Kerry Brennan

Founder, Director, and Principal Teacher 

Kerry’s Spanish journey began as a freshman in high school, but her life truly changed after her first trip outside of the U.S. at age 17, when she traveled to Costa Rica. Experiencing the language while being immersed in a new and different culture deeply shaped Kerry and sparked a lifelong desire to continue that experience.

That passion led her to Guatemala the following year, then to Nicaragua, and eventually to majoring in Spanish in college. Kerry studied abroad in Ecuador, visited Peru, and later worked for a non-profit organization focused on health justice for migrant and immigrant workers—work that brought her to Puerto Rico for the first time.

A year after that initial trip to Puerto Rico, Kerry committed to becoming fully bilingual and to feeling completely herself in Spanish.

During the pandemic, Kerry began teaching one-on-one Spanish classes, and from that work, Spanish with Kerry was born.

Annette Toro

Communications Director and Teacher

As the Communications Manager and a Spanish teacher with Spanish with Kerry, Annette brings both professional expertise and lived experience to our language-learning community. Puerto Rican by heritage, Spanish was her first language, though growing up in a predominantly non-Spanish-speaking community in Florida meant that connection shifted over time. Through intentional practice with family and within the community, she reclaimed her Spanish, an experience that deeply informs her approach to teaching and supporting learners today. Altogether, she has been speaking Spanish in one form or another for over 38 years.

Annette holds a BA in Philosophy from the University of Central Florida and a Master’s degree in Arts Administration from Goucher College. She has spent the last 15 years working in nonprofits, primarily in education-based organizations, where she specializes in helping all the moving pieces come together so mission-driven organizations can thrive.

Outside of work, Annette enjoys playing guitar, singing, reading, and volunteering with the Puerto Rican community in Baltimore.

Dra. Xiomara Rivera Pagán

Teacher

Xiomara Rivera Pagán is a Puerto Rican educator, scholar, and language advocate with nearly 20 years of experience teaching from Pre-K through higher education. Rooted in the Puerto Rican diaspora, her work centers language as a source of identity, power, and belonging, affirming Spanish, English, and Spanglish as valuable community resources.

She holds a doctorate focused on educational language policy, examining how institutional practices impact access and equity for bilingual and multilingual learners. Her research informs her work with educators, families, and organizations through workshops and community-based learning, and has been recognized nationally, including Second Place in the NABE Dissertation Competition (2022).

Xiomara also serves as Vice President of Cultura Plenera, where she supports the preservation and celebration of Puerto Rican traditions in Maryland as a living cultural practice. Through cultural and educational programming, she integrates music and storytelling as culturally sustaining tools that strengthen community voice, intergenerational connection, and Puerto Rican identity in the diaspora.

Caitlin Lueder

Teacher

Caitlin has over 20 years of experience studying and using Spanish. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Spanish, studied abroad in Madrid, Spain, and worked as an EFL teacher in San José, Costa Rica.

She currently lives in Delaware, where she balances life as a nurse, military spouse, and mother of three boys. Having learned Spanish from the ground up, Caitlin understands the challenges and breakthroughs of language learning firsthand and brings that insight, along with strong practical communication skills, to her work with Spanish learners.