Faculty and Staff
All of the faculty have second language teaching experience and a broad range of experience working with students from around the globe. If you would like to learn more about the IEP Instructors and IEP staff, read the descriptions that follow. You can also click on each instructor's name to send an email message.
IEP Administration
Cheryl Delk
Director
Cheryl received M.A. degrees in French and TESOL at Michigan State University. She then taught ESL and worked as curriculum coordinator at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo for six years. Although it was difficult to give up cross-country skiing and move further away from her family, Cheryl decided to move to Atlanta in 2000. She has had several roles in the program as IEP Student Activities Coordinator, Graduate Teaching Assistant Coordinator, and currently as director of the IEP.
Janie Hardman
Educational Program Specialist (Admissions)
Janie is the Educational Program Specialist for the IEP. Janie is responsible for the admissions process of all incoming students and works as the immigration for the International Office at Georgia State. She will soon receive her certification as DSO (Designated School Official) for the IEP. Janie received her B.S. in Urban Affairs from Winston-Salem State University in 1981. As former military personnel, she has traveled around the world and feels very fortunate to be in the position to meet more international students. Janie plans to begin working on her Masters in International Relations Fall 2005.
Daphne Orr
Student Sevices Coordinator
Daphne recently joined our staff as the Student Services Coordinator for the IEP. She is responsible for advising students on academic issues and helping them with the admissions process into Georgia State University . Daphne is also the IEP Student Activities Coordinator. She received her B.A. from Tulane University in New Orleans and has previously taught ESL/EFL in a variety of settings and places including New Orleans, San Francisco, New York, and Germany . More recently she served as a Project Assistant at Tulane University managing the application and immigration process for incoming ESL students.
IEP Faculty
Amanda Baker
Amanda, a Canadian from Langley, British Columbia, is currently pursuing a PhD in Applied Linguistics/ESL at Georgia State University. She completed her MA in TESOL at Trinity Western University in 2006 where she also worked as a Research Assistant for three years. In 1999, she received a BA in French and Spanish from Simon Fraser University. Amanda has taught ESL/EFL in Japan, China and Canada, worked as a Teaching Assistant in the Philippines and studied languages in Spain and France.
Meredith Bricker
Meredith received her M.A. in Applied Linguistics from Georgia State University and has been teaching in the Intensive English Program since 2004. In addition to teaching in the IEP, Meredith has taught ESL at Georgia Perimeter College in Clarkston. She has also worked as an assistant for IEP Student Activities, accompanying IEP students on local service learning opportunities and trips to Atlanta attractions.
John Bunting
John has been an IEP lecturer at Georgia State since 2001, after having received his M.A. in Applied Linguistics/ESL from Georgia State in 2000. He is a member of TESOL and AAAL, and is the listserv manager and a member of Georgia TESOL. John’s interests include student-centered learning, technology in the classroom, writing and vocabulary, and teacher training. He is also studying in our doctoral program. He lived and worked in Venezuela for six years, and continues to work and travel throughout Latin America.
Alison Camacho
Alison L. Camacho has been teaching ESL/EFL for over ten years. Her professional career started in Japan, where she worked for three years as a high school English teacher. She has also taught ESL at several language schools and universities in different areas of the U.S. In addition to teaching ESL/EFL, Alison has worked for two teacher training programs: the Egyptian Teacher Training Program (Georgia State University) and the U.S. Department of State’s English Language Fellow Program (Durango, Mexico). In 2005, Alison received her M.A. in Applied Linguistics from Georgia State University. Her interests include materials design, using technology in the classroom, and interactive language teaching. In her free time, Alison enjoys spending time with her husband and dog and watching New York Yankees baseball.
Rachel Da Silva
Rachel received her MA in Applied Linguistics/ESL from Georgia State University in 2006. She has been serving as interim ESL coordinator at Georgia Christian University. She has also taught English in Brazil as well as elementary and middle school in Detroit, Michigan.
Jean Daugherty
Jean received her B.A. in History with a Minor in Spanish in 1997. In 1998, she accepted a position in a high school ESL classroom as a teaching assistant. She loved this experience and decided to pursue a career in teaching ESL. After moving to Georgia, she received her M.A. in Applied Linguistics and Teaching ESL from Georgia State University. She has taught in the IEP at Georgia State and in the ESL Program at Georgia Perimeter College, Dunwoody since 2001 with 3 breaks for maternity leave! She is excited to be returning to the IEP at Georgia State in Fall 2007.
