English Language Institute - University of Florida

Todd Allen holds an M.A. in Spanish Education and a graduate certificate in Teaching English as a Second Language from Appalachian State University. He has worked at the English Language Institute at the University of Florida since the fall semester of 1994 as a teacher and has taught reading/writing, listening/speaking, grammar, conversation strategies, TOEFL, GRE, business English, and pronunciation. He has also served as coordinator of the oral skills, reading/writing, and grammar curricula and as editor for ELI Publications.

Daryl Bish

Daryl earned his M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction and graduate certificate in Teaching English as a Second Language from the University of Florida. His work experience includes being the Cultural Immersion Program Assistant at the ELI, teaching English at the ELI, and being Instructional Manager of ESL and International Education at Central Florida Community College (CFCC). While at CFCC, Daryl traveled to Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Mexico, Sweden, Hong Kong, and Maccau. He enjoys having international students and friends in his life.

Lia Brenneman

Lia holds a B.A. in English Literature and Writing from the University of Iowa, and her M.A. in Teaching English as a Second Language from Northern Arizona University. She taught in China, St. Kitts, and Arizona before coming to the University of Florida. She enjoys traveling, reading, and sports. She loves watching the Gators win!

Scott Challgren

Scott grew up moving around the United States a great deal due to his father's work. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky but also lived in NW Illinois, SE Virginia and then at age 10, moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he graduated high school. He then attended college at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC where he received a degree in Spanish. Scott also received a Master’s degree from UF in Hispanic Linguistics. Scott has traveled throughout the USA and the world extensively. He has lived and studied in Costa Rica and Spain, and also spent 4 months in Australia working and traveling. He has backpacked through 3 South American countries as well as Europe. Scott completed a TEFL Certification course in Madrid and in Leon, Spain with the Canterbury Institute (headquartered on Calle Gran Via in Madrid.) He taught EFL for FORENEX Summer Camp Programs (an English language camp) based at the Universitat de les Illes Balears (University of the Balearic Islands) in Palma de Mallorca, Spain. Gainesville has been home since 2003. GO GATORS!

Claudine de Nava

Claudine de Nava, back in the Gainesville area after 20 years away, is excited to continue working in a multicultural environment. Through her spouse, Claudine has a family and home in Mexico although she was born and raised in southern USA. She holds a BA in Psychology from University of Rochester and a Master’s in Adult Education from Central Michigan University. She lived in Atlanta, GA for 7 years where she met her foreign language-speaking husband who is credited with "forcing" Claudine to discover teaching English as a second language. To date, it is her favorite job. Claudine took her abilities of teaching English to Mexico where she lived for two years consecutively. Her children are completely bilingual.. She knows personally what it is like to want to be proficient in a second language - and also knows how it feels not always being able to achieve that goal. “Practice and persistence without embarrassment” is Claudine's philosophy on learning a second language. Teaching at UF is a pleasure for Claudine...but she would do it anywhere just for the chance to keep working with people from different countries. For fun, Claudine enjoys salsa dancing with her husband (that's how they met!) and writing a blog of her adventures in traveling and teaching.

Joel Deacon

Joel Deacon has a B.A. in English Literature from the University of North Florida and is working on a Master’s degree in Linguistics. His primary interests are in neural linguistics, morphological realizations, and second language acquisition. While at the ELI, he has assisted with reading, writing, and grammar.

Karen Eberly

Karen Eberly has thirty-five years of experience teaching all levels and skills of EFL and ESL as well as various university linguistics and composition courses. She holds a Master’s degree in linguistics from Penn State and was awarded Ph.D. candidacy in linguistics and TESL at UF. Her work experience includes teaching in the ELI and at UF, Santa Fe Community College, Penn State University, Harvard Summer School, and ten years at both Japanese and U.S. colleges in Japan. Two years in Japan were spent in an interesting educational experiment in team teaching at a liberal arts college: Karen was the EFL expert incorporating English into the content lessons along with the literature or anthropology professors. She also planned, directed, and taught in one of the first year-long American-style EFL courses in China. Karen has been teaching in the ELI at UF on and off since 1978 and now makes Gainesville her home. She loves traveling, learning about other cultures, collecting textiles, playing ragtime piano, riding her bicycle, and taking care of her 111-year-old house.

Stephen Flocks

Stephen W. Flocks received a B.A. in Literature from the University of Wisconsin and an M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Florida. He has been teaching reading and writing at the community college and university level for both native and nonnative students in the U.S. and abroad for twenty-seven years. Currently at the ELI he is teaching a bridge course to prepare students for graduate work in an American university. He also edits the ELI Student Voices publication, a collection of students’ writing. In addition to his ELI responsibilities, Steve teaches a graduate-level course, Research and Technical Writing, and coordinates Academic Written English at UF. He has lived in the US, Brazil, Algeria, the Philippines, and Japan and has visited over a dozen countries. He likes to fish, play billiards, and read science fiction.

