About the Panelists
and Moderator

Janet Dayawon is a St. Louis native and 2nd generation Chinese American teaching her two children Isaac and Maya ages 8 and 3 respectively Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, and French with the help of family, friends, and anyone in the community willing to lend an ear. Recently, her family moved to Hawai’i and hopes that the children will pick up Hawaiian, Japanese, Spanish, and Tagalog from the people they frequently come across in such a multicultural environment. Her most recent role was serving as Vice President of Marketing for the Organization of Chinese Americans in St. Louis in 2017 where she participated in an Inclusion Task Force Committee with the Opera Theatre of St. Louis in anticipation of the world premiere of "An American Soldier" written by Tony-Award winning playwright David Henry Hwang and world-renowned composer Huang Ruo. In the following year, she advocated to include more languages such as Hawaiian and opposed the citizenship question on the 2020 Census to help Members of U.S. Congress on Capitol Hill understand how important it is to include hard-to-reach populations particularly within the Asian American and Pacific Islander community in decisions across key areas such as healthcare, immigration, education, infrastructure, the arts, and business. 

A product of the St. Louis Public School system, Christina Rios-Kelley has returned to serve her community as an educator. Over the last two decades, the bilingual mother of four has balanced numerous careers as an educator, activist, theater director and producer, actress, opera singer, and teaching artist. She is the former Artistic Director of R-S Theatrics.

Gaby Rodriguez makes her Metro Theater Company debut in The Very Hungry Caterpillar Show. Gaby has several directing credits to her name, including Suffer the Children (COCA), Fefu and Her Friends (Theatre Nuevo), Refuge (Campfire Theatre Festival), Miss You Like Hell (Webster Conservatory), and Dear Kitty... Querida Ana... (In The Margin Theatre Company). Most recently she associate directed Seussical™ through Theatre Under The Stars’ Public Works Houston initiative. She is also an ensemble member with In The Margin Theatre Company and a teaching artist at COCA and Asolo Repertory Theatre. Gaby is a native of Santiago de Cuba, Cuba and Houston, Texas, and holds a B.A. in directing from the Conservatory of Theatre Arts at Webster University.

Dr. Judy Willis combined her 15 years as a board-certified practicing neurologist with ten subsequent years as a classroom teacher to become a leading authority in the neuroscience of learning. Dr. Willis has written seven books and more than 200 articles for professional journals applying neuroscience research to successful teaching strategies. She is on the adjunct faculty of Williams College. Dr. Willis travels nationally and internationally giving presentations, workshops, and consulting while continuing to write books.  She has been selected by Edutopia as one of their “Big Thinkers on Education” and featured on their website as well as being a staff expert blogger for NBC News Education Nation, Edutopia, Psychology Today, and The Guardian. Visit her web site.

Joe Gfaller joined Metro Theater Company as Managing Director in the summer of 2019. During his tenure to date, MTC has seen dramatic growth in both its audience base and donor base. Prior to joining the Metro team, Joe served for 8+ years as Director of Marketing and Public Relations for Opera Theater of Saint Louis, where he received national recognition for his work in building young, diverse, and national travel audiences for the company and in expanding OTSL’s civic footprint as producer of the company’s Opera Tastings initiative, through artist community tours, and through the creation and growth of the company’s Engagement + Inclusion Task Force and Young Friends Steering Committee. He has also held marketing and/or development roles with the Alliance Theater, the American Repertory Theater, and 7 Stages Theater. As a consultant, he has worked with the National Blues Museum, the documentary Flint: The Poisoning of an American City, and the Utah Symphony, among others. As a stage director, he has directed over two dozen professional or university productions. He serves as adjunct faculty at Webster University in their Arts Management and Leadership MFA program. A child of an immigrant parent, he has first hand experience with early childhood multilingualism and is conversant in several languages.