Selena Lai

Selena Lai is a Curriculum Consultant for the Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (SPICE). Prior to joining SPICE in 1997, Selena worked as a teacher of the blind and visually impaired in the Castro Valley Unified School District, Mid-Alameda County Special Education Local Plan Area, and Oakland Unified School District.

Selena received her Bachelor of Arts in East Asian studies from the University of California, Berkeley in 1992, and her teaching credential and Master of Arts in Special Education from Teachers College, Columbia University in 1993.

Selena’s professional and academic interests lie in curriculum and instruction. Since joining SPICE, she has authored or co-authored many of SPICE's curriculum units. 

She has presented teacher seminars nationally for the National Council for the Social Studies in San Diego, CA; the California Council for the Social Studies in Santa Clara, CA; the National Consortium for Teaching about Asia at Stanford, CA; the National Association for Asian and Pacific American Education in Kona, HI; and the California Association of Independent Schools at Stanford, CA. She has also presented teacher seminars internationally for the European Council of International Schools in Nice, France.

In 2008, Selena was awarded the Franklin Buchanan Prize from the Association for Asian Studies, awarded annually to honor an outstanding curriculum publication on Asia at any educational level, elementary through university.

In addition to her work at SPICE, Selena has collaborated with Emmy-award winning filmmaker Spencer Nakasako, to produce a teacher guide for his documentary film Kelly Loves Tony. She is also a 2000–2001 Fellow with the U.S.-Japan Leadership Program.