The 2026 NABE Conference marked a historic moment as thirteen trailblazers were inducted into the Multilingual Education Hall of Fame. Meet the honorees and learn about Dr. Laurie Olsen's five decades of impact on English Learner and multilingual education.
The room was filled long before the program began.
At the 2026 National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) Conference, educators and advocates from across the nation gathered in Chicago for a moment that will resonate across generations. On February 11, 2026, the Multilingual Education Hall of Fame welcomed its 2026 class of inductees — leaders whose work has reshaped how schools support, value, and celebrate multilingual learners. This event was more than an awards ceremony: it was a homage to decades of courage, persistence, research, and love for students whose languages and lived experiences enrich our classrooms and communities.
The following individuals were honored for their groundbreaking contributions to multilingual education:
Each of these leaders has transformed how schools, policymakers, and communities define access, opportunity, and equity for multilingual learners.
Presiding over the evening were two figures whose presence underscored its national significance: Miguel Cardona and Marissa Cardona.
Secretary Cardona opened the evening by affirming that multilingual learners are central — not peripheral — to America’s future. Marissa Cardona followed with reflections on the families and communities whose voices shaped the movement for language rights.
Their hosting set the tone: this was not just an awards program. It was a moment to acknowledge history, sacrifice, and the architects of equity. But when they introduced Dr. Laurie Olsen, the energy in the ballroom shifted. The applause began early. It grew. And then the entire room rose.
It was not routine recognition.
It was gratitude.
With a Ph.D. in Social and Cultural Studies in Education from the University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Olsen has spent five decades researching, writing, organizing, mentoring, and building the field of English Learner and multilingual education.
🎬 See the video that pays tribute to Dr. Laurie Olson's life and career.
Her career cannot be reduced to credentials.
She has:
For years, Laurie directed California Tomorrow’s K–12 equity work. She is the Founder and former Director of the Sobrato Early Academic Language (SEAL) Model, a transformative PreK–3 initiative focused on strong language and literacy foundations for multilingual learners.
She is a founding board member and now serves as acting president of Californians Together, a coalition committed to ensuring that every child has full access to high-quality education and graduates prepared for college, career, and civic participation.
Dr. Laurie Olson's leadership helped shape California’s English Learner Road Map. Her research on long-term English Learners reshaped policy nationwide.
Dr. Olsen is not only a policy architect and systems thinker — she is a writer in the truest sense. The daughter of a writer and an avid reader since childhood, she has authored works that changed how the nation understands multilingual learners.
Her major publications include:
In Reparable Harm, she named the systemic neglect facing long-term English Learners — and forced policymakers to confront it.
In A Legacy of Courage and Activism, she did something even more powerful: she documented the history of the struggle. The advocacy campaigns. The battles. The schisms. The scars. The victories.
In the accompanying webinar, she speaks not as a detached academic, but as someone who lived the movement — someone who fought alongside educators and families to secure language rights. The book is both documentation and tribute. It ensures that the field remembers where it came from — and what remains unfinished.
She has also contributed to national frameworks such as the literacy policy work through the National Committee for Effective Literacy, advancing comprehensive literacy approaches that center English Learners and emergent bilingual students.
Her scholarship does not sit on shelves.
It changes systems.
As Secretary Cardona and Marissa Cardona reflected on Dr. Olsen’s career, they highlighted not just her accomplishments, but her courage — her insistence that equity must be structural, not symbolic.
Colleagues spoke of:
There was a shared understanding that honoring her now mattered deeply.
The standing ovation lasted long after the introduction ended.
It was the kind of applause reserved for someone who did not simply work in a field — but helped create it.
Laurie Olsen’s influence lives in:
As Miguel and Marissa Cardona closed the induction ceremony, they spoke about responsibility — about carrying the torch.
That may be the truest measure of Laurie Olsen’s legacy.
She did not build something fragile.
She built something enduring.
And on that evening at NABE 2026, hosted by national leaders and witnessed by a community she helped shape, her life’s work was not simply celebrated.
It was honored.
And it was promised continuation.