Lili Gai

Lili Gai holds a Bachelor’s degree in English Language and Literature and a Master’s degree in Applied Linguistics in China. After that, Lili went to Canada and acquired a Master’s degree in Educational Administration with special interests in how to improve teaching effectively in the ESL/EFL classroom. Currently, Lili is pursuing her Ph.D. degree in Linguistics at the University of Florida. Lili has five years of experience teaching English as a second language/foreign language (ESL/EFL) to adult students. Lili likes teaching at the ELI and enjoys every second she spends with her students.

Melina Patricia Jimenez

Melina has a Bachelor’s and a Master's in Linguistics from University of Florida. She enjoys photography, reading, traveling, and spending time with her family.

Deborah Kellermann

Deborah first became a Gator and an English aficionado during her undergraduate years at the University of Florida. After marrying her husband, a Gator engineering graduate, whom she met at UF, she continued her education at FIU in Miami and earned her Master’s degree in TESOL.
While growing up, Deborah traveled around the world as a Navy brat with her birth family and thus had already acquired a love of other cultures and languages before she entered college. Since becoming an adult, she has continued to travel and study the cultures and languages of many other countries. Some of the many places that she has joyfully experienced are France, England, Jamaica, Canada, Mexico, Germany, Belgium, Costa Rica, Panama, Brazil, Spain, and most recently, Peru. Soon she hopes to add China, Thailand, and Korea to that list. She has also taught English and TESOL at a number of universities and colleges throughout the southern United States for the past twenty-five years since earning her Master’s degree.

Emily Kirby

Emily Kirby holds a B.A. in English from the University of Florida and is currently pursuing her M.A. in Linguistics here, specializing in Teaching English as a Second Language. She has also spent time studying Spanish in Seville, Spain. Emily has worked as an assistant in UF’s Academic Spoken English department, and is now a grammar instructor at the ELI. In her free time, she likes to read, travel, watch Law and Order marathons, and spend time with her family. She lives in Gainesville with her husband Cary, to whom she got married in July 2006.

Valentina Komaniecka

Valentina (or Tina) has spent her professional life in the field of international education. She holds degrees in Political Philosophy, Latin American Studies, and Higher Education Administration. She has worked at the university level with international faculty members, foreign students as well as with U.S. study abroad students. At the ELI, Tina has enjoyed serving in a variety of teaching and administrative roles. Her ESL classes blend language learning with an introduction to U.S. culture. Tina has studied, worked, and lived abroad in Latin America. She has also traveled within the U.S., in Europe and in Asia.

Fiona Lama

Mrs. Fiona Lama received her Master’s degree from University of Florida in English and Foreign Language Education in 1992. She also has the ESOL and Reading endorsements on her professional teaching certificate. Mrs. Lama first taught in Florida in 1988 and has over 12 years of experience teaching either French, English, or ESL. In 1997, she taught English at Ajou University in Suwon, South Korea. She is also a certified tennis teaching professional and has coached tennis since 1995. Mrs. Lama is also a Reading and Writing teacher at Santa Fe Community College. She lives with her husband in Gainesville,Florida.

Elisa Maranzana

Elisa Maranzana holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics and a Certification in Teaching English as a Second Language from the University of Florida. She has taught all skills and levels at the ELI as well as university courses in Linguistics, English and academic writing. She has also taught English in Italy and has travelled throughout Europe and Latin America.

Jen Ramos

Jen Ramos has a bachelor’s degree in biology from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts and a Master’s of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Iowa. She has lived and taught English in Venezuela, Portugal, and Spain. In addition to teaching, she has published several travel articles. She loves running, traveling, swimming, books and baseball.

Sharon Ramos

Sharon Ramos has a Bachelor's degree in French Literature and is finishing a Master's degree in English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). She has lived in Europe where she continued her studies in French and taught English to adults in Spain. She is also currently a French teacher at UF.

Tom Ratican

tod

Tom Ratican is a proud alumnus of the University of Florida. He did his undergraduate work in the College of Education and briefly taught high school French and Spanish in Jacksonville, Florida. After spending 3 years in the Army, including 16 months in Turkey, Tom came back to UF to do graduate work. He received a Master’s degree in French with a minor in linguistics. Tom did additional course work in the teaching of English to speakers of other languages at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He then taught ESL part time for 2 years at Howard Community College in Columbia, Maryland. After receiving his Master’s degree, Tom worked for 30 years as a translator for the U.S. government, translating French to English and Spanish to English. He loves languages and learning about the cultures of other countries. Tom has been back at his alma mater and teaching part-time for the ELI since 2004.

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Zoe Witty

Prior to completing her M.Ed. at the Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in South Korea, Zoe completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Maryland, and has been teaching EFL at Kwangwoon University, also in South Korea, for the last six years. Her familiarity with her students’ difficulties speaking English has helped her excel. Zoe is a passionate educator, who, as a non-native speaker of English herself, understands the struggles of ESL students and is sensitive to their needs.