Christi Cartwright-Lacerda has been an ESL/ELD teacher of MLs and SLIFE for the past 10 years. She is the recipient of several awards, including the Rising Star Teacher of the Year Award from her school dis-trict (2018), NoVo Foundation SEL Innovation Fund Award (2018), Sontag Prize in Urban Education (2017, 2021, 2022, 2023), and MATSOL Linda Schulman Innovation Fund Award (2018, 2020).