Teachers & Parents

Jason Chin (US)

Jason Chin is the author and illustrator of many acclaimed books, including Grand Canyon, Redwoods and Your Place in the Universe. The latest book he illustrated, Watercress, by author Andrea Wang, has garnered seven-starred reviews. Jason has received a Caldecott Honor, Sibert Honor, Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor, and the NCTE Orbis Pictus award.

Hwang Sun-mi (黄善美） (Korea)

Hwang Sun-mi is a South Korean writer, who has won many awards and published more than 40 books for adults and children. She graduated from the creative writing departments at Seoul Institute of the Arts and Gwangju University. Her book, The Hen Who Dreamed She Could Fly has been on bestseller lists for 20 years and has also been adapted into a comic book, a play, and a musical, and has been translated into 30 languages.

Esther Nguyen (Vietnam)

Esther Nguyen is a passionate media and technology entrepreneur and the CEO of POPS Worldwide, a leading digital entertainment company in Southeast Asia. POPS has been crucial to the development of the entertainment industry in Vietnam, educating the industry on copyright potential and building an ecosystem that has allowed the industry to monetise and evolve. 

Moderator Colin Goh (Singapore)

Colin Goh is a writer/cartoonist whose work includes the international bestseller Search Inside Yourself. He created the Dim Sum Warriors series of graphic novels with his wife Woo Yen Yen. Dim Sum Warriors has expanded into a musical that toured 25 cities in China, children's books, and an international patent-pending learning system that combines hilarious multilingual comics, livestream drawing sessions and an app with reading evaluation tech.

Yulia Loekito (Indonesia)

Yulia is a mother of two who lives in Yogyakarta-Indonesia. Reading and teaching have been her favourite pastimes since she was a little girl. Her passion for teaching children emerged at the age of 19 when she was teaching children with special needs. She also runs an alternative learning community and a printing and publishing house.

Moderator Alexander Coupe (Singapore)

Alexander (Alec) Coupe is a field linguist and the author of numerous research papers and books on the languages of Northeast India, where he has worked with tribal communities for over two decades. He has been a faculty member of NTU’s Linguistics and Multilingual Studies since 2009, where he teaches and trains students in language documentation and grammatical description.

Dr Lourdes Mary Daniel (Singapore)

Dr Lourdes Mary Daniel is the Head of Department in the Department of Child Development, KK Women's and Children's Hospital. She is a paediatrician who is trained both in Neonatology and Child Development. She has worked with high risk children in KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital from childhood to primary school ages for the last 30 years.

Fiona Woo (Singapore)

Ms Fiona Woo is a Principal Educational Therapist at the Department of Child Development, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital. She is part of a team that sees a range of developmental issues in young children. Her area of work focuses on supporting 5 and 6 years old children in the areas of pre-literacy and early reading.
 

Jasmine Lee (Singapore)

Ms Jasmine Lee is a Principal Speech-Language Therapist at the Department of Child Development, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital. She oversees a range of developmental issues such as gross and fine motor developmental delays, handwriting difficulties, as well as learning and behavioural problems. The department also runs community programmes, partnering with preschools, philanthropic organisations and other government ministries to bring early intervention to the classroom for children with developmental needs.

Norlin Samat (Singapore)

Norlin Samat is a former primary school teacher with a Post-graduate Diploma in Education and an MA in Language Studies. A passionate educator with a career spanning more than 18 years in public and private education institutions, she hopes to contribute in nurturing the next generation of bilinguals. She is the writer of the bilingual children's book series Ally's Adventures.

Mukhlis Abu Bakar (Singapore)

Mukhlis Abu Bakar is an Associate Professor at the National Institute of Education, NTU. He obtained his MA and PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Wales, Bangor, UK. His research interests lie in the fields of bilingualism, biliteracy, literacy learning, and pronunciation issues in Malay. He is Co-Editor of a forthcoming book, The Bloomsbury Handbook of Cultural Identity from Early Childhood to Early Adulthood.

Moderator Jumaini Ariff (Singapore)

Jumaini Ariff ialah seorang pencerita profesional dan juga penulis buku cerita kanak-kanak seperti Siri Ariff Ingin Tahu dan lain-lain lagi. Beliau dikenali menerusi watak unik; Nek Selampit dan kerap terlibat dalam kempen-kempen bahasa dan budaya di peringkat nasional serta festival-festival penceritaan tempatan.

Jumaini Ariff is professional storyteller and author. She is known by her storytelling persona; 'Nek Selampit'. She has participated in storytelling festivals as well as national language and cultural campaigns.

