Via Lingua

Via Lingua International is partnering with the following charities to provide educational resources and tools for students and teachers around the world.

Via Lingua International Advisory Board

In order to ensure the quality of all Via Lingua programs, both content and delivery, the organizational structure includes both an Academic Board and an Advisory Board. The Academic Board comprises a number of senior Via Lingua academic staff members. The Advisory Board comprises a group of distinguished international educators, all of whom have expertise within the field of Teaching English as a Foreign Language.

The Advisory Board has a significant role in advising and counseling the managing director and the Academic Board. In addition, its role is to vouch for the quality of the content and delivery of the study programs offered in Via Lingua Study Centers.

The members of the Advisory Board are all internationally recognized within the TEFL and academic community. This group of outstanding professional educators and leaders in the field of international education is in a unique position to publicly vouch for the quality of our courses.

Donald Back
Don Back is currently Director of the English Language Institute at Virginia Tech, one of the leading universities in the United States. Prior to joining Tech, Don was with ELS Language Centers, where he directed one of the company's largest language centers, oversaw centers in the Southern district, and, most recently, recruited throughout Latin America. A former U.S. Peace Corps volunteer, he has been active in international education for almost 20 years and has worked in managerial capacities in English language programs for more than 15 years. Past-president of the American Association of Intensive English Programs (AAIEP), the leading organization representing language institutes in the United States, he has additionally served on a national level as a SEVIS Project Manager for NAFSA Association of International Educators, is listed as a contributor in NAFSA's sourcebook for immigration advisors, and has authored several NAFSA practice advisories for language schools. Don was awarded the NAFSA Association of International Educators Colleague Award in 2005. He holds an M.Ed. in International Education from the University of Massachusetts.

Quote: I am delighted to join the advisory board of Via Lingua. Having taught abroad myself for several years, I appreciate the value of undergoing appropriate TEFL training prior to undergoing such an experience. Teaching English in other countries enriches the lives of both participants and recipients. By promoting the exchange of knowledge and cultural understanding, Via Lingua in some small part contributes to a more peaceful world. I envy those going to work abroad for the first time the excitement and challenge of beginning their new assignment.

Patrick Colabucci
Patrick F. Colabucci is the Director of Global Studies and International Pathways at The Tseng College, California State University, Northridge.

One of the nine colleges of California State University, Northridge (CSUN), the Tseng College focuses on providing graduate, international and midcareer education that enables those studying there - most of whom are midcareer professionals seeking career change or advancement - to succeed in the new world of work by preparing them to be agile, versatile and fully capable of responding to changes of all kinds in creative and productive ways. Its educational reach ranges from local to regional to global, and it is committed to and widely recognized for both the quality of its programs and the excellence of the support services that its provides to ensure that all students achieve their learning and career goals. The Tseng College has a unique ability to form mutually beneficial educational partnerships through which it collaboratively develops programs that enable employers and other educational institutions - both local and international - to meet their specific needs.

Patrick has been involved in and leading teacher training programs for more than two decades. He earned his bachelor's at the University of Maryland and his master's at the Tokyo branch of Temple University. He's worked in academic and corporate contexts in Japan, Taiwan, China, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Currently, he is also the US Outsourcing Coordinator for the IELTS exam through the University of Cambridge. Patrick has been an active member of JALT, TESOL Arabia, CATESOL, TESOL and NAFSA. Recently, he authored the English Proficiency chapter in AACRAO's International Guide.

Gabriele W. Bosley
Gabriele Bosley currently holds the positions of Director of the International Programs Office, Chair of the Department of Foreign Languages & International Studies, and Associate Professor for Foreign Languages/German at Bellarmine University in Louisville.
Gabriele designed Bellarmine's new trans-curricular Baccalaureate Degree in FLIS (Foreign Languages and International Studies), secured more than $1.1 Mill. in private foundation funding for the implementation of the FLIS degree.
With over 13 years of experience in international education, Gabriele has served in numerous leadership roles on international, national, and regional boards and committees. She currently serves on the AIEA Executive Committee, the UCS Board of Trustees, the CCSA Board of Trustees, the KIIS Board of Directors, the CCCS Board of Advisors, the Kentucky Department of Education Foreign Language Programs Review Board, the Louisville Mayor's International Affairs Advisory Board and a number of Bellarmine University committees.
Gabriele is the recipient of several awards, including the 2006 Kentuckiana Metroversity Award for Curriculum Development, the 2005 Miles Service Award, the 1999 Women's Council Award, the 1994 National Endowment for the Humanities Teacher/Scholar Award, the 1992 Council for Basic Education Fellowship Award, and the 1991 Rockefeller Research Fellowship Award.

