinese language programs, Chinese heritage language schools, and teacher development programs. In addition to many scholarly papers and book chapters on language planning and policy, teacher education and development, and curriculum and biliteracy development, Dr. Wang co-authored and led several K-12 Chinese language textbook series. She received her Ph.D. in Educational Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania. 

Dr. Michele Anciaux Aoki is an international education and world languages advocate and former world languages and international education program supervisor for the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and international education administrator for Seattle Public Schools. In Seattle, she was responsible for developing and supporting the ten international schools in the district and their K-12 Dual Language Immersion programs in Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, and Spanish, as well as supporting all World Language teachers throughout the district. At OSPI, Michele developed and implemented Competency-Based Credit testing to award high school credits to students with demonstrated language proficiency, which led to introducing the Seal of Biliteracy in Washington State. Michele was also Co-Director of the Confucius Institute of the State of Washington (CIWA) and led state-wide efforts to expand access to Mandarin language instruction in K-12 schools. For more than a decade, Michele consulted with the University of Washington on their Russian and Portuguese STARTALK Teacher and Student Programs, as well as Korean GenCyber Student Program.

Michele has a Ph.D. in Slavic Linguistics and taught Russian language and English as a Second Language at the University of Washington and served as a Fulbright lecturer in Romania. Over two decades, she has received multiple leadership awards from the Washington Association for Language Teaching (WAFLT), Consul General of Japan, the Pacific NW Council for Languages (PNCFL), JNCL-NCLIS, and the National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages (NCOLCTL).

In retirement, Michele now focuses her efforts on supporting heritage and less commonly taught languages through initiatives such as the Languages without Borders Project and Facilitated Interdependent Language Learning (FILL) through the National Council of State Supervisors for Languages (NCSSFL).

Jeff Bissell serves as Head of School at Chinese American International School (CAIS) in San Francisco, California, the nation’s oldest Mandarin English dual language immersion day school.  Previous to CAIS, Jeff served as Resident Director of School Year Abroad (SYA) in Beijing, a consortium of 40-plus high schools supporting language and cultural immersion abroad.  He has also served as adjunct professor of Chinese language at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Jeff started his professional career as a public high school teacher in Wisconsin.  He has served on several governing and advisory boards, including Keystone Academy (Beijing, China), Western Academy of Beijing, the 1990 Institute, the Chinese Early Language and Immersion Network (CELIN) at Asia Society, the California Teacher Development Collaborative, and the 1 Million Strong task force.  Jeff holds MA and PhD degrees in Chinese language and literature from the University of Wisconsin, was a Fulbright Research Fellow at the Center for Chinese Studies in the National Public Library in Taipei, Taiwan, and a Senior Scholar at the Inter-University Program in Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.  He has lived in Mainland China and Taiwan for a total of 15 years. 

Selena Cantor is a passionate advocate for global education focused on developing resources and partnerships to expand learning opportunities. In a previous role directing the Chinese Language and Culture Initiatives at College Board, she developed innovative programs impacting thousands of educators, students, and schools across the U.S. She worked in China for several years, including in teaching roles at the university level and education technology roles in the private sector. More recently, she served as consultant to education and corporate programming at Asia Society and scholarship reviewer at Fund for Education Abroad. She holds a B.A. in Asian Studies and M.A. in Applied Linguistics.  

Robert Davis is an education executive with more than 25 years of experience building language, global education, and cross-cultural learning programs across public schools, nonprofits, and mission-driven education companies. He has held senior leadership roles at Chicago Public Schools, College Board, Mandarin Matrix, and Avant Assessment, with work spanning Mandarin language education, international partnerships, digital curriculum, assessment, operations, and organizational growth. Robert helped expand access to Mandarin learning in U.S. public schools, led large-scale U.S.–China education exchange initiatives, served as CEO of Mandarin Matrix, and helped guide Avant Assessment through growth, product expansion, systems modernization, and entry into new language and assessment markets. He also served as China advisor to Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, supporting city-level engagement with China. Robert has studied and worked in China, including at Peking University, and was named an Asia Society Asia 21 Young Leader. 

 Yang Guo brings over 13 years of experience leading nationwide education initiatives, global fellowship programs, and leadership development efforts at Asia Society. She has managed complex school networks, led high-impact international conferences, and grown communities for emerging leaders. Guided by her passion for cross-cultural communication and storytelling, she fosters authentic connections and translates them into sustainable partnerships.

Yang holds an MPA from Columbia University and a BA from Beijing Normal University, and is fluent in English, Mandarin, and Cantonese. She is primarily based in Silicon Valley and continues to learn from the evolving intersections of AI, education, and everyday life. 

Dr. Luyi Lien is a dedicated leader in immersion and language-culture education, contributing in many capacities to advance high-quality bilingual learning and striving to provide students with an excellent education. She serves as Executive Director of Yinghua Academy, where she has been involved since its founding in 2006. She previously held roles including teacher, curriculum writer, textbook author, and Academic Director. Originally from Taiwan, she is also a published novelist and essayist. Dr. Lien has helped build Yinghua’s nationally recognized Chinese immersion program and actively supports global education and cross-cultural understanding worldwide.  

Jane Lu is the coordinator of the Chinese World Language Program in Chicago Public School District. She has worked in CPS as a Chinese teacher, curriculum writer and instruction differentiation specialist, and has served on the Illinois State Board of Education Content Advisory Committee. She is also a board member of the Midwest Chinese Teacher Alliance. Jane Lu has a M.Ed. in Instructional Leadership from UIC and she is certified in Chinese, English, Bilingual Education and ESL at both elementary and high school levels in the State of Illinois.

Stacy Lyon brings 20 years of experience building Chinese language and culture programs to the Nexus Board. She has been the K-12 Utah Chinese Dual Language Immersion Director since 2013, leading and building the program to its current scale of 98 schools and nearly 12,000 students. Prior to that she founded and built a K-9 Chinese language program at a public charter school, teaching Chinese and serving as World Language Director for Arabic, Chinese, and Spanish language and culture instruction over a period of 7 years. She is dedicated to improving Chinese literacy and providing authentic opportunities for students to build and use their language skills outside of the classroom. Ms. Lyon has been serving as the Vice President of NCSSFL (National Council of State Supervisors for Language) since 2023. 

Dr. Duarte Silva continues to serve in the role of Executive Director Emeritus of the California World Language Project (CWLP) in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University. The Project, designed to strengthen and enhance professional learning opportunities for California's language educators, currently has seven regional sites at campuses of the California State University, independent colleges and universities, as well as the University of California.  As the founding Executive Director, Dr. Silva was responsible for providing leadership to the Project’s programs statewide, as well as, for overseeing the evaluating of the programs outcomes implemented in each of CWLP’s regional sites.