About US
Learn about our conference story and organizers below
Conference history
LJ Con (formerly L.E.A.R.N. Con) was established in 2022 by Julie Gamberg, poet and Glendale Community College faculty, inspired by the work of fellow community college instructors Michelle Cruz Gonzales and Kisha Quesada Turner. The goal of the conference is to celebrate and promote Linguistic Justice teaching practices in community college and beyond.
The conference is organized by LJ practitioners and students. Presenters are often former attendees. We prioritize our conference being free, accessible, and grounded in care and access.
The 2026 conference is proud to be sponsored by the Puente Project.
Organizers
Michelle Gonzales (she/ella) has taught at Las Positas College since 2003. There she is a Puente practitioner and DEIAB co-coordinator. Additionally, Gonzales is a linguistic justice trainer for the Puente Statewide in their PD unit. Gonzales has provided LJ training for community colleges up and down the state of California and the Environmental Protection Agency. Born and raised in Califas, Gonzales speaks Standard English, Yay Area English, Spanglish, and Spanish. Her linguistic justice practice is rooted in theory, her family's language experiences, and all that she's learned from her students. Her essay "Not Just One White Way Down the Middle of the Road: An Argument for Identity in Academic Writing and Strengths-Based Assessment" will be published in Reconceptualizing Response by Utah State University Press in 2026.
Kelan Koning (she/her) is a writing faculty and doctoral student in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at CSU Northridge with nearly 30 years of experience in higher ed social justice work. She currently serves as an organizer of the Puente Linguistic Justice Conference (LJ Con) and has been a core member of the conference committee since its second year. Her work centers on supporting students through the intersections of Racial, Linguistic, and Disability Justice. Beyond her conference leadership, she is a SEED grant PI and a Fellow in the Puente Linguistic Justice Community of Practice. You can read her chapter, "Mad Lyrics: Toward an Embodied, Community-Responsive Pedagogy of Care in Academia," in Mad Scholars: Reclaiming and Reimagining the Neurodiverse Academy.
Regina Pena Olea is a sophomore community college student majoring in Art/Fine Arts at Las Positas College, with hopes of transferring to UC Berkeley. She is a former Puente Program student & mentor and former Puente Club 2025-26 Social Media Manager. She is also part of the LPC Honors Program and currently works at the Basic Needs Department as a Student Assistant in the Welcome Center. She speaks Spanish, English, and Spanglish fluently. Her work has been featured in the Puente shirt logo for the 2024 transfer motivational conference.
Sofia Pena Olea is a sophomore community college student majoring in Global Studies at Las Positas College , with hopes of transferring to UCLA. She is a former Puente Program student & mentor. She is also part of the LPC Honors Program, and currently works at the LPC Cultural Community Center as an Student Assistant. Throughout her time at Las Positas, she has completed 4 honors projects, including a 20+ page honors project focused on Idiolects. She speaks Spanish, English and Spanglish fluently.
Karin Spirn (she or they) has been teaching English at Las Positas College in Livermore since 2003 and is a Puente instructor and practitioner. She cofounded Tuff Love, which provides inclusive self-defense and martial arts instruction in Oakland, CA. Her book Logicland: A Fairy-Tale about Critical Thinking and Social Justice will be available in August 2026.
Kisha Quesada Turner’s pronouns are she/her, yo/yo’s. She is a Black graduate of PWIs, which has made her long- and hyper-aware of the richness of Black Englishes and the under-utilization of them in classrooms. Her publications include “Ni**as in English,” “Curriculum Trauma,” and “Beat It Out the Frame”: Challenging Black Hypermasculinity in Hip Hop. Yo is an Umoja Community Practitioner and serves as a Linguistic Justice Trainer and Assistant Director of Professional Development for The Puente Project. Yo’s languages and dialects of nurture are AAVE, Spanish, Spanglish, text talk, and Queer vernaculars.
