Spring - Faculty

	Pambos Polycarpou, President Pambos, originally from Cyprus, was a Fulbright Exchange Scholar at Colorado College where he graduated with a B.A. in English Literature. He received an M.A. in Teaching English as a Second Language and a M.Ed. in English Education at the University of Arizona. He also completed course work for a Ph.D. in Philosophy of Education at Indiana University. He is one of the founders of Spring International Language Center. He enjoys skiing and travel.
	MEET OUR FACULTY
	COLORADO
	Spring International Language Center at Arapahoe Community College

	TEACHERS and STAFF
	All of the instructors hold advanced degrees or have completed special coursework in English as a second language, linguistics, or a related field. They have an average of 12 years experience teaching foreign students in the United States and abroad.

	Madeleine Ballard, Instructor Madeleine and her husband moved to Colorado from Massachusetts (for the snow). She got her M.A. in Applied Linguistics at the University of Massachusetts because she liked working with ESL students at a Boston high school. She has taught ESL in middle school, high school, and in adult programs, in Massachusetts and Colorado. Madeleine enjoys meeting students from all over the world.
	Susan Blahut, Instructor Susan Blahut has a B.A. in Intercultural Communications and finished two years of graduate studies in Linguistics at the University of Kansas. After having lived and worked in Germany for 11 years, she has recently moved back to the U.S. Although she enjoyed her time in Europe and teaching primarily German students, she is excited to be back in the international classroom after so many years.
	Shirlaine Castellino, Instructor Shirlaine has B.A. and M.A. degrees from Silliman University in the Philippines. She holds an additional MATESL from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In addition to four years of teaching at Silliman University, Shirlaine was Composition Coordinator and teaching associate at the Intensive English Institute, University of Illinois for three years. After moving to Colorado, Shirlaine worked as ESL Coordinator at the Asian Pacific Center. Shirlaine loves to sing, plays the guitar, and travels the world with her family.
	Patricia H. Cate, Instructor M.A. in English as a Second Language-Curriculum Development University of Colorado at Denver B.A. in Spanish and French, Vanderbilt University
	Nicole Esteve, Executive Assistant, DSO Niki has a B.A. degree in Sociology from Mesa State College. Before Spring she was an International Student Advisor and Registrar at another Intensive English program. Prior to that, she taught English in Madrid, Spain for four years. Her hobbies include photography, snowboarding and travel.
	Andy Pulford, Instructor Andy holds an M.A. degree in Intercutltural Studies and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages from Wheaton College and a B.A. Degree in Biblical and Theological Studies from Williams Baptist College. In addition to teaching with World Relief DuPage, College of DuPage, Elgin Community College, American Cultural Exchange, and Arkansas State University, he served as the Program Director for the American Cultural Exchange Language Institute at Arkansas State University before joining the Spring International Language Center team. He is happily married and spends a great deal of time with his wife and two children.
	Lily Delaney, Instructor Lily Delaney has B.A. in Speech Communications from the University of Nevada Reno, and an M.A in Linguistics with a concentration in TESOL from the University of Colorado Boulder. Her interest in teaching came from her experience tutoring English in Spain. Since then she has tutored and taught English in Portland, Oregon and the Denver area. Lily enjoys traveling, and has traveled to Mexico, Costa Rica, and parts of Europe and Asia including Thailand where her family lives. She also enjoys hiking, snowshoeing, camping, and biking.
	Rebecca Fisher, Director Rebecca holds a Master's degree in English as a Second Language from the University of Hawaii at Manoa and a B.S. from the State University of New York at Oneonta. She has taught ESL and Research Writing in college, university, and at a major corporation. She was Coordinator of International Programs at the Univ. of Colorado at Denver where she coordinated programs in Beijing, Moscow and Kathmandu. In addition to travel to these countries, she has lived in Cuernavaca, Mexico, and India.
	Becky Griffin, Instructor Becky Griffin holds an M.A. degree in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) and Intercultural studies from Columbia International University in Columbia, South Carolina, and a B.S. degree in Bible and General Studies, also from CIU. She has taught ESOL, ESP, and EAP at Seminole Community College in the Orlando, Florida area, and has also taught American and British literature in Language Arts through ESOL at the senior high school level. Becky enjoys cooking, attending community and cultural festivals, hiking and exploring beautiful Colorado, and traveling and meeting people from other cultures around the world.
	Ivy Atlas, Part-Time Instructor M.A., Applied Linguistics/TESOL, University of South Florida B.A. Communications and French, State University of new York at Oswego
	Missy Hull, Housing Coordinator With an A.A. degree from Arapahoe Community College and a B.A. degree from Metropolitan State in Administration of Justice, Missy has worked in a counseling center for troubled adolescents and has volunteered with a program for developmentally disabled persons. Her hobbies include bike riding, hockey mom, movies and travel. She lived in Egypt for four years and has traveled in Europe and the Middle East. She has worked for Spring International since 1997.
