Ester de Jong is a Professor in ESOL/Bilingual Education and the Director of the School of Teaching and Learning at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. Originally from the Netherlands, she worked with Spanish-English and Brazilian-Portuguese bilingual programs as the Assistant Director for Bilingual Education and ESL programs in Massachusetts prior to coming to the University of Florida. Her research focuses on equity and integration in the context of language education, two-way immersion programs, and preparing teachers to work with bilingual learners in K-12 schools. Her book, Foundations of Multilingualism in Education: From Policy to Practice published by Caslon Publishing, considers a principled approach to school, program, and classroom decision-making for multilingual learners. Dr. de Jong is currently Past-President of TESOL International Association (2018-2019).
Professor and Director, University of Florida