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English Language Institute
PO Box 117051
315 Norman Hall
Gainesville, FL 32611-7051
Phone: (352) 392-2070
Fax: (352) 392-3744
studyenglish@eli.ufl.edu
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Teachers
Todd Allen
Todd Allen holds an MA in Spanish education and a graduate certificate in TESOL from Appalachian State University. He has worked at the ELI at UF 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.
Haydee Britton
Haydée holds a BA in French-Spanish education from Davis and Elkins College, Elkins, West Virginia, and a " License" in French education from l'Université de Nancy, France. She holds an MA in TESOL from Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY). She taught English as a Second Language for the New York City Board of Education in an adult program for recent immigrants. She also obtained a certificate in medical interpretation, English/Spanish from New York University with an internship at the New York University Medical Center. She recently retired from the United Nations after working there for many years. The work at the UN took her to assignments with peacekeeping operations in Cambodia, Haiti and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She looks forward to teaching at ELI.
Scott Challgren
Scott grew up moving around the US a great deal due to his father's work. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky but also lived in Illinois, Virginia and then, at age 10, moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he graduated high school. He 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 Spanish linguistics. Scott has traveled throughout the US 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 in Europe. Scott completed a TEFL Certification course in Madrid and 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. He began teaching at the UF ELI in the fall of 2008. Gainesville has been home since 2003. GO GATORS!
Chak Chan
Chak Chan is a native of Hong Kong. She received a BA in philosophy from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and an MA in applied linguistics from Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. She moved to the United States in 1995 and attended Purdue University, where she earned her doctorate in English linguistics, focusing in sociolinguistics and ESL with a special emphasis on ESL writing. At Purdue, Chak taught freshman composition and worked in an oral English proficiency assessment program. She also taught reading, writing and grammar at the UF ELI before spending a sabbatical year in 2006 with her family in Hong Kong, where she taught technical writing to graduate engineering students. Chak has two teenage sons and is an active member of the Gainesville Chinese Christian Church.
Lynne Clark
A native of Scotland, Lynne holds an MSc in Education from the University of Edinburgh. She started teaching English in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1995. Since then, her work in English language teaching, teacher training, and program management has taken her to a number of countries across Europe and the Middle East, including the Netherlands, Belgium, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, UAE, the West Bank, and Saudi Arabia.
George Collins
George Collins is a PhD student of linguistics at UF. He obtained his MA in TESOL from the University of Central Florida in Orlando, and his BS in journalism from UF. His research interests include syntax, neurolinguistics, music/language processing, acquisition, and pragmatics. In his free time he enjoys reading, playing and listening to music, and riding bicycles.
Andrea Dallas
Andrea holds an MA and PhD in linguistics from UF. Her interests include second language reading/processing and individual differences. She has taught courses at the University of Arizona in the English Language and Linguistics program and at UF in the Linguistics department and the Academic Spoken English program. Prior to pursuing advanced degrees in linguistics, she lived in Sosnowiec, Poland. While there, she taught English at AAE-Kaplan, and completed an MEd via Framingham State College in overseas education. She received her BA in English with a certificate in linguistics from Florida International University in 1999.
Carolina Diaz
Carolina Diaz is a graduate of UF through the Pro-Teach Program where she received her bachelor’s and master’s in education. Her graduate specialization was in literacy. She holds five different certifications through the Florida Department of Education. Carolina has many years of experience teaching professionally and through volunteering. She was born in Cali, Colombia and moved to Miami with her family when she was a child. Her hobbies include traveling, cooking, reading, and making crafts. Carolina is excited to be part of the ELI family.
Thomas Dolce
Thomas is a first-year graduate student pursuing a master's degree in linguistics from UF. He earned his BA in English literature from UF, minoring in TESOL. Previously, Thomas worked as an LA at the ELI for four semesters. Between completion of his BA and starting study on his MA, he taught English in rural Japan. After completing his MA, he hopes to return abroad to teach English once again. In his free time, Thomas enjoys reading about advanced baseball statistics and listening to experimental music.
Stephen Flocks
Stephen W. Flocks received a BA in literature from the University of Wisconsin and an MA in creative writing from UF. He has been teaching reading and writing at the community college and university level for both native and nonnative students in the US and abroad for thirty years.Currently at the ELI he is teaching the upper levels of reading and writing to prepare students for graduate and undergraduate work in American universities. In addition to his ELI responsibilities, Steve teaches a graduate-level course, Research Writing, 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.
Matt Goode
Matt is a native of Des Moines, Iowa, and holds an MEd from UF. He is certified to teach reading and English and endorsed to teach ESOL by the Florida Department of Education. Matt enjoys creating music, learning about international musical traditions, reading history and fiction, and following international sports.
