Deany Goode - HEIS Co-Chair 2022-2023

Adjunct ESL/EAP Instructor

Metropolitan Community College Kansas City - Penn Valley, Kansas City, MO, USA

Deany has a BA in English from the University of Missouri - Kansas City and an MA in TESL from the University of Central Missouri. She has been teaching ESL to refugees, immigrants, and international students at urban community colleges for 14 years. Service is her love language.

Melissa Ferro - HEIS Co-Chair 2022-2023

ESL Instructor –University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

Melissa has worked as a K-16 language educator and teacher educator for over 20 years. She holds a B.A. in Spanish, an M.Ed in World Language Curriculum and Instruction, and a Ph.D. in Multilingual Multicultural Education. She is currently an ESL Instructor at the University of Texas at Austin. Before joining UT Austin, Melissa lived in London, England for four years where she worked as an academic developer at the University of East London and as an ESL pathway-to-university instructor with Kaplan International College of London. For more about Melissa, see her profile here.

Cristina Manea Gultekin—HEIS Community Manager

English Lecturer

School of Foreign Languages Gaziantep University, Gaziantep, Turkey

Cristina Manea Gultekin holds an MA in TESOL and a dual BA in English and French. She has been teaching for more than 20 years, and she is currently located in Turkey where she teaches, trains teachers, and speaks at national and international conferences. She is committed to research related to the psychological and social formation in English language teachers and learners, and the processes and practices through which professional development is implemented and developed continuously for better learning outcomes.

Zhenjie Weng - HEIS Editor

Assistant Professor in English Language

Language and Culture Center, Duke Kunshan University, China

Zhenjie Weng received her Ph.D. in Second, Foreign, and Multilingual Language Education from The Ohio State University. As an English language instructor, she has taught second-language writing in a variety of contexts to both undergraduate and graduate-level multilingual students. As a researcher, she is experienced in publications and has had her research projects published in leading academic journals. As the HEIS editor, she has been serving the role for more than a year and feels honored to be able to continue her service for the HEIS community.

Sheila Ameri - HEIS Assistant Editor

Graduate Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University

Sheila Ameri is a doctoral student in Multilingual Language Education at The Ohio State University. She received her MA TESOL from The New School and a BA in English and Music Management from Georgia State University. With over a decade as an English language teaching professional, she has taught English on three continents with the bulk of her tenure at King Faisal University in Hofuf, Saudi Arabia. She teaches in Ohio State’s Intercultural English Language Program and Department of Teaching and Learning. Her editorial experience includes positions on the Editorial Board of Plot(s) Journal of Design Studies, at Pearson ELT, and most recently as an Editorial Assistant for TESOL Journal.

Link to full res Current Headshot

Alicia Ambler - HEIS Editorial Assistant

Associate Professor of Instruction

Alicia Ambler received her MA in Linguistics with an emphasis on second language acquisition from the University of Iowa. She has taught in ESL Programs at the University of Iowa for 15 years. She teaches in their intensive English program as well as in their ITA program.

Peggy Semingson - HEIS Member at Large

Associate Professor of TESOL, Linguistics and TESOL–The University of Texas at Arlington

Peggy Semingson is an Associate Professor of TESOL in the Department of Linguistics and TESOL at The University of Texas at Arlington.

Eric Grunwald - HEIS Member at Large

Director, English Language Studies–Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Eric Grunwald is director of and lecturer in MIT’s English Language Studies (ELS) program. An instructor in ELS since 2012, he draws on a wide breadth of scholastic and vocational experiences to help students across the disciplines improve their academic and professional communication skills. He presents regularly at conferences in the U.S. and abroad and has received Institute grants to design an undergraduate creative writing course just for bilingual students and to design a website—writingprocess.mit.edu—to instruct students in a formal writing process.

Fatmeh Alalawneh - HEIS Member at Large

Ph.D student, Curriculum and Instruction–University of Toledo in Toledo

Fatmeh Waleed Alalawneh is a Graduate Dean's Fellow and Ph.D. student in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Toledo in Toledo, Ohio