	Gunilla Johnson, Instructor & Conversation Partner Coordinator Gunilla has B.A. and M.A. degrees in Languages and Education from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, where she was born and raised. She moved to the States in 1987, having lived in Colorado ever since. Languages have been a passion for Gunilla since a very young age, and she is fluent in Swedish and French in addition to English. German, Spanish and Latin are also languages that she has studied, and she understands Norwegian and Danish as well. Gunilla has taught French, Swedish, and German for several years, but has devoted most of her career to ESL, teaching at four other ESL schools in the Denver area. She has found ESL to be the most exciting subject to teach thanks to the wonderful ESL students, whom she shares many language learning and cross-cultural experiences. Learning about other cultures is another excitement for Gunilla, and she enjoys traveling and meeting people from all over the world.
	Zeb Kozlowski, Part-Time Instructor Zeb was born in Poland and studied English philology at A. Mickiewicz University in Poznan. Upon immigrating to the United States, he obtained a B.A. in English from the University of Colorado at Denver in 1979. He then turned to Russian and received an M.A. from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a Ph.D. in Russian literature from Ohio State University. He taught Russian language and culture courses for over 20 years at a variety of schools. He subsequently earned an M.A. in Spanish from the International University of Menendez Pelayo in Santander, Spain and taught Spanish language and culture courses at MSCD, UCD, and DU. While he continues teaching Spanish at MSCD, he now finds a great satisfaction in teaching English at Spring International Language Center.
	Alice Li, Instructor Alice Li has an M.A. in Applied Linguistics from Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia, where she lived and worked as an ESL teacher before moving to Denver. She has taught General/Academic English, Business English and IELTS exam preparation for over 8 years in Canada, China and Australia. She enjoys traveling, cooking (and eating!), and meeting people from other cultures.
	Debby McBride, Office Assistant Debby has studied at the University of Idaho and Arapahoe Community College. She was the executive assistant at Spring International when it began on the Auraria campus. She currently hosts students for Spring at Arapahoe and is a Sales Director with Mary Kay Cosmetics, a direct sales company.
	Colleen McGovern, Instructor Colleen has many years of experience teaching and administering ESL programs both in the United States and abroad in Hungary, Tunisia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the United States, she has taught at the University of Denver, the Economics Institute, Boulder, and the International English Center at the University of Colorado. She has an M.F.A. in Writing and Poetics from Naropa University in Boulder; an M.A. in International Studies from Ohio University, and a B.A. in English from the University of Northern Iowa.
	Jessica Miklich, Part-Time Instructor Jessica, a Colorado native, holds a B.A. in English Literature from Metropolitan State College, and is currently taking TESOL graduate classes at the University of Colorado at Denver. She has been teaching at Spring International for nearly three years. She particularly enjoys learning about cultures, reading, and has traveled to 20 countries with an ambition to learn more.
	Laura-Elena Moreno, Instructor Laura-Elena Morelos has an MA in TESOL from C.W. Post, LIU and is a native New Yorker. She's been teaching ESL for the past 5 years to students from ages 10-65 in both public and private schools. She has lived, studied and traveled in several states and countries around the world. She recently moved to Denver after living and teaching in Cali, Colombia and is eager to explore this beautiful area.
	Heidi Peterson, Instructor Heidi Peterson has a B.A. in Fine Art and a minor in French from Metropolitan State College. After her studies she decided that living and working in France would be the best way to learn to speak French. As it turned out she fell in love with other cultures, other languages and, decided that being a language teacher (a teacher of English) would be wonderful. Upon her return to the US she began her pursuit of an M.A. degree at the University of Colorado at Denver. This has led to many opportunities to teach and meet individuals from all over the world. She has taught at both Spring Schools in Denver, at CCD and, plenty of workplace English programs. Most recently she was the Director of Education at DPT Business School.
	Susan Polycarpou , Academic Coordinator Susan is a native of Colorado. She majored in German Literature at Colorado College and received her M.A. degree in teaching English as a second language at the University of Arizona. After studying and teaching in Germany, she lived in Cyprus, where she taught English to junior and senior high school students. For the last twenty years she has been teaching in intensive English programs in Colorado. Susan’s interests include reading, movies, hiking, and skiing. She is the co-author of a writing text and a reading text for beginning levels.
	Tom Rohrbach, Instructor and Computer Specialist Tom received his M.A. degree in Education from the University of New Hampshire in 1978 and a B.A. degree in English from Muhlenberg College in 1976. Tom’s overseas experience includes two years in Japan. He has been teaching with Spring International at both Colorado locations for many years. *2009 Winner of the Presidential Award for Outstanding Contribution to CoTESOL
	Connie Shoemaker, Director Emeritus Connie has a B.A. degree in English and Journalism and an M.A. in English from Colorado State University. She has 25 years of teaching experience in secondary, university and ESL programs, including four years at American University in Cairo, Egypt, in addition to newspaper writing experience in the U.S. and Egypt. Writing and travel are her hobbies. She is one of the founders of Spring International Language Center and the author of four ESL textbooks and a book of poetry.