Barbara Hess-Earp
Barbara Hess Earp holds an MA in Linguistics and a graduate certificate in teaching English as a second language, both from UF. She also holds a diploma in linguistics from the Sorbonne (University of Paris) as well as an MA in French from the Graduate Center at the City University of New York. She has taught ESL at Santa Fe College and at UF's ELI. She retired from administrative duties in 2010, after 9 years as the ELI's Admissions Officer. Before becoming a language teacher, Barbara enjoyed a long career as an executive in the field of publishing newspapers and magazines in the US as well as in Europe and Asia.
Andy Hinnant
Andy Hinnant is originally from San Jose, California. He received his BS in International Business at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and his MA in Public Affairs and East European studies at Indiana University. He obtained a CELTA credential in Cairo, Egypt in 2002 and has been teaching ESL off and on ever since, including stints in Switzerland and Poland.
Carlos Enrique Ibarra
Carlos Enrique is a physicist (B. Sc., 1998) turned linguist (M. A., 2002, M. A. T., 2012), whose primary research interests are auditory perception, naturalistic cross-linguistic phonological transfer, and phonological acquisition in instructional settings. In addition to having presented his work as a physicist in conferences such as the meeting of the Canadian Association of Physics, The American Physics Society and The Mexican Physics Society, the 7th International Conference on Scientometrics and Informetrics, and the 1998 Agents, Trajectories, Landscapes and Innovation Processes in Science and Technology workshop at the Universitaet zu Berlin, he has presented his work as a linguist at the the Kentucky Foreign Language Conference, and the Hispanic Linguistics Symposium. He has over 13 years of experience as instructor of several languages (English, Spanish, Italian) in the US and Mexico, where he has also taught TOEFL, GRE and GMAT prep courses. He is currently working on research on the role of L2 English VOT in adjacent vocalic segments, digital Rosetta Stone vs. regular classroom instruction in 1st yr. Spanish courses, the assimilation of L2 English /schwa/ and /open mid-back unrounded vowel/ in perception and production in different dialects of L1 Spanish, statistical methods for linguistics, and on developing a theoretical model for prosody based on the theory of multi vector calculus, which would be in line with connexionism and usage-based perspectives of language as a dynamic complex system characterized by stochastic processes.
Melina Jimenez
Melina Jimenez holds a BA and an MA in linguistics from UF. She has been teaching at the ELI since 2006 and has also taught at Santa Fe College. She is currently teaching the highest levels of reading and writing and listening and speaking at the ELI which she really enjoys because of the diversity of what she is able to teach her students as well the surprising amount she learns from them in return. Melina is the current editor of the ELI Weekly and of ELI Student Voices. She has traveled to Germany, France, South Korea, Japan, as well as around Colombia. She enjoys photography, traveling, and spending time with her family and with two crazy dogs, Marley and Jimi.
Deborah Kellermann
Deborah first became a Gator and an English aficionado
during her undergraduate years at UF. After marrying her husband, a
Gator engineering grad, she continued her education at Florida
International University in Miami and earned her master's degree in
TESOL.
While growing up, Deborah traveled around the world as a Navy brat 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.
She has also taught English and ESOL at a number of universities and
colleges throughout the US.
She very much enjoys teaching English as a second language to students
in the stimulating academic environment of UF. She truly finds
fulfillment in the joy of helping so many students from around the
world to reach their educational goals and accomplish their dreams.
Patrick Klager
Patrick Klager graduated from UF in 2008 with a BS in business administration, a BA in linguistics, and a minor in TESL. For the past two years, he has been in Shenzhen, China, teaching English to Chinese children, ages 11-15. It truly was an amazing experience. In addition to teaching in China, he also traveled around South East Asia. Patrick visited places in Thailand, Indonesia, The Philippines, and Malaysia. All of these countries are unique and it was great to experience and explore what they have to offer, especially the food. Now that he is back from China, he is in the linguistics graduate program at UF and will graduate in the Spring 2013 semester. He is very excited to be working at the ELI again and looks forward to meeting his students and having a great term!
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 and foreign students as well as with US 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 US culture. Tina has studied, worked, and lived abroad in Latin America. She has also traveled within this country, in Europe and in Asia.
Helen Lin
Helen Lin holds a master's degree in TESOL, and she has a bachelor's degree in linguistics with a minor in education. She has previously worked with people from different backgrounds with varying educational needs. Originally from Taipei, Taiwan, she and her family moved to Florida when she was only 10 years old. Although Helen has been living in the US for more than 10 years, she returns to Taiwan almost every summer to visit. In her spare time, Helen enjoys going biking, listening to jazz music, spending time with family, and catching up with friends over coffee. Helen is excited to be a part of the ELI family!
Olha Moody
Olha (called Olga in the US) is from Ukraine and speaks
her native language, Ukrainian. She received her MA from Cherkasy State
University in her home country. Olga also spent a year at the
University of Tennessee on a fellowship for international educators.
Olga is fluent in English and Russian and has had some training in
German. She taught English as a foreign language in Ukrainian public
schools before teaching at the university level for 15 years.