Dr. Anthony J. DeNapoli
Dr. Anthony J. DeNapoli, is currently Dean of International Affairs and Program Professor of Educational Leadership at The Fischler School of Education and Human Services (FSEHS) at Nova Southeastern University (NSU), in North Miami Beach, Florida, USA. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Secondary Education from Hofstra University, a Master of Arts degree in Foreign Language Education from New York University, a Professional Diploma in School Administration, Supervision and Leadership from Long Island University, and a Doctor of Education degree in Educational Leadership from Nova Southeastern University.

Prior to assuming his current administrative position, Dr. DeNapoli served as Executive Dean at NSU-FSEHS, a professor of educational leadership, curriculum and instruction, and foreign language education at several colleges and universities in the USA; and as a teacher and school administrator at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. He is the author of numerous articles on school reform and restructuring, the integration of technology into the curriculum, and distance and international education; and is frequently invited to speak and to present workshops and instructional sessions at local, state, national and international conferences, symposia and colloquia. Dr. DeNapoli has played a key role in the development, implementation and supervision of numerous international partnerships and programs at Nova Southeastern University.

Dr. DeNapoli has held numerous leadership positions in professional organizations at the local, state, national and international levels, and is the recipient of several distinguished leadership awards. He has served as Director, Vice-President, and President of the New York State Association of Foreign Language Teachers, and was a member of the Board of Directors of the Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. He has been a consultant to the New York State Education Department, The New York State Board of Regents, and the United States Department of Education, and a member of the Education Advisory Board for USA Today.

Dr. DeNapoli is committed to promoting international education, cross cultural understanding, the internationalization of curriculum, and the development of innovative degree, non-degree and professional development programs for educators and students worldwide.

Dr. Elena M. Garate
Elena M. Garate, Ph.D., is a retired faculty member in the ESL department at Santa Monica College, where she is responsible for developing materials and teaching in a program designed to utilize technology to enhance classroom experiences through interactive programs. Dr. Garate, the former Dean of International Education at SMC, where she developed the largest community college program for international students in California, continues to consult as an expert in the field of international higher education, developing and promoting international programs in the USA and abroad. She is currently a member of the board of directors of the International Institute of LA and an advisory board member for English Language Services (ELS) and the USC Marshall School of Business CIBEAR Board.

Roger Laubengayer
Roger Laubengayer is currently an English Professor at the Higher Colleges of Technology in Abu Dhabi. Prior to taking this position, he managed the Emirates Center for Entrepreneurship at the Center of Excellence in Applied Research and Training. For three years, he worked as Director at the Military Language Institute in United Arab Emirates. The MLI was responsible for all language training for the UAE military and ran courses in English, French, German, and Italian. For nine years he was the Academic Director for ELS Language Centers in the Middle East office and in Santa Barbara, California. Over the last twenty years he has taught in Guatemala, South Korea, the USA and the UAE.. He has an MA in TESOL and an MS in Educational Leadership.

Sharyn S. Moore
Sharyn Moore served in the Peace Corps (with her husband) in Lahad Datu, Sabah, Malaysia in the Government Secondary School. Her specific teaching duties were to prepare students from elementary schools taught in Chinese, Malay, Tamil or Tagalog, to enter secondary schools taught in English.

Upon her return to the United States, she enrolled in graduate English courses at Pepperdine University, and qualified for a State of California Lifetime Secondary Teaching Credential in English and History, and immediately put it to use in a language immersion pilot program with the Los Angeles Unified School District.

In 1970 she was offered a position as Year-in-Europe program assistant to the Pepperdine university provost. In 1971, she moved to Heidelberg, Germany and in the following four years worked as Assistant Director in the Pepperdine program. Concurrently she was a Lecturer in English for the Paedagogisches Hochschule (Teachers College); TEFL program coordinator and instructor for the USIS Amerika Haus; ESL program coordinator and instructor for the Pepperdine University Bibelschule; and, coordinator and teacher for the Volkshochschule (TEFL adult education) in Neckargemund.

