GSC Steering Committee

All graduate students holding AAAL membership are automatically a member of the AAAL Graduate Student Council. The GSC Steering Committee, on the other hand, is the leadership team that works closely with the AAAL Executive Committee for taking initiatives to address GSC members' academic professional development needs. The Steering Committee strives to accomplish the following goals, as stated in the AAAL organizational Standing Rules:

Support grad students’ academic and professional development in Applied Linguistics and other related fields
Increase inter-institution student-to-student collaboration and develop networking opportunities with other scholars in the field
Provide bottom-up leadership within the council and subcommittees
Ensure ongoing leadership for the GSC by investing in developing leadership opportunities for subcommittee members
Strive for diversity within the GSC, including, but not limited to race, ethnicity, age, geography, (dis) ability, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, socioeconomic status, citizenship status, religion, academic focus, degree program, and career goals to ensure a variety of experience and areas of expertise

The GSC Steering Committee consists of 6 positions: 2 co-chairs, 1 secretary, and 3 members-at-large. The members of the Steering Committee meet regularly throughout the service year to plan and execute the yearly initiatives in order to serve the GSC members. Each person on the Steering Committee leads their own team of graduate student volunteers in accomplishing one or more tasks (e.g., planning a conference event, managing social media, editing the graduate student newsletter).

GSC Steering Committee positions are yearly assignment. All GSC members are eligible for applying to the Steering Committee positions. The application and interview process begins every year around February per announced by the current GSC Steering Committee.

2026-2027 Steering Committee

Ifeoluwa Awopetu
Co-chair

Ifeoluwa Awopetu is a Ph.D. candidate in the Applied Linguistics program at the University of Memphis. Her research focuses on language in digital contexts, particularly the ways discourses shape identity, ideology, and public understanding of social issues. She has a strong background and experience teaching college-level courses in linguistics and writing, and she currently serves as the Technical Editor of the University of Memphis Undergraduate Research Journal.

Within AAAL, Ifeoluwa previously served as the Newsletter Subcommittee Chair of the Graduate Student Council. She is committed to supporting graduate student engagement, professional development, and inclusion within the AAAL community.

She can be reached at pawopetu@memphis.edu.

Mushaal AlBugami
Co-chair

Mushaal AlBugami is a Ph.D. Candidate in Applied Linguistics at the University of Mississippi. Originally from Saudi Arabia, she holds an M.A. from the University of Leeds and brings more than a decade of teaching and research experience, including serving as a teaching assistant and later as a lecturer at King Saud University’s College of Language Sciences. Her research interests include pragmatics, discourse analysis, multilingualism, linguistic landscape studies, and translation, with a particular focus on language use across multilingual and intercultural contexts and the ways language shapes communication in contemporary societies. As Co-Chair of the AAAL Graduate Student Committee, her goal is to foster accessibility, engagement, and support within the GSC community. She can be reached at: Mushaal Albugami

Nilima Hakim Mow
Social Media Sub-Committee Leader

Nilima Hakim Mow is a Ph.D. candidate in Linguistics at George Mason University. Her research focuses on language documentation and revitalization, community-centered approaches to Indigenous language preservation, sociolinguistics, multilingualism, second language acquisition, and TESOL pedagogy. She currently works with the Akuzipik language of St. Lawrence Island, Alaska, and has also worked with Hawrami, a language spoken in parts of Iran, Iraq, and Turkey. Her work includes developing pedagogical materials and educational resources that support heritage language learning and the continued use of Indigenous languages across generations.

In addition to her academic work, Nilima is actively involved in student leadership and advocacy. She serves as President of the Graduate and Professional Student Association at George Mason University, where she represents graduate and professional student concerns and works to strengthen student engagement, support, and belonging across the university community.

As Chair of the AAAL Graduate Student Committee’s Social Media Subcommittee, Nilima aims to foster knowledge-sharing, amplify graduate student voices, and increase the visibility of the committee’s programs and initiatives. She is committed to creating an inclusive and engaging digital space that connects graduate students, highlights their achievements, and celebrates the diversity of their academic and professional contributions.

Ying Luo
Event Planning Sub-Committee Leader

Ying Luo is a Ph.D. candidate in Applied Linguistics at The Pennsylvania State University. She has nearly ten years of experience teaching English for academic purposes (EAP) and English for special purposes (ESP). Additionally, she conducted training for pre-service teachers who aimed to teach English language learners (ELL) in K-12 settings in the US.

Her research interests include second language writing, corpus linguistics, AI-empowered education, and sociocultural theories.

Ying is also actively involved in academic service and professional development initiatives.Through her work with the AAAL GSC Steering Committee, she hopes to support collaborative and engaging spaces for graduate students across institutions and research areas.

Dayoung Joo
Newsletter Sub-Committee Leader

Dayoung Joo is a PhD student in the Department of Applied Linguistics and ESL at Georgia State University. Before pursuing her doctoral studies, she taught English in K-12 settings in South Korea, an experience that continues to inform her research and teaching. She currently serves as a graduate fellow at the Center for Research on the Challenges of Acquiring Language and Literacy (RCALL), where she explores the intersection of second language research and educational psychology. Her research interests include second language acquisition (SLA), L2 reading and listening, and research methods in applied linguistics. She is also dedicated to exploring language ideologies and advancing equity and inclusion in language education.

