Mari Fernandez has been a progressive educator in a variety of contexts in Puerto Rico and the US. She founded Puerto Rico’s first Sudbury school. Since moving to the US in 2007, taught Spanish at Monarch Academy Glen Burnie, Anne Arundel County’s first EL Education charter school, where she honed her skills as a project-based learning facilitator and curriculum designer. Most recently, Ms. Fernandez teaches ESOL at Annapolis High School, where she has developed a program to support long-term English learners to transition to independence from the ESOL program.