In 1974, she returned to California and began an almost 35 year association with ELS Language Centers. She has held numerous positions, and undertaken several special assignments with ELS Language Centers: summer program director at Pepperdine University/Malibu; Marketing Consultant/Germany; Instructional Specialist; Curriculum Developer; Researcher/Writer of "ESL? ELS! A Narrative History of ELS Language Centers"; and her current position of Academic Director, ELS Language Centers/Santa Monica, California. She continues as a curriculum developer, and mostly recently completed a month-long course, The Global Citizen, for the ELS Language Centers Masters levels. She has also returned to Heidelberg, Germany throughout the years to assist the Pepperdine University Director in semester and summer programs

She has been a frequent presenter at the TESOL and NAFSA annual conventions; has been a cross-cultural trainer for the Pepperdine University Church Share program; a member of the Pepperdine University Alumni Board; the Pepperdine University Freunde von Heidelberg; and, the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers national association.

Bonnie Olson
Bonnie Olson has an M.A. in TESL from the University of Colorado at Denver (Colorado, USA) and has been in the ESL field for 20 years. She has taught ESL abroad in Japan and in the United States at a high school, college and graduate school level. Since 1994 she has been Academic Director at ELS Language Centers/St. Paul, Minnesota.

She has also been an adjunct professor at Hamline University since 1995. She has taught a variety of classes including, Methods, Oral Skills, English for Special Purposes and Professional Opportunities, but has done most of her work in the Practicum portion Hamline's TEFL Certificate Program and this is her primary area of interest currently. She will begin supervision of her 18th group of TEFL certificate students in January 2008.

Bonnie taught Business English at the graduate level at the University of St. Thomas for many years and wrote most of the curriculum for the University's new ESL Licensure program.

She has been active in TESOL International, serving as a member of a national committee, presenting at most of the conferences in the past 20 years, and adjudicating conference proposals. She was on the Board of Directors of Colorado and Minnesota TESOL and was responsible for either organizing or helping organize annual regional conferences for many years.

Bonnie has also been active in NAFSA: Association of International Educators. She has been an officer at both the national and regional level, has made numerous conference presentations, is a member of the NAFSA Trainer Corps, and has organized several all-day pre-conference workshops for NAFSA. Most recently she was a member of the Local Arrangements Team for the 2007 conference, which was held in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Dr. Dolores Parker
Dee Parker is currently the Director of Academic Programs at the American University Alumni Language Center (AUALC). Prior to joining AUA, she was a Foreign Service Officer with the Department of State, where she served as the Regional English Language Officer in the public diplomacy section. In this position she was assigned to Argentina, South Africa (for two tours), and Italy (Assistant Cultural Affairs Officer). While in Italy she was assigned responsibilities for English teaching in Albania. Following Italy she was assigned to Washington, D.C and then to Thailand. During her tour in Washington, she set up the English Language Specialist Program, and was the editor of The English Teaching Forum magazine, the largest worldwide circulating professional journal in its field.

During her South African tenure, she initiated the Summer Institute for Teaching of English (SETI), which sent 25-30 secondary school teachers to the US for training. She also initiated and coordinated with the MOE on a peer teacher training program in math and science. In Italy, she coordinated with the Ministry of Education on the Special Foreign Language Project, a peer teacher training program for secondary school teachers. Under that program the MOE was able to train some 30,000 teachers of English over a 15 year period. In Thailand the pilot Network Training Program to train Thai teachers as trainers of their peers was launched in October 2004. To date we have run seven training sessions with an average 23 trainers per session.

Previous to joining the Foreign Service, Dr. Parker covered Latin America (based in Buenos Aires) as an ESL/EFL consultant/representative for a U.S. based publishing company. She also served as Academic Director of the bi-national centers in Costa Rica and Guatemala.

Dee has also worked in academia. She taught Spanish language, literature and area studies as Assistant Professor at MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Illinois and later at Case Western Reserve University, in Cleveland, Ohio. She started her international experience teaching English to adults at bi-national centers, universities, normal schools in Venezuela, Colombia and Ecuador. In the Ecuador, she taught English and General Science at a bilingual school in Ecuador. Her teaching experience ranges from primary through university to adult levels in both public and private institutions...

Dee holds a Bachelor of Arts in French, a Masters degree in Spanish Area Studies from Middlebury College Graduate School in Spain (Madrid), and a Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literature from Case Western Reserve University. She was also a visiting scholar at the University of Hawaii Linguistic Institute.

Perry Akins
Perry Akins is cofounder and copresident of Boston Educational Services (BES) headquartered in California. BES is responsible for developing a series of internet based English language exams for use in high schools, universities and businesses. Prior to BES, Perry was president of ELS Language Centers for 30 years and retired from that position when the company was sold to Berlitz. In addition to serving on several corporate and advisory boards, Perry is also an active member of Rotary International and past president (twice) of his Club.