Eun Cho
JEDI Sub-Committee Leader

Eun Cho is a Ph.D. student in Language and Literacy Education at Georgia State University, where she also holds a Graduate Certificate in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Her research examines the intersections of language, gender/sexuality, and identity with particular attention to transnational and Global South contexts. One of her recent publications theorizes precarious legitimacy of Filipina English teachers in online English language teaching, while another examines online sexual harassment experienced by Filipina teachers. Her current projects examine language learner identity among study abroad students across diverse gender and sexuality backgrounds. Beyond her research, Eun currently serves as Chair of AAAL GSC JEDI Subcommittee and as President of the Alpha Upsilon Alpha Honor Society of the International Literacy Association at Georgia State University. Through her leadership, she hopes to help build academic communities where graduate students from diverse backgrounds feel their identities and ways of thinking/being are genuinely valued and celebrated. She can be reached at echo28@gsu.edu and her research can be found at https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Eun-Cho-23.

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2025-2026 Steering Committee

Sarah Howard, Co-chair, Oregon State University

John Odudele, Co-chair, University of Alaska Fairbanks

Ifeoluwa Awopetu, Member-at-large (Newsletter Sub-Committee Leader), The University of Memphis

Alyson Horan, Member-at-large (Event Planning Sub-Committee Leader), Teachers College, Columbia University

Malachi Henry, Member-at-large (JEDI Sub-Committee Leader), Indiana University - Bloomington

Mukib Khan, Member-at-large (Social Media Sub-Committee Leader), Oklahoma State University

2024-2025 Steering Committee

Nasiba Norova, Co-chair, University of Massachusetts Boston

John Wayne N. dela Cruz, Co-chair (GSC representative on EC), McGill University

John A. Odudele, Member-at-large (JEDI Sub-Committee Leader), University of Alaska Fairbanks

Furkan Kir, Member-at-large (Event Planning Sub-Committee Leader), University of Washington

Sarah Howard, Member-at-large (Newsletter Sub-Committee Leader), Oregon State University

Myssan Laysy, Member-at-large (Social Media Sub-Committee Leader), Indiana University of Pennsylvania

2023-2024 Steering Committee

Oksana Moroz, co-chair, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

John Wayne N. dela Cruz, co-chair, McGill University

Chia-Hsin (Jennifer) Yin, secretary, Ohio State University

Kyungjin Hwang, member-at-large, University of South Carolina

Jieun Kim, member-at-large, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa

Wei Xu, member-at-large, University of Arizona

2022-2023 Steering Committee

Oksana Moroz, co-chair, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Jacob Rieker, co-chair, Pennsylvania State University

Valentino Rahming, secretary, Carnegie Mellon University

Sophia Minnillo, member-at-large, University of California, Davis

Alyssa Wolfe, member-at-large, Michigan State University

Paul J. Meighan, member-at-large, McGill University

2021-2022 Steering Committee

Laxmi Prasad Ojha, co-chair, Michigan State University

Svetlana Koltovskaia, co-chair, Oklahoma State University

Xiao Tan, secretary, Arizona State University

Lupe Rincon-Mendoz, member-at-large, The Pennsylvania State University

Nathan Thomas, member-at-large, University College London

Oksana Moroz, member-at-large, Indiana University of Pennsylvania

2020-2021 Steering Committee

Haoshan (Sally) Ren, co-chair, Georgia State University

Laxmi Prasad Ojha co-chair, Michigan State University

Josiah Murphy, secretary, University of Hawai’i at Manoa

Svetlana Koltovskaia, member-at-large, Oklahoma State University

Stefan Markus Vogel, member-at-large, University of Arizona

Lupe Rincon-Medoza, member-at-large, Pennsylvania State University

2019-2020 Steering Committee

James Coda, co-chair, University of Georgia

Nicole Deschene, co-chair, New York University

Haoshan (Sally) Ren, secretary, Georgia State University

Nicole King, member-at-large, Ohio State University

Laxmi Prasad Ojha, member-at-large, Minnesota State University

2018-2019 Steering Committee

Michael Amory, co-chair, Pennsylvania State University

Rayoung Song, co-chair, University of Mass-Amherst

Shyam Pandey, secretary, Purdue University

Jessica Lian, member-at-large, Georgia State University
James Coda, member-at-large, University of Georgia

2017-2018 Steering Committee

Laura Hamman, co-chair, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Mengying Liu, co-chair, University of Minnesota

Michael Amory, secretary, Pennsylvania State University

Rayoung Song, member-at-large, University of Mass-Amherst

Ai-Chu Ding, member-at-large, Indiana University

2016-2017 Steering Committee

Lindsey Kurtz, co-chair, Pennsylvania State University

Mengying Liu, co-chair, University of Minnesota

Laura Hamman, secretary, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Rayoung Song, member-at-large, University of Mass-Amherst

Elena Shvidko, member-at-large, Purdue University

2015-2016 Steering Committee

Daniel Ginsberg, co-chair, Georgetown University

Nicole Pettitt, co-chair, Georgia State University

Abram Jones, secretary, University of California-Davis

Emily Hellmich, member-at-large, University of California-Berkeley