Back to Top





	Spring International Language Center at Auraria Campus, Denver

	Jeanne Hind, Director M.A., Linguistics/Teaching of English as a Foreign Language, Ball State University, 1977. M.A.T., English Education, Seton Hall University, 1973 B.A., English/Communication Arts, Lindenwood College, 1971 Coursework completed toward PhD, Educational Leadership and Innovation; Curriculum, Learning and Technology strand; foci areas: assessment, learning/teaching dynamic and organizational systems change; University of Colorado, Denver Overseas teaching: 5-1/2 years EFL in Japan
	Sara Holzberlein, Assistant Director M.A. in Speech Communication, Colorado State University, 1991. B.A. in Communication Arts, Regis University, 1987. Overseas teaching: 13 years university level EFL/Speech Communication/Monbusho teacher training in Japan. Karen Barker, Student Services Coordinator and Office Assistant B.A. Speech Communication, minor in Journalism, Metropolitan State College of Denver, 1989 TESL Certification, University of Colorado at Denver, 2002 Heather Stewart, Executive Assistant/International Student Advisor B.A., Spanish, University of Colorado Arabic language coursework, University of Denver Vicky Lambo, Housing Assistant B.A., Humanities, Fort Lewis College, Durango A.A., Photography, Art Institute of Colorado Kori Sirisawat, Office Assistant B.A., Business Management, Wichita State University

	TEACHERS and STAFF
	All of the instructors hold advanced degrees or have completed special coursework in English as a second language, linguistics, or a related field. They have an average of 12 years experience teaching foreign students in the United States and abroad.

	Chris Crupper, Teacher TESOL Certificate, University of Colorado Denver B.A. Physical Geography and Environmental Science, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs Alexis Deneau, Teacher M.A., English with concentration in TESOL, San Francisco State University B.A. Italian Studies, University of California, Berkeley CTESL and Advanced CTESL (Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages), Transworld Schools CTEFLA (Cambridge Certificate to teach EFL to Adults), English International Gavin Edwards, Teacher and Textbook Coordinator M.A., Second languages, University of Arkansas, Little Rock B.A., English, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Don Ferndelli, Teacher Bridge TEFL Certificate B.S. Computer Science Centro Bilingue de San Miguel, Studies in Spanish & Universite du Quebec a Montreal, Studies in French Kelly Foster, Teacher M.A., TESL Northern Arizona University B.A., Liberal Studies/Communication, Northern Arizona University Barbara Kessler, Teacher M.A. coursework in Education/ESL TEFL Certificate, Royal Society of Arts, British Council B.S., Human Services, Skidmore College R.N., A.A.S Queens College, City University of New York Katherine Kouris, Teacher and Conversation Coordinator M.A., Art History, University of Denver B.A., Art History/French Literature, University of Denver0 Study abroad: Paris/Bordeaux, France; Florence/Cortona, Italy Living abroad: Switzerland Overseas teaching: Italy-5-1/2 years Cheryl Madrid, Teacher Ed.S., Administration and Supervision, University of Colorado M.A., Elementary Education and ESL, University of Colorado B.A., Elementary Education, Metropolitan State College of Denver Mavis Morua, Teacher M.A., IPTE (Initial Professional Teacher Education Program) in progress, UCD B.A., Antioch College Overseas teaching in Portugal; extensive travel in Southeast Asia, Northern Africa and Europe J.P. Norlander, Teacher M.A. University of Colorado Denver B.A. Modern Languages, Spanish & French, Metropolitan State college of Denver Judy Okamoto, Teacher and Social Activities Coordinator M.A., Education, University of Colorado, Denver B.A., Social Science, minor in ESL, 1969, Elem. Education, California State University of L.A. David Perry, Teacher Bridge TEFL Certificate B.S. Business Administration, Trinity University Centro Bilingue de San Miguel, Studies in Spanish & Universite du Quebec a Montreal, Studies in French Tom Rohrbach, Teacher and Computer Specialist M.A., Education, University of New Hampshire B.A., English, Muhlenberg College Dorothy Schepps, Teacher TESOL Certificate, University of Colorado at Denver & Health Sciences Center M.A., Latin American Studies, University of Texas, Austin Teaching Certification, Tufts University B.A., English, Tufts University Laura Vance, Teacher and Assessment/Evaluation Coordinator M.A., Curriculum & Design/English as a Second Language, University of Colorado at Denver DTEFLA (International ESL Diploma, Cambridge University), Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates B.F.A, Art & Art History, University of Colorado at Denver B.A., Philosophy, George Washington University




	ARKANSAS



	Spring International Language Center at the University of Arkansas

	Leyah Bergman-Lanier Ph.D. in Education and Sociolinguistics, Claremont Graduate School M.A. in Education and Reading, Claremont Graduate School B.A., University of California at Berkeley

	For a complete list of faculty and staff at the Arkansas center, please see their separate website at http://www.uark.edu/silc.



Back to Top