Current and Previous Positions
Associate Professor, English Language Acquisition
Kirkwood Community College
Cedar Rapids and Iowa City, Iowa
ESL/EFL Specialist, Instructor Development Branch
Defense Language Institute English Language Center
South-Central Asia; San Antonio, Texas
ESL Student-Teacher Supervisor and ESL Practicum Course Instructor
College of Education, The University of Iowa
Iowa City, Iowa
Recent Awards and Presentations:
Presenter at ACTFL; “Turning Your Students into Global Citizens in 55 Minutes or Less”
Presenter at TESOL; “Unifying Program Instruction with Professional Development Resources”
Recipient of the Endowed Faculty Chair Award, Kirkwood Community College
Recipient of the John and Suanne Roueche Excellence Award
Recipient of the Global Service Award, Kirkwood Community College
Recent Projects:
Collaborated on and co-coordinated a Writing Exchange initiative (click here)
Co-created of Supporting Proficiency through Outstanding Teaching - Online, SPOT-On, an online professional development resource for new and veteran ELA/ESL instructors (click here)
Developed a competency-based model of language learning (click here)
Designed and delivered innovative online ESL courses through partnership in Brazil
Co-founded the Kirkwood Academic Cultural Exchanges, K-ACE, initiative (click here)
Designed a college-specific Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI©) called the K-DOSE-OPI© and facilitated training program
Designed new student orientation for ELLs
Created medical Spanish Website (see Video for trailer)
International Travel (Examples):
Australia (
Ghana
Brazil
Nicaragua
Qatar
Kyrgyzstan
Costa Rica
Spain
Panama
Peru
Afghanistan
Mexico
England
Kuwait
Colombia
Languages:
English (native language)
Spanish (advanced-mid OPI proficiency)
Arabic (novice proficiency)
Professional Interests:
Teacher mentoring
Oral proficiency assessment
L2 assessment, L2 methodologies, and L2 curriculum design
Educational technology and distance learning
Competency-based learning
Language for specific purposes