Diane Staehr Fenner

Diane Staehr Fenner, PhD, is a multilingual learner and English learner education specialist and the founder and president of SupportEd, a woman-owned small business based in the Washington, DC metro area that provides professional development, technical assistance, and curriculum and assessment support to empower multilingual learners and their educators. She has authored or coauthored multiple books on multilingual learner education, including Breaking Down the Wall: Essential Shifts for English Learners’ Success, Social Emotional Learning for Multilingual Learners: Essential Actions for Success, Unlocking Multilingual Learners’ Potential: Strategies for Making Content Accessible, Culturally Responsive Teaching for Multilingual Learners: Tools for Equity, and Advocating for Multilingual/English Learners: A Guide for Educators.

Prior to founding SupportEd in 2011, Staehr Fenner worked for a decade as an English language development/ESOL teacher, dual language assessment teacher, and ELD/ESOL assessment specialist in Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia, and as a research associate at George Washington University’s Center for Excellence and Equity in Education. She has taught English in Mexico and Germany and speaks German and Spanish. Staehr Fenner holds a PhD in Multilingual/Multicultural Education with an emphasis in literacy from George Mason University, an MAT in TESOL from the School for International