Edison Anak Ricket (Malaysia)

Edison Ricket has worked as a librarian for 20 years and has managed state libraries, academic libraries and specialist libraries during this time. He is passionate about promoting literacy and using technology as a medium of knowledge sharing and transmission.

Moderator N. Kannigadevi (Singapore)

Ms N.Kannigadevi has worked in the Early Childhood field for over 30 years in several roles; including specialist teacher, curriculum developer, special needs mentor and a certified trainer at Presbyterian Community Services (PCS), a Social Service Agency. Currently, she is the Assistant Director for Capability Support and Special Needs Mentor at PCS, and is also an Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) Fellow.

Debby Lukito (Indonesia)

Debby Lukito Goeyardi is a children and young adult book author and a literary activist with specialty in culinary literacy. She has published several books, including a reference book titled Autograph Collector: Hobby Unik yang Jarang Dilirik which received the MURI Award in 2010. Her children's picture book Waktunya Cepuk Terbang won the Samsung KidsTime Author's Award in 2016. 

Tyas Widjati (Indonesia)

Tyas Widjati’s writes so that she can read her own stories to her daughters. She has been part of an author residency organised by the Indonesia National Book Committee, where she spent a month in Ireland learning about Irish myth and folklore. She presently lives in a warm little city with her two daughters.

Moderator Chatarina Trihastuti (Indonesia)

Chatarina Trihastuti has been involved in various programs and activities in the field of education as the Program Manager at ProVisi Education. Together with Room to Read, an NGO from San Fransisco, she has assisted in the development of more than 200 children’s storybooks and 240 child-friendly libraries in Indonesia.

Friska Titi Nova (Indonesia)

Friska is a literacy activist and librarian. Friska, also known as Kak Peri, is currently managing the Pustakawan Mendunia website, and compiling storybooks for children. She enjoys sharing her experiences and knowledge about librarianship, storytelling and literacy. Friska has devoted herself to designing ingenious methods to encourage Papuan students to pick up reading. Friska recently moved to Batam where she has continued improving her strategies in advocating reading for children.

Moderator Joji Reynes Santos (Philippines)

Joji Reynes Santos is a teacher and a learner who loves to read and tries hard to write stories. She works with a diverse group of learners, and in the process learns both wonderful and dreadful things about the world. Her book, Inside Daniel’s Head, is an attempt to give readers a unique understanding of children with autism.

Siti Aisyah Binte Abdul Nasir (Singapore)

Aisyah leads a team of librarians in the strategic planning, development and implementation of Children and Teens programmes, across all Singapore public libraries. She has presented at various platforms for MOE educators on topics such as collection development, digital trends and inclusive reads. Aisyah enjoys reading graphic novels for all ages and children’s picture books – she finds the combination of pictures and words truly magical.

Wai Yin Pryke (Singapore)

Mrs Wai Yin Pryke has been an educator for over 30 years, before becoming the Director of the National Library Singapore for three years. She is currently Director of Education and Community Outreach at the National Heritage Board. Wai Yin is passionate about making learning meaningful and accessible to all.

Sarah Mounsey (Singapore)

Sarah Mounsey is Director of Libraries at Dulwich College (Singapore). A book (and chocolate!) obsessed teacher librarian and author, she spends her days juggling three sons, hundreds of students and thousands of books. She is the author of the award-winning Paw Prints series of books, which have been published in Singapore.

Moderator Christabel Sim (Singapore)

Christabel joined the National Library Board, Singapore as an outreach librarian and has worked very closely with children and youths between 7-17. She has also advised school libraries on their revamp process, and selected books for children and young adults' reading collection. She is now presently based at library@harbourfront, the largest shopping mall public library in Singapore.

Cheng Wan-Ni (郑婉妮) (Singapore)

郑婉妮博士来自台湾，专精于幼儿教育领域达二十年，曾参与学前教育政策发展和实务锻炼，见证台湾幼儿教育的演进与蓬勃发展，除了专精于幼儿教育领域的各种议题外，她近年来专注儿童手机游戏、媒体组合等新媒体之研究，并与儿童营销、消费、儿童流行文化结合。对于幼儿及青少年产品开发设计，以及成瘾设计的独到专长，更使其被延揽至台湾，日本等游戏公司作为儿童游戏产品之开发顾问。至新加坡后积极参与本地幼儿教育，并发展多元文化教育教材及华文课程的开发，以及本地幼儿教育教师职前训练。目前，郑博士担任新加坡华文教研中心的学前部门主任。

Dr. Cheng Wan-Ni has more than 20 years of experience in childhood development and is presently the Dean of Early Childhood Care and Education Department at the Singapore Centre for Chinese Language (SCCL). Dr. Cheng has taken a special interest in interactive games on smartphone devices and multimedia applications with a focus on marketing, consumerism and pop culture for children.

