About Us

Andres Martin is a first generation Mexican-American born and raised in North County of San Diego, California. He received his BA in Psychology from the University of California Santa Cruz and a Master of Arts in School Counseling with a PPS credential from the University of San Diego. He is currently a school counselor in Ramona, California. He serves as Vice President of the BECA Foundation, a nonprofit scholarship organization for Latinos and has served as a board member for several nonprofit organizations, including the Encuentros Latino Leadership program, the North County Health Services Clinics, and the San Diego Padres Hispanic Community Leadership Council. Andres has traveled extensively and has given lectures and worked with parents, counselors, psychologists and teachers in their respective countries, including México, Costa Rica, New Zealand, Australia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand, and China. In 2008, Mr. Martin was recognized with The COX Communication Hispanic Heritage Month Award in recognition of his positive role model work within the Hispanic/Latino community in San Diego. In 2009 he was awarded the Alumni of the Year at the Parent Migrant Education Annual Conference for his support of Migrant Education students throughout the state of California. In 2011 Mr. Martin was bestowed the “Cesar E. Chavez Humanitarian award” by the California Teachers Association for his work with K-16 students.

Scott Merkel is a high school counselor San Diego, California.  He received his BA in Public Management from Indiana University – Bloomington and his Master of Arts in School Counseling with a PPS credential from the University of San Diego.  Prior to returning to San Diego, he worked in large school districts in the Washington D.C. suburbs and in metropolitan Denver, Colorado.  During his time in Colorado, he chaired the counseling department at Ralston Valley High School and was coordinator of Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS), including refining and codifying data and systems frameworks for identifying at-risk students.  Additionally, Mr. Merkel founded the Peer Counseling Program at Ralston Valley High School in 2019. Beyond supporting interested students in developing their skills as peer advocates, the program became a natural jumping off point to conduct action research to address community-based challenges, with Peer Counseling students taking the lead.  The youth participatory action research project conducted by students from 2022-2024, “Addressing the Mental Health Stigma in Schools” was a catalyst for change through meetings with school and district leadership, elected officials and practitioners across the state of Colorado. The Action Research Network of the Americas awarded the youth leadership team the 2024 Outstanding Youth Contribution to Action Research. Mr. Merkel believes deeply in the power and importance of student voice and plans to continue to pursue opportunities to build capacity with student leaders in the future, leading to trickle down impacts to overall school community and culture.  In 2021, Mr. Merkel received the Jeffco Values Award for Valuing People.

Dr. Lonnie Rowell is the Founding President of Social Publishers Foundation. He has been an educator for 50+ years. He is a retired professor at the University of San Diego, where he directed the Counseling Program and the School Counseling emphasis. The collaborative action research model he created for school counseling has been widely cited in school counseling literature. The model combines training school counseling graduate students and support for school counselors working to strengthen programs and practice. He has supervised and consulted on more than 120 action research projects in education. Working with his students he established and co-directed the San Diego Action Research Conference, a leading event for action researchers in North America from 2004-2012. Dr. Rowell was presented the San Diego Country Office of Education Lifetime Achievement Award for School Counseling Leadership in 2023. Dr. Rowell is a co-founder of the Action Research Network of the Americas (ARNA) and was Program Chair (2012-2014) for the Action Research Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association (AERA). He was Founding Chair of the ARNA Coordinating Group from 2013-2015 and served as Coordinator of Knowledge Mobilization from 2015-2017. He was co-Chair of the 2017 ARNA conference and first Global Assembly for Knowledge Democracy in Cartagena, Colombia and was Chair of ARNA’s 2018 Conference in San Diego, USA. Rowell now participates in a global Knowledge Democracy Initiative with participants from Europe, Canada, and the USA. He was an Editor for Educational Action Research until 2021 and co-edited a 2019 two-part Special Issue on Knowledge Democracy. He is the lead editor of the Palgrave International Handbook of Action Research (2017), which includes contributions from more than 80 authors from every continent. He has written numerous articles and book chapters on counseling, action research and education research, and has more than 100 presentations at regional, state, national, and international conferences. In recognition of his work, Dr. Rowell has received numerous awards, some of which include the Eduardo Flores Leadership Award from the Action Research Network of the Americas (2014), the H.B. McDaniel Foundation Individual Award for Outstanding Contributions to the field of Counseling (2007), and the Advocate of the Year award from the California Association of School Counselors (CASC) (2004).

Dr. Eunsook Hong has devoted her life to education, teaching children at the primary school level at the start of her career in South Korea and teaching college students in the USA for more than 25 years. Throughout her professional work, she has had a strong interest in how students’ motivation and learning strategies affect their learning and achievement in school and at home. She has studied the development of talent potential and why creativity and creative thinking beyond conventional learning and thinking strategies are important and need to be fostered. She is a past Associate Editor of the American Educational Research Journal and has served on the editorial boards of several professional journals. Dr. Hong is Professor Emerita of Educational Psychology and Higher Education at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and extends her interest in improving education and social services through the Social Publishers Foundation. As a member of the Foundation’s Board of Directors, she utilizes her professional experiences and aspirations to assist practitioner-researchers who wish to publish the knowledge they have gained through their research in their work settings. Realizing and acknowledging the need for greater input of new knowledge from practitioners, co-founding the Social Publishers Foundation and helping it move forward have been significant developments in her professional journey.

Ron Breen is a local San Diegan with deep ties to the region. Following graduation from University of San Diego High School in 1967, Ron attended San Diego State University. He served as SDSU Student Body President in 1969-70 and graduated in 1972 with a BA degree in Public Administration and Urban Planning. While at SDSU Ron was actively involved with the civil rights and educational reform movements. After graduation he continued his work in civil rights and also participated in local politics in San Diego. Ron’s service on the Social Publishers Foundation’s Board of Directors reflects his belief in the importance of empowering educators and other service providers as producers of knowledge regarding ‘what works’ in their professions. Ron began his business career in the mid 70’s as a corporate underwriter for The Travelers Insurance Company. For the past 25 years Ron has worked in the advertising and manufacturing business as a marketing specialist. He is currently a partner with NUTTER + BREEN Custom Sign Programs in San Diego, which specializes in national identity programs, custom electric signs and architectural graphics. Ron’s outside interests include playing guitar, singing, and song writing.

Margaret Riel is the Director of the Center for Collaborative Action Research which publishes action research projects from Pepperdine University. At the Center, she has created a set of online tutorials for learning how to engage in action research which is used in 180 countries. Dr. Riel was a co-founder of the Action Research Network of the Americas (ARNA) and was on the ARNA Executive board from 2012- 2016. Since 2016 she has facilitated one of ARNA’s Action Research Community focused on Supporting the Teaching of Action research (STAR). She recently co-edited the Palgrave International Handbook on Action Research and is an active member (and past chair) of the AERA SIG in Action Research. She has been on the advisory board of the Social Publishing Foundation from its inception. Her second and linked focus is on global education. She serves on the Board of Directors of the International Education and Resource Network (iEARN), an organization that empowers school students around the world to collaboratively solve global, social and environmental challenges. She has been involved with iEARN since 1995 when she moved her model of collaborative work called Global Learning Circles to iEARN. Learning Circles is currently used by thousands of students working together from around the globe each year. Her research interests focus on collaboration and the use of technology for social change.