Meet the Team Meet the Team

Sydney Snyder, PhD, began working for SupportEd as a way to build on her passion for advocacy and educational equity for Multilingual Learners (MLs) that flourished during her time as an ESOL teacher. She is the co-author of two books (Culturally Responsive Teaching for Multilingual Learners: Tools for Equity and Unlocking English Learners’ Potential: Strategies for Making Content Accessible).

Dr. Snyder has significant experience in developing and conducting interactive professional development for teachers of MLs. Dr. Snyder led a project for the National Education Association to create and pilot blended professional development modules focused on the instruction and assessment of MLs, advocacy for MLs, second language acquisition, and culture. She has also created and facilitated professional development that focuses on research-based strategies to support MLs’ language development and academic achievement for teachers in multiple states.

Dr. Snyder brings significant experience developing curriculum, writing literature reviews, and facilitating working group meetings. For the U.S. Department Education in partnership with the American Institutes for Research, Dr. Snyder helped convene a panel to select a set of English language proficiency standards for adults and is leading the development of an online module to provide training on the standards.

For TESOL International Association, Dr. Snyder summarized the findings of an expert standards committee to write standards for short-term certificate programs and conducted a literature review to support the standards. She brings extensive instructional experience, having taught ESOL/English as a Foreign Language for over 15 years. She taught most recently in Falls Church, VA where she was also the K-12 ESOL Curriculum and Instruction Resource Teacher for the district.

Sydney earned her PhD in Multilingual/Multicultural Education at George Mason University and her MAT in TESOL at the School for International Training.

Dr. Snyder lives in Scranton, Pennsylvania with her husband, two daughters, and one cat. Sydney had her own experiences with language learning while living and teaching in Argentina, Guinea, and Indonesia.