Moderator Su Zhangkai (苏章恺) (Singapore)

苏章恺 (Su Zhangkai) was formerly a part-time lecturer with the Department of Chinese Studies at the National University of Singapore and a secondary school teacher. He was conferred the 2013 Fellow of Academy of Singapore Teachers in recognition for his outstanding contribution towards professional development. He believes reading is the foundation of all learning and that with the right pedagogies and environment, learning the Chinese language can be easy and fun.

Renu Siva (Singapore)

Renu Silva is a librarian from the Mother Tongue Language Services team at the National Library Board. Renu has over eight years of experience in library work specialising in children and young peoples’ programmes and services. She is well versed with the junior and young peoples’ collection in the libraries in both English and Tamil languages and has conducted related sharing sessions and workshops for parents, educators and children.

Moderator Cheeno Marlo Sayuno (Philippines)

Cheeno Marlo Sayuno is an Assitant Professor of Communication and Children's Literature at the University of Philippines Los Baños. He won in the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature from the Philippine Board on Books for Young People in 2013 and 2017. He has published storybooks in the Philippines and was a writing participant at the AFCC Writers and Illustrators Retreat in 2015. He specialises in writing children's storybooks and analysing transmedia engagements of children.

Mervin Ang (Singapore)

Mervin is a versatile trainer and facilitator with more than five years of training experience in the National Library’s Outreach team. He has conducted numerous talks and workshops on information literacy, library databases and combating fake news to diverse audiences, and he has trained over 40,000 individuals.

Mike Caulfield (US)

Mike Caulfield is the director of blended and networked learning at Washington State University Vancouver. He is an early believer in the idea of civic digital literacies. His work Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers won the Merlot Award for best open learning resource in the ICT category. He was a runner up in the Rita Allen/RTI International Misinformation Solutions Award.

Angela Erickson (US)

Angela Erickson is the Head of Middle School English at United World College. Before moving to Singapore, she was a Teacher Librarian at Seoul International School. She is interested in how educational leadership, curriculum design and workshop pedagogy can be integrated to create a school culture of reading, thinking and writing.

Moderator Kim Beeman (Singapore)

Kim Beeman is Head of the Senior Library at Tanglin Trust School in Singapore. She has previously worked as a teacher-librarian at independent schools in Bangkok and New York City, and was a cookbook librarian in New York City for many years. Kim has a Masters of Library and Information Science from University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Verena Lee (Singapore)

Verena Lee is an Assistant Director at the National Library Board, Singapore. Verena and her team are presently involved in improving Singapore’s library spaces and services for the disability community. She also manages Woodlands Regional Library, which offers programmes and services for persons with disabilities, including a sensory-friendly space for children with autism.

Jaspreet Kaur (Singapore)

Jaspreet is a founding member of Diverse Abilities Dance Collective (DADC), having actively participated in performances with the group such as Speaking With Hands, the Saarang Festival in Chennai and Same Same. As a dancer in Fusion Dance by Down Syndrome Association Singapore (DSA), Jaspreet has also performed on numerous platforms such as their annual charity gala dinner, Mystique, and Purple Parade.

Magali Finet (Singapore)

Magali Finet is the manager designate for Programmes at Very Special Arts Singapore, a local charity dedicated to using arts to providing access and opportunities for people with disabilities. A published short story writer, Magali is very excited to combine her two passions, writing and working for persons with disabilities, by developing VSA(S)'s Literary programme.

Ming Xia Ho (Singapore)

Ming Xia is the Social Media Manager and Singapore Administrator at Writing Through, a charitable organisation which uses creative writing as a tool to develop thinking skills. Ming Xia strives to create impactful relationships with her interpersonal skills, experience, and knowledge. As an active advocate of education, creativity, thinking skills, and self-esteem, Ming Xia has made several guest appearances on stage as a speaker to inspire people from all walks of life to live curiously.

Kavitha Krishnan (Singapore)

Kavitha is the co-founder of Maya Dance Theatre, and she presents inter-disciplinary-transcultural dance theatre works to shine light on social issues. In 2018, Kavitha founded Diverse Abilities Dance Collective (DADC), which consists of performers with different abilities; and they dance to communicate and connect! Kavitha is trained in the Indian dance form bharathanatyam and creates contemporary dance with Asian perspectives.

