As Director of WestEd's English Learners and the Language Arts (ELLA) project, Pamela Spycher helps English learners succeed in school by designing and providing research-based professional development to teachers, instructional coaches, and school and district administrators.

Since joining WestEd in 2005, Spycher has coached and trained hundreds of K-12 teachers, administrators, and coaches in schools and districts across California and Arizona. Spycher shows ELLA participants how to use evidence-based, effective instructional strategies for improving the academic performance of English learners in language arts and other content areas. Specifically, ELLA increases student engagement and academic talk in the classroom, academic vocabulary instruction, and the rigor of academic language instruction.

ELLA workshop participants have reported that the intensive coaching and training they receive helps them effectively teach their English learners and has improved the quality of the professional discussions they have with colleagues on student language and literacy development.

Prior to joining WestEd, Spycher was a bilingual teacher, English language development specialist, and English immersion teacher in K-12 classrooms in California, Oregon, Europe, and Asia. She served in leadership positions for the California Reading and Literature Project and the San Diego County Office of Education. She also mentored beginning teachers in the School of Education at the University of California, Davis.

Spycher received a PhD in education with an emphasis in language, literacy, and culture and a designated emphasis in second language acquisition from the University of California, Davis.