L&D Loves Languages

15: Letícia Usanovich

Letícia Usanovich is an intersectional facilitator of social transformation who has been living nomadically for the past nine years. With nearly a decade of experience designing and facilitating learning for international youth-focused initiatives, her work centers on collective and decentralized knowledge, honoring diversity of backgrounds and experiences, and bridging individual and group learning needs. She joined Katherine and Sarah in this episode to discuss power, privilege, and access in multilingual spaces and the importance of disruptive design, as well as her experiences teaching Brazilian Portuguese from a decolonial perspective.
 
This episode is sponsored by The Pearl Remote Democratic High School. Learn more at https://thepearlhighschool.org/
 
Connect with Leticia on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/leticiausanovich
Connect with Katherine on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherinermatheson/ 
Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarah-kosel-agnihotri 
 
Here is the transcript for this episode.

14: Jess Zeitler

Dr. Jessica Zeitler is an instructional designer who works in 8+ languages and is passionate about creating inclusive multilingual educational spaces. In this episode, she speaks with Sarah and Katherine about how she uses her multilingual capabilities to create a sense of home for herself and others, even in officially monolingual contexts. Jess shares how her search for belonging led her to new communities and cultures and enriched her life.  
This episode is sponsored by The Pearl Remote Democratic High School. Enrollment is open now for Fall 2025! Learn more at https://thepearlhighschool.org/ 
Listen to Jess’s podcast: The Higher ID Podcast
Connect with Jess on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-zeitler/ 
Connect with Katherine on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherinermatheson/ 
Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarah-kosel-agnihotri 
 
Access the transcript for this episode.
 

13: Vijay Ramjattan

Vijay Ramjattan, PhD, joins Sarah and Katherine in this episode to explore the intersections of language, race, and work. He shares insights from his research on accents and race in the workplace, discusses the labor of communicating in another language, and unpacks why there is no single narrative around accents. 
 
This episode is sponsored by The Pearl Remote Democratic High School. Enrollment is open now for Fall 2025! Learn more at https://thepearlhighschool.org/ 
 
Connect with Vijay on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vijay-ramjattan-phd-2215b798 
 
Connect with Katherine on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherinermatheson/ 
Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarah-kosel-agnihotri 
 
Here is the transcript for this episode.

12: Pragati Kamath

Pragati Kamath is a bilingual instructional designer whose experience living and working across multiple countries and languages has given her unique insights into how context and culture influence multilingual L&D work. In this episode, she shares her experiences training professionals on cross-cultural communication and talks about how her multilingualism has given her the opportunity to connect global teams. Pragati also discusses how her personal experience with learning languages has adapted to changing technology and the availability of mobile language apps.
 
Connect with Pragati on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/pragatikamath
Connect with Katherine on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherinermatheson/ 
Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarah-kosel-agnihotri
Access the transcript here

11: Rafael da Silva

In this episode, Rafael Leonardo da Silva joins Sarah and Katherine to talk about his journey from learning English as an avid videogamer, to teaching Portuguese in the U.S. as a Fulbright scholar, to designing learning experiences as an instructional designer and professor in Boise State’s Organizational Performance and Workplace Learning program. He shares his experience at the intersection of language, technology and learning. 
 
Mentioned in this episode: Closing the gap: A call for more inclusive language technologies
 
Connect with Rafael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rafael-leonardo-da-silva-79b5919a/ 
Connect with Katherine on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherinermatheson/ 
Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarah-kosel-agnihotri
Access the transcript here

10: Loretta Mulberry

Loretta Mulberry is a passionate advocate for language accessibility on a mission to improve safety measures and expand information equity for everyone in the trades. In this podcast episode, she joins Katherine and Sarah to discuss the importance of having learning content translated to ensure all learners have equitable opportunities at every level within an organization. She also shares insights into the safety implications of learning materials that are linguistically accessible.
 
Mentioned in the podcast: 
Diversity improves performance and outcomes: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30765101/ 
2015 McKinsey report: Why Diversity Matters
The impact of organizational learning culture, workforce diversity and knowledge management on innovation and organization performance: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3233/HSM-200984 
 
Connect with Loretta on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/loretta-mulberry-6089681a5
Connect with Katherine on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherinermatheson/ 
Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarah-kosel-agnihotri
 
Access the transcript here.

09: Season 1 Reflection

Sarah and Katherine reflect on the previous episodes in Season 1 and discuss standout moments and common threads from all of the conversations they had with experts at the intersection of language diversity and learning design. 
 
Connect with Katherine on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherinermatheson/ 
Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarah-kosel-agnihotri

08: Gabriela Gutierrez

Gabriela Gutierrez is an experienced professional in project management and change management who speaks Spanish, English, and French. She joins Katherine and Sarah to talk about the opportunities and connections that being multilingual have opened up to her throughout her career, focusing on how she has taken a goal-oriented approach to language learning as part of career development. Gabriela also discusses what it is like to work in a trilingual organization where designing from a multilingual perspective is the norm rather than the exception, and how equitable, accessible language practices empower everyone in her organization. As Gabriela says, “Learning and development is about the people and it’s for the people, and we leverage languages to make sure that we always keep people in mind.”
 
Episode sponsored by Molly Shapiro, accountability coach. mollyshapirocoaching@gmail.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/molly-shapiro/ 
 
Connect with Gabriela on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielagutierrez/ 
Connect with Katherine on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherinermatheson/ 
Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarah-kosel-agnihotri
 
Here is the transcript for this episode.

07: Scarlett Lopez

rlett Lopez is from Caracas, Venezuela. She moved to the US in 2014 to pursue a bachelor’s degree in International Business and Marketing, and later a master’s degree in Instructional Design & Technology. She has a customer success background in the tech industry, and is currently a bilingual Instructional Designer, creating learning experiences for different clients. She volunteers as a career coach at Upwardly Global, mentoring refugee and immigrant job seekers in the US. 
 
Scarlett shares with Sarah and Katherine the importance of being surrounded in childhood by people who spoke multiple languages in shaping her language identity. They also discuss how language evolves through generations, and the challenge of producing content in a “neutral” language that isn’t really neutral at all. Scarlett shares her insights about how instructional designers advocate for learners and how learning a language helps cultivate empathy for learners.
 
Episode sponsored by Molly Shapiro, accountability coach. mollyshapirocoaching@gmail.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/molly-shapiro/ 
 
Connect with Scarlett on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/veronica-scarlett-lopez/ 
Connect with Katherine on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherinermatheson/ 
Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarah-kosel-agnihotri

06: Andrew Tobey

In this episode, Sarah and Katherine speak with Andrew Tobey. Andrew is a linguist with a knack for technology who works as a multilingual instructional designer in the corporate space. 
 
Andrew begins the conversation with a personal story about how multilingualism shaped his childhood, and talks more generally about the importance of immersing yourself in a language and speaking it from day one. He explains how learning a language builds persistence and confidence and can be a vehicle for growing many other skills, and how multilingual team members can facilitate so much more than just content creation in multiple languages. We also discuss strategies for leveraging AI as a first-draft tool and using our human skills for quality assurance, and how the ease of AI may lead to increased access through more content in more languages, but also may present security concerns.
 
Episode sponsored by Molly Shapiro, accountability coach. mollyshapirocoaching@gmail.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/molly-shapiro/ 
 
Connect with Andrew on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrewthstobey/ 
Connect with Katherine on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherinermatheson/ 
Connect with Sarah on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/sarah-kosel-agnihotri