Nexus Mandarin/汇中文 Five-Pillar Framework

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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).

 Head of School Jeff Bissell came to Chinese American International School after 11 years as Director of School Year Abroad in Beijing, China. Prior to that he served as Adjunct Professor of Chinese Language at Marquette University, an instructor at Shenyang University of Technology 沈阳工业大学 in Liaoning Province, China; and at rural and urban high schools in Wisconsin.  Jeff currently serves on the Board of Trustees at Keystone Academy in Beijing.  Previous board service has included the California Teacher Development Collaborative (CATDC); the Chinese Early Language Immersion Network (CELIN) at Asia Society, the 1990 Institute, the Mandarin Institute, Western Academy of Beijing, and the JUMP! Foundation.  He was also named to the task force for the 1 Million Strong initiative spearheaded by Presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping to expand to 1 million the number of US K-12 students studying Mandarin by 2020. 

 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.  

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.