Renáta Kamenarova is Director of the Slovak Studies Program at the University of Pittsburgh and a specialist in foreign language instruction, with 20 years of experience in university education. She is the lead author of Krížom-krážom, a popular 4-book series of Slovak language textbooks for foreigners and co-authored the distance learning course www.e-slovak.sk. She taught Slovak language and culture at the Comenius University in Slovakia and at the University of Bologna in Italy. She was a Founder and Director of the Slovak School of Bologna / Forlì in Italy and a teacher at the M. R. Stefanik Slovak weekend school in Boston and at the Czech and Slovak School of Pittsburgh. In her free time, she loves hiking and traveling with family and friends.

Marta McCabe, Ph.D., is Founder and Director of the Czech and Slovak School of North Carolina. She also serves as a Board Member of the Coalition of Community-Based Heritage Language Schools. Marta works as a Global Learning Consultant at Duke University’s Academic Resource Center. Marta’s professional interests include international education, migration, linguistic diversity, and heritage language maintenance.

Jitka Sebek is the co-founder, leader, and a teacher at Czech and Slovak School Twin Cities that was first forming for five years in her house and now is part of Sokol Minnesota while collaborating with other local Czech and Slovak entities. With over 30 students and more than 10 volunteering parents, the goal is to test for the Seal of Biliteracy. Jitka holds an M.A. in World History, Russian Language and Literature, taught German language in the Czech Republic and Minnesota, and is currently teaching English for Adult Options in Education/ESL.