Elsie Rivas Gómez (she/they/ella) is an Associate Professor of English at Pasadena City College and statewide Puente Project PD Coordinator. Elsie was born in San Salvador, El Salvador, and was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area where she earned her B.A. in English and B.S in Psychology from Santa Clara University, before going on to earn her M.F.A. in Creative Writing from San Diego State University. Elsie has taught English at Pasadena City College full-time for 20 + years; developed and facilitated professional development training for the Puente Project, the CCCCO, and 3CSN. She is honored to have co-written the Puente Equity Framework along with Dr. Jamie Moore and Michelle Gonzales. Her areas of expertise include educational justice, disability justice, culturally responsive pedagogy, anti-racist curriculum development, community building, and facilitation. Her languages and dialects include Salvadoran Español, West Coast English, Spanglish, Bay Area slang, texting, and emoji.