2025 Rhetorician of the Year
Kimberley Adilia Helmer
Kimberly Adilia Helmer is Chair at UC Santa Cruz and holds an MA TESOL from the Monterey Institute of International Studies, now Middlebury, and a Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition and Teaching from the University of Arizona where she majored in Linguistic Anthropology. Her research areas include educational anthropology, multilingual literacy development, and now, Writing and Wellbeing. She has published her work in the peer-reviewed journals such as: Anthropology & Educational Quarterly, the Journal of English for Academic Purposes, and the Heritage Language Journal. Her book Learning and Not Learning in the Heritage Language Classroom: Engaging Mexican-Origin Students is a multiyear ethnography chronicling a cohort of Mexican-origin students as they navigate their newly formed charter high school.
2024 Keynote Speaker
Keynote Speaker: Jennifer Trainer
Jennifer Trainor is a professor of English at SF State, where she teaches undergraduate writing, as well as graduate courses in writing pedagogy. Her scholarship focuses on anti-racist approaches to education, critical pedagogy, student engagement, and assessment. She is a former director of the Writing Program at SF State, and is currently working with SF State’s Center for Equity and Excellence in Teaching and Learning to provide faculty development on emerging AI technologies. Read more about Jennifer’s work and scholarship at https://english.sfsu.edu/people/jennifer-trainor
2024 Rhetorician of the Year
Rhetorician of the Year: Nicole Gonzales Howell
Nicole Gonzales Howell started her higher education journey at Fresno Community College, received her BA from the University of Southern California, MA from California State University, Fresno and her PhD from Syracuse University in Composition and Cultural Rhetoric. In 2014 Nicole was selected as one of the Ethnic Minority Dissertation Fellows at the University of San Francisco (now the Gerardo Marin Dissertation Fellows), and is now a full-time associate professor in USF’s Rhetoric and Language department. Although Nicole primarily teaches writing and public speaking courses in Rhetoric, she also teaches for the Critical Diversity Studies department and USF’s Honors College. Dr. Howell’s research focuses on the importance of social location (race, gender, class, ability, and sexuality etc.) of both students and teachers and its relationship to many aspects of education, teacher affect, program administration, and in particular writing assessment. Read more about Nicole’s work and scholarship at https://nicolegonzaleshowell.com
2023 Keynote Speaker
Keynote Speaker: Antero Garcia
Antero Garcia is an Assistant Professor in the Graduate School of Education at Stanford University where he studies how technology and gaming shape both youth and adult learning, literacy practices, and civic identities. Prior to completing his Ph.D., Antero was an English teacher at a public high school in South Central Los Angeles, where he also helped co-design the Critical Design and Gaming School. His most recent research studies explore learning and literacies using Dungeons & Dragons, including how participatory culture shifts classroom relationships and instruction. Read more about Antero’s work and scholarship at https://ccsre.stanford.edu/people/antero-garcia
2023 Rhetorician of the Year
Rhetorician of the Year: Amy Vidali
Amy Vidali is former Chair and current Associate Teaching Professor at UC Santa Cruz. Her research, teaching, and activism focus on disability, rhetoric, and writing. She’s currently collaborating on a piece on radical trust and directed self-placement, and she’s wondering how to teach information literacy in required writing courses when the truth no longer seems to matter. Read more about Amy’s work at https://amyvidali.sites.ucsc.edu