Olga immigrated to the US in 2007 and has travelled extensively
throughout Europe and the US. She enjoys the beach and riding
motorcycles with her husband. Olga enjoys teaching people of all ages
and cultures and find fulfillment in seeing her students develop useful
English skills.
Jen Ramos
Jen Ramos has a bachelor's degree in biology from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts and an MFA in English creative writing from the University of Iowa. Jen has been teaching English to non-native speakers for 10 years. She began her teaching career at the University of Iowa, where she taught rhetoric to college freshman. After that, she worked as a language instructor for several years in Venezuela, Spain, and Portugal. Upon returning to the US in 2005, she began teaching at the ELI as an adjunct instructor and was hired as a core faculty member in 2009. She is currently working on a second master's degree in ESOL/bilingual education. Jen loves writing and foreign travel and has published several travel articles.
Tom Ratican
Tom Ratican is a proud alumnus of UF. 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 US 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.
Robert Roberg
Robert Roberg received a BA in English from Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, and left immediately for Peru with the Peace Corps. After the Peace Corps, he set off to see the world. He found his BA enabled him to travel and work in many countries. He taught in Guatemala, Colombia, Spain,Tunisia and just recently in China. In 1996 he earned an MEd in curriculum and instruction from the University of South Florida in Tampa. Robert taught ESOL in Bradenton, Florida, for two and a half years for the Manatee County School Board. He likes to play guitar and paint and loves teaching English. He's writing a sci-fi novel.
Leslie Sapp
Leslie Sapp has a passionate interest in the integration of drama, movement, and storytelling activities into the teaching of English as a second/foreign language to adults. Leslie holds a BFA from the State University of New York (1983), a CELTA Certificate from Cambridge University (2007), a Post Graduate Diploma in Drama in Education from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland (2011), and an MA in ESL from the University of Arizona (2012), and many years of experience as a creator, performer, teacher, and director of movement-based story theatre.
Jennifer Schroeder
Jennifer Schroeder has her MEd in curriculum and instruction from George Mason University. She grew up in Florida and Georgia. She just recently returned to the US after living and teaching in Turkey for the past ten years. She loves traveling and learning about different cultures. She has been to Russia, England, Scotland, Wales, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, Greece and Bulgaria.
Maya Shastri
Maya Shastri grew up in Little Rock, Arkansas in a multi-cultural household. An avid interest in language and culture led her to earn a BA double major in German and anthropology from the University of Arkansas and an MA in German from Penn State University. She taught both English as a foreign language and German before joining the UF ELI team. She has lived abroad in such exotic places as Bremen, Germany and Ulukhaktok, Northwest Territories, in the Canadian High Arctic.
Victoria Shelly
Victoria Shelly was born and raised in Coral Springs, Fl. She earned both her BA and MA degrees in linguistics from UF. She first began working at the ELI as an LA in the fall of 2008. She appreciates music, loves to laugh, and is a dedicated college sports fan. She plays piano and reads when she has free time. Victoria values people, and loves teaching at the ELI because she gets to build relationships and invest in others from different cultures and places in the world.
Lillian Vargas
Lillian Vargas, a Florida native and former ESL student herself, received a BA in elementary education from Stetson University in Deland, FL. After working as an ESOL paraprofessional in a Volusia County middle school for a year, she found a new passion for teaching English language learners and set off to Rutgers University in New Jersey to pursue an MA in language education. After completing her degree, Lillian moved to Boston and taught students from all over the world at the English Language Center. She enjoys spending time with family and friends, being outdoors, and anything and everything that has to do with music. Lillian plans to continue learning as much as she can about the ESL field in hopes of one day teaching English all over the world.
Christine Voigt
Christine is a Florida native, and is very happy to be teaching at the ELI. She is currently pursuing her MEd in ESOL & Bilingual Education here at UF. Prior to teaching at the ELI, she taught for two years in the English Language Department at Sungshin Women's University in Seoul, South Korea. In her free time, Christine enjoys cooking, travel, listening to music, and theater.
Beverly Turbiner Weiss
Beverly Turbiner Weiss received both her MEd and JD from UF. She raised her children in Gainesville (both Gators!) and has strong ties to the Gainesville community. She has always found fulfillment in counseling and helping others, and building strong relationships. Communication has always been an important part of her work, and she is fascinated by the nuances and power of language. She has traveled, lived and worked abroad and she loves meeting people from other cultures. She is so excited to be at the ELI and plans to continue learning as much as possible in the ESL field. Outside of work, she enjoys time with family, cycling, photography and especially spending as much time as possible kayaking with friends and marveling at nature.
Kirsten Wetherbee
Kirsten Wetherbee obtained her master's degree in foundations of education from the University of Virginia in 2005. She concentrated in ESL instruction and taught both adults and K-12 ESL students in Fairfax, Virginia. Kirsten moved to Gainesville in 2008 to be closer to family and became a member of the Gator Nation at that time. Her future plans include continuing education and many happy experiences at the ELI.
Zoe Witty
Prior to completing her MEd 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.