Susan Firestone
Susan has over 30 years of experience teaching ESL/ EFL in a variety of settings. She received her M.S. in Applied Linguistics and ESL from Georgia State. Before she started teaching at Georgia State in 1999, she taught in the Peace Corps in Thailand and in ELS Language Center in Atlanta, where her duties over the years included teaching, teacher training, curriculum development, and program administration. She has continued to pursue her professional interest in teacher education through training Egyptian teachers, teaching the Practicum course for graduate students, and working as the Graduate Teaching Assistant Coordinator. She is active in GTESOL and International TESOL.
Louise Gobron
Louise Gobron has an MBA from Thunderbird Graduate School of International Business and an MA in Applied Linguistics/ESL from Georgia State University. Louise started teaching ESL in Perth, Western Australia after spending several years working in national politics and the advertising business. She has taught English to international students for over 15 years in Australia, Atlanta and San Diego. Louise most recently served as a Senior English Fellow for the US State Department conducting teacher training seminars in Ukraine.
Eliana Hirano
Eliana has been teaching EFL/ESL for nearly 15 years in Brazil and the United States. She received her M.A. in Applied Linguistics from the Catholic University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics at Georgia State. Eliana has traveled to several countries around the world and appreciates the opportunity to work with international students in the IEP.
Elizabeth Holtam
Elizabeth has an M.A. in Italian Literature from Indiana University. In addition to teaching Italian for many years, she has tutored and taught EFL/ESL privately and at language schools in Italy and the U.S. She is currently working towards an M.A. in Applied Linguistics/ESL. Elizabeth grew up in Liberia, West Africa.
Danny Housley
Danny is currently pursuing an MA in Applied Linguistics. He is a graduate of Georgia State where he received a BA in Theatre and a BIS in Language Studies along with his TEFL Certification. He does dialect and accent work for the stage in the Atlanta area as well as volunteering as an ESL tutor and instructor.
Holly Joseph
Holly has been teaching in the IEP since Fall 2006. She is a 2001 graduate of the M.A. program in Applied Linguistics from Georgia State University. She is also an ongoing instructor for Literacy Action, Inc. and Literacy Volunteers of America. She has much interest in literacy development and worked as a Cognitive Development Specialist in the Center for the Study of Adult Literacy at Georgia State University for three years.
Magdi Kandil
Magdi has taught EFL for six years in Egypt and has been teaching in the IEP at Georgia State for about three years. He earned his B.A. in Education and English literature form an Egyptian university, and an M.A. in Applied Linguistics from Georgia State University. Magdi is currently pursuing a PhD in applied linguistics at Georgia State University, where he is also teaching undergraduate applied linguistics classes. His research interests include Corpus linguistics, CALL, Assessment, and genre analysis.
Ashley King
Ashley King began teaching in the IEP in 2007. She received a B.A. in History from Auburn University in 2004. She is currently working on her M.A. in Applied Linguistics from Georgia State University and will complete her degree in May 2008. In addition to teaching in the IEP, she also instructs undergraduate English Composition in the Department of English at Georgia State and has worked in the Writing Studio as a tutor for the past 2 years. Her research interests include cross-cultural pragmatic issues and second language writing instruction.
Iryna Kozlova
Iryna Kozlova has 15 years of domestic and international teaching experience including teaching English as a foreign/second language to children and adults in Ukraine, Russia, Mongolia, and the U.S. She received her M.A. in Teaching International Languages from California State University-Chico. Now Iryna is working on her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics at Georgia State University, where she also teaches undergraduate classes in Applied Linguistics. Her research interests include Discourse Analysis, Sociolinguistics, and Pragmatics.
Amanda Lanier
Amanda Lanier has recently returned to her home state of Georgia after 4 years in Ostrava, Czech Republic, and Belgrade, Serbia, where she taught EFL, trained novice teachers, and studied Czech and Serbian. Since she earned her B.A. in Theatre & Speech from Davidson College in 2001 and her TEFL certificate through Educational Services International in 2002, she has been looking for opportunities to use drama in teaching. This has led to several workshops and a number of productions with her students. She is currently pursing her M.A. in Applied Linguistics/ESL at Georgia State University and feels fortunate to be involved in the IEP.
Margareta Larsson
Margareta, a native of Sweden, came to this country as a Fulbright Scholar in 1986. She is a graduate of the University of California-Berkeley (MA Anthropology) and Georgia State (MS Applied Linguistics and ESL). Since 1994, she has been teaching ESL at both the Language Institute at Georgia Tech and the IEP at Georgia State.