Monica Halil Lövblad (Switzerland)

Monica Halil Lövblad is the Head at Accessible Books Consortium (ABC). ABC is a public-private partnership led by the World Intellectual Property Organization. It includes organizations that represent people with print disabilities such as the World Blind Union; libraries for the blind; standards bodies, and organizations representing authors, publishers and collective management organizations.

Moderator Roger Jenkins (Singapore)

Roger Jenkins has been a professional storyteller since 1998. He organised the Story Carnival@Enabling Village with Story Connection Ltd.

He founded Hi! Theatre of the Deaf in 1984 and was its Director for 10 years. He is a founding member of the Access Arts Hub, which seeks to promote access to live arts events for people with disabilities. He is also a trained audio describer and has described nine productions, mainly by SRT and Wild Rice!

Sandy Koh (Singapore)

Sandy is the principal of Singapore’s first inclusive preschool Kindle Garden and she has over three decades of experience in early childhood education. Having a keen interest in curriculum development, Sandy collaborates with teachers, early interventionists and allied health professionals to provide optimum support for the holistic development of every child at Kindle Garden. Sandy holds a Masters in Special Needs and a Bachelors in Early Childhood.

Cass Lim (Singapore)

Cass is an active working mother with two boys who loves swimming and outdoor sports. Her 6-year-old son was officially diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) this year. She is a big believer in early intervention, a support and educational system for very young children with developmental delays or disabilities. She is the Section Head of Physical Education Department at College East, Institute of Technical education. 

Alison Choo (Singapore)

Alison is a Senior Speech and Language Therapist with PAP Community Foundation (PCF), and has worked with adults and children with diverse needs and profiles within both hospital and community settings. She has a special interest in providing speech and language intervention in inclusive settings, and has successfully incorporated Key Word Sign, the use of signs and natural gestures to support communication and the language development of children, as a preschool-wide approach.

Moderator Gomathey Veeramari (Singapore)

Gomathey is an educator who has worked in Early Childhood & Special Education for more than 30 years in a number of capacities including in Special Schools, Therapy Centres, and as a Classroom Specialist. A firm believer of lifelong learning, Ms Gomy completed her Master of Arts in Special Educational Needs (MA SEN) with University of South Wales, UK. She enjoys attending various courses in her field of specialty.

Melissa Choo (Singapore)

Melissa Choo is an Associate Librarian with the National Library Board. Her work provides her with the opportunity to keep up with the reading trends in Chinese children’s books, and it brings her much joy to be able to share these with the community at the programmes she conducts and oversees for parents and children. She presently advocates for reading, especially in the Mother Tongue, in her daily work, which she enjoys greatly.

Zakir Hossain (Bangladesh/Switzerland)

Zakir is a teacher-librarian, spirited researcher and an advocate of school librarianship. He enjoys research, networking and sharing experiences about school librarianship on social media. Currently, Zakir is based in Switzerland at the Inter-Community School in Zurich, but he calls Bangladesh home. He has been named for several professional awards and grants as a result of his research and dedication to the broader community.

Nadine Bailey (South Africa/Netherlands)

Nadine Bailey is a teacher-librarian and technology integrator at the Western Academy of Beijing in China. She believes in the power of diverse and multilingual books for reading communities and ensuring that books are available and accessible. She's a founding Jury member of the Neev Children's Book Award celebrating Indian voices.

Stojana Popovska (Republic of North Macedonia)

Stojana Popovska is a teacher-librarian at the Canadian International School in Singapore. She is a strong advocate for the role of picture books in children's social-emotional learning, the process of developing the self-awareness, self-control, and interpersonal skills that are vital for school, work, and life success. Her passion for picture books inspired her to pursue writing and to illustrate her own children's books.

Moderator Katie Day (US)

Katie Day is an international school teacher-librarian. An American with a masters in children’s literature from the UK and a masters in library science from Australia, she has lived in Asia since 1997, including 12 years in Singapore, where she first worked at United World College of Southeast Asia and now at Tanglin Trust School.

Dr Sivakumaran (Singapore)

Associate Professor Dr A Ra Sivakumaran is the retired head of the Tamil Language and Culture Division from National Institute of Education, Singapore. He served as a consultant to the Ministry of Education for Singapore Tamil textbooks from 2006 to 2019 and is a pioneer academic researcher of Singapore Tamil Literature. He has published a total of 16 books in roles as an author and editor.

Suriya Rethnna (Singapore)

Suriya is recognised as Singapore’s first female Tamil novelist and is an award-winning writer and former teacher. She has written short stories, novels, curriculum content, and children's fiction (including MOE supplementary Readers) in a wide array of genres. Her varied career has also seen her involved in translation and scriptwriting (latest Manmathan Ambu (Vasantham, Mediacorp, 2021)). Aram is Suriya's latest short story collection.
 

