Dr. Ruslana Westerlund has 30 years of experience in the field of Multilingual Learner education as an ESL teacher, teacher educator, researcher, and consultant. Her work centers on disciplinary literacy through the lens of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), equipping teachers to make visible the language demands of academic disciplines and to scaffold multilingual learners into full participation.
As a researcher at WIDA, she contributed to the development of the WIDA 2020 English Language Development Standards Framework. Today, she partners with school districts locally and globally to build their capacity by using the WIDA Standards not as a compliance document, but as resources for equitable educational opportunities—where every multilingual learner is moved from the margins of educational experiences to the center of the narrative. She believes deeply in teacher empowerment, knowing that empowered teachers empower students. She maintains an active blog for teachers where she translates a complex but powerful language theory into practical applications.
Dr. Westerlund also contributes to the field through her leadership roles: she serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Education for Multilingual Learners, is a member of the Expert Panel for the Language and Literacy in Education Network (LLEN Global), and is a convener for LLENA North America. She is an author of several Routledge publications such as Scaffolding for Multilingual Learners in Elementary and Secondary Schools, co-edited with Dr. Luciana de Oliveira, Making Language Visible in Social Studies: A Guide to Disciplinary Literacy in the Social Studies Classroom, co-authored with Sharon Besser, and Building a Language Toolkit for Teachers: A Functional Approach, co-authored with Sally Humphrey and Olga Malin. She is also an active community leader serving as President of Friends of Ukraine Madison, a nonprofit focusing on serving the Ukrainian community in Dane County.
A frequent keynote speaker at national and international educational conferences, she continues to influence research, policy, and practice in multilingual education through her publications, teacher training, and professional networks. She is also the CEO of Westerlund Consulting, LLC.
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Making Language Visible 