Lydia is an internationally known teacher educator and author. She is currently involved in a Stanford University Initiative to support English Learners, Understanding Language. The goal of this project is to provide teachers with approaches to enrich academic content and language instruction for English Learners (ELs) in grades K-12. In addition, she presents workshops on peace, tolerance, and understanding to teachers in many countries around the world, most recently in Greece and Hungary.

Her teaching experience includes twenty- five years as an elementary and high school teacher of ELs in the San Francisco Unified School District and ten years as a district administrator. She is a past president of Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). Her awards include the TESOL James E. Alatis Award and the San Francisco STAR Teacher Award. Her publications include Collections, On Our Way to English and American Themes, a literature anthology for high school students in the ACCESS program of the U.S. State Department’s Office of English Language Programs.