Moderator Vijayanand Thamotharan (Singapore)

Vijayanand Thamotharan is the Director of Crimson Earth, a publishing firm specialising in content development for the education and literary sector in Singapore. He has previously worked as the Director of Absolutely Parents. His interests include publishing, business development, education planning and content development. He has appeared on panels promoting children's Tamil stories in Singapore.

Jedidiah Siah (Singapore)

Jedidiah Siah is the co-founder and director of AlterCulture Studios Pte. Ltd, which provides game design consultation, education, and promotes the usage of games across non-gaming industries. He is also an Associate Trainer at Civil Service College (Singapore) for Game Design. He has been researching and experimenting with how gaming examines social dynamics and cultures. He holds a B.A. in Game Design from DigiPen (Singapore Institute of Technology).

Johann Annuar (Singapore)

Johann is trained as an electrical and electronics engineer and has been with Engineering Good in key roles for the past four years. He is an avid cyclist who knows no boundaries, and cycled from Turkey to New Zealand over 18 months. He was also a member of the Singapore Everest Expedition 1998 Team and was a Board member for the Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders).

Toh Yixue (Singapore)

Toh Yixue is an educator and artist from technology and education company TinkerTanker. He is experienced in both software and classical animation training, as well as motion graphics and animation production. He is passionate in programming, 3d production, interactive media and design and strongly believes that having a wide range of interests makes him a better artist and collaborator.

Moderator Shreya Acharya (Singapore)

Shreya Acharya is the Assistant Editor at Difference Engine, and has worked on editing comics, as well as literary fiction and non-fiction publications. Her writing has appeared in The Epigram Books Collection of Best New Singaporean Short Stories (Vol 4) and Mahogany Journal. She has also held editorial positions at Math Paper Press and at Asian Geographic Magazines Pte Ltd. She never leaves home without a book in tow.

Teresa Cremin (UK)

Teresa Cremin is Professor of Education at The Open University. An ex-teacher and pre-service lecturer, her research focuses on volitional reading and writing, teachers’ literate identities and creative pedagogies. Teresa is passionate about developing readers for life and works with the profession to ensure research-informed practice in reading for pleasure.

Moderator Loh Chin Ee (Singapore)

Loh Chin Ee is Associate Professor and Deputy Head (Research) at the English Language and Literature Academic Group at the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University. She is the co-editor of Little Things, Poetry Moves and co-author of Teaching Poetry to Adolescents: A Teachers' Guide to Little Things by Ethos Books. She recently produced and co-hosted the How We Read podcast series.

Jeffrey Tan (Singapore)

Jeffrey is an experienced Theatre Director and Drama Educator. He has taught ‘Creativity in Collaborative Learning’ and ‘Lesson Planning’ for the National institute of Education, ‘Educational Drama’ for Nanyang Technological Universtiy, 'Children's Theatre' for the University of Warwick and 'Educational Theatre' for New York University's Study Abroad Programme in London. 

Shereen Tan (Singapore)

Shereen is the Outreach & Education Manager at the Malay Heritage Centre under the National Heritage Board. She oversees the educational programmes, volunteer management and outreach initiatives at the Centre. She previously worked in outreach for the National Parks Board.

Yap Jia En (Singapore)

Jia En is a Visual Design and Exhibitions Manager at The Artground, a Children’s Art Centre which provides positive arts experiences across a variety of art forms. She works with creatives to design and develop arts spaces that welcome children from every community.

Yvonne Pek (Singapore)

Yvonne Pek is presently a lecturer at the NIEC – TP campus. Yvonne received her PhD, specializing in Language and Literacy, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her Masters of Arts (Literacy Specialist) at Teachers College, Columbia University. Yvonne is passionate about supporting the literacy learning of young children from less privileged backgrounds. She has taught at a variety of preschool settings and developed curriculum for a large childcare network.

Jenny Cheok (Singapore)

Jenny Cheok received her Master of Education (Early Childhood) from the University of Southern Queensland. Jenny’s passion for young children’s language and literacy learning has spurred her to take a foundation training course in Dyslexia Studies from the Dyslexia Association of Singapore, participate in Story Writing workshops, and organise poly students in conducting story-telling sessions at various NLB branches.

Marie Angelie (Singapore)

Marie Angelie holds a Master of Education from the University of Adelaide, Australia. Before devoting her time to being a lecturer, she served as a Cluster Principal at a private childcare where she led a team of principals for centre operation and executing curriculum. She is passionate about teaching children's language and literacy with storytelling and story dramatisation.