Joseph Lee
Joe has been teaching in the IEP at Georgia State University (GSU) since 2006. Before coming to the IEP, he taught in San Francisco and South Korea. He received his M.A. in English/TESOL from San Francisco State University. Currently, Joe is pursuing a PhD in Applied Linguistics at GSU. His research interests include teacher education, classroom dynamics, spoken discourse analysis, and instructional technology.
Jason Litzenberg
Jason is a new PhD student originating form the sunny state of Florida. In 2001 he completed an M.A. (equivalent) in German Language Education from the Universitaet Leipzig in Leipzig, Germany; in 2004 he graduated from University of Florida with an M.A. in Liguistics/TESOL. Jason has almost ten years of EFL/ESL teaching experience in Germany, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates. His interests include non-native pronunication, sociolinguistics, and second language reading.
Lauren Lovvorn
Lauren received her B.A. in English with a minor in Spanish from the University of West Georgia in 2007. She is currently pursing her MA in Applied Linguistics. Her volunteer experiences in ESL as an undergraduate led her to her current studies. She has worked for two semester as an ESL tutor at GSU.
Yanbin Lu
Yanbin had taught EFL in China for eleven years before she came to Georgia State University to pursue her doctoral degree in Applied Linguistics & ESL. She received her M.A. in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics from Tsinghua University, China, where she taught various courses to college students at various levels. She has once worked as an assistant for IEP Student Activities and is now excited to be able to teach and work with IEP students.
Amanda Starrick Meeks
Tutoring Lab Coordinator
Amanda has been teaching ESL since 1999. She began teaching ESL at the University of Illinois in Springfield while finishing her B.A. in Sociology and Anthropology. She received her M.T.E.S.L. from Arizona State University in 2002. While in Arizona, Amanda taught ESL at Scottsdale Community College and for the Salvation Army. She moved to Atlanta in June of 2004 and began teaching for the IEP in August.
Kate Moran
Kate is an ESOL volunteer with Literacy Volunteers of America and has been teaching in the IEP since August 2004. After having received her M.A. in Applied Linguistics/ESL from Georgia State, she began the PhD program here. She has taught extensive reading, oral fluency, and oral communication in the IEP.
Pam Pearson
Pam joined the IEP staff in August 2007, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Applied Linguistics at Georgia State. She holds MA degrees in TESL/Applied Linguistics (Iowa State University) and Teaching (Drake University), and a BA in French and Spanish (Central College). Pam enjoys working with international students and has spent the past 12 years doing so, teaching EFL/ESL to learners of various ages in Japan, Mexico, Djibouti and the US. Her interests include English for specific purposes, discourse/grammatical analysis, corpus linguistics, L2 literacy, and EFL/ESL pedagogy.
Caroline Payant
Caroline began teaching in the IEP in August 2007. She earned a B.A. in Linguistics and Spanish from the University of British Columbia and moved to Mexico where she obtained an M.A in Applied Linguistics from the Universidad de las Americas, Puebla. She has been teaching EFL, FFL and SSL since 2006. This year Caroline began her PhD in Applied Linguistics and ESL at Georgia State University.
Audrey Roberson
Audrey grew up in Atlanta and attended Emory University, where she received a B.A. in Spanish and International Studies. Both during and after her time as an undergraduate student, she studied and worked throughout Latin America, most recently living in Nicaragua. Her language teaching experience includes two years as a high school Spanish teacher in Texas, and a year as a family literacy tutor for an Atlanta refugee aid organization. Audrey is currently completing the Masters program in Applied Linguistics and ESL at Georgia State, and has served as a tutor for the IEP.
Debra Snell
GTA Coordinator
Debra has been an IEP lecturer at Georgia State since 1990, after having received her M.A. in Applied Linguistics/ESL from Georgia State in 1988. Debra’s interests include teacher development and education, corpus linguistics and second language writing and grammar. She has taught EFL in China and Japan, and in Morocco, first as a Peace Corps Volunteer and then as a Fulbright scholar.
Dara Suchke
Dara received her M.A. in Applied Linguistics/ESL from Georgia State University in December 2005. Since her graduation, she has been teaching classes in GSU's IEP Program. Prior to teaching in the IEP, Dara had experiences teaching community ESL around the Atlanta area and also taught elementary school students in Chandigarh, India.
Cheongmin Yook
Cheongmin received an M.A. degree in Linguistics at Chungnam National University, Korea, and another M.A. in TESOL at Murray State University, Kentucky. She has taught EFL in Korea and ESL at Murray. Cheongmin is currently pursuing a Ph.D in Applied Linguistics and ESL at GSU. Her special interest is in second language acquisition and teaching materials development.
