About Us

When she was five, Candace Brannan put on plays inside a cut-out, cardboard refrigerator box and charged her parents .25 to attend these fabulous shows. In college, she decided it would be worthwhile to help others develop a love for reading and writing, too. Since then, Candace has pursued training with the National Math and Science program for AP English and the National Writing Project chapter in her state, working as an attendee, teaching consultant, as a summer institute co-director, lobbyist, and director of the Young Writers’ Summer Institute. A high school ELA teacher for the past 22 years, Candace believes that all students are gifted. Candace is the president-elect of the North Dakota Council of Teachers of English (NDCTE), supporting professional development and collaboration of English teachers. Candace is currently working to obtain a D.A. in English Pedagogy through an online program with Murray State University, Kentucky. Working as a digital learner just before Covid shut down in-person classes, Candace was able to teach with an inside perspective of what it’s like to learn online, develop autonomy and connection, and move toward goals. In her free time, she’s working on a book about a little known, North Dakota poet, playing with web design, planning writing retreats in beautiful places, and marveling at and enjoying her family.

Dr. Kristie Hofelich Ennis has always had a natural inclination to teach; since 1983 she's been a walking, talking, mess. An early and avid reader of fictional series that didn't get much deeper than The Babysitters Club, somehow Kristie grew into an English Educator, writer, and consultant specializing in first-year writing and dual-credit English pedagogy. After purposely declining an acceptance into the often #1 ranked high school in KY to attend her father's alma mater, Fern Creek High School, she earned her undergraduate English degree and Master's in Teaching from the University of Louisville, and her second Master's in Library Science from Western KY University before completing her terminal degree in English Pedagogy at Murray State University in 2019. Dr. Ennis's work has been featured on EduTalk Radio, in English Leadership Quarterly, and at local, state, regional, and national conferences.

E. Powell Franklin grew up on a small farm, and with five sisters and one television set that received, on a clear day, two channels. He spent most of his adolescent time tending livestock, plowing fields, avoiding sisterly drama, and reading the eclectic collection of books that had somehow been amassed by the family. Poring through tomes that ranged from ancient Greek classics to modern thrillers, Franklin developed an appreciation for the written word from an early age, and he found it only natural to pursue literary studies in college. Franklin has been an Associate Professor of English at a small West Tennessee community college for the past 28 years, but he’s also served as an adjunct instructor for several public and private universities, a professional consultant for a national educational testing service, and a practitioner of distance learning modalities which have ranged, over the decades, from college-by-cassette to online synchronous and asynchronous course delivery. When the recent global pandemic sent educators scurrying to remote delivery via platforms such as Zoom, Franklin found himself uniquely qualified and experienced to make the transition with little disruption to his classes. He holds a BA in English from Union University (1991) in Jackson, Tennessee, and an M. Ed. in English Education from Vanderbilt University (1993).

Tim Hange is an ESL teacher, a university professor of English and Education, and the coordinator of an undergraduate TESOL program. He is also the face of the moniker “English Teacher Tim”, a brand that delivers daily English lesson videos and blog posts designed to assist adult language learners. Tim’s passion to assist adult language learners is rooted in his own experiences growing up in an immigrant family and it is his strong desire to assist those whose opportunities are restricted because of language fluency.

Meet Brooke Helling, the accidental English teacher! Ten years ago, Brooke found herself running a thriving dyslexia program for a local school district in Texas and found that the linguistic skills taught to her dyslexic students served her well in teaching second language learners. As a result of this revelation, Brooke applied for an adjunct position teaching ESL to adult learners. To her surprise, she received the job and quickly fell in love with teaching English to adults. Even though she never planned to become an English teacher, she is so glad she did!

Brooke’s experience in K-12 and the university setting spans 20 years. Brooke is an adjunct faculty member at Lindenwood University, Washington University Law School, and St. Charles Community College. She is currently pursuing her Doctor of Arts in English Pedagogy at Murray State University. Her interests include educational equity, reading disorders in second language students, and research-based composition strategies for ESL Learners, focusing on affective components.

When Brooke is not teaching or studying, you can find her chasing boys—her boys, that is. She has four energetic sons and a husband who entertains the masses with his dad jokes.

Kate Myers de Vega, M.A., M.A., B.A., is a seasoned post-secondary educator of English, writing, and the humanities with 20+ years' experience, specializing in adult learning and culturally sensitive remediation strategies in an accelerated format, both face-to-face and online. Her goal is to optimize learning and empower students through anchored instruction, balancing deliberate practice and at times messy and chaotic collaboration.

Underneath the professional veneer, Kate is a lifelong learner and an unabashedly curious nerd who is in love with teaching. Nothing makes her happier than to be amidst students who are excited to work and share their ideas with her and their peers. Her primary goal is to make every student feel welcome and valued.

For Kate, effective online teaching transcends digitizing handouts and converting paper texts to e-books. Rather, effective online teaching practice requires that we adapt to higher levels of communication and collaboration and take risks that push us toward unfamiliar teaching spaces and toward one another.

When Heather Nieto was 4 years old, she would line up her stuffed animals and teach them the alphabet. Her parents would joke that she would read anything - encyclopedias, the dictionary, cereal boxes, and any book she could get her hands on. An unidentified gifted kid until late in high school, Heather irked her teachers with incessant questioning and attempts to teach her classmates.
After trying different careers, Heather gave in to the inevitable and earned her Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Secondary Education from Ottawa University in 2007 and began her teaching career. She's taught in both urban and suburban districts in both Texas (Dallas/Fort Worth area & El Paso) and Arizona (Phoenix metro area). Over her 15-year career, she has become a College Board-certified AP instructor as well as a certified Gifted/Talented instructor for both the state of Arizona and the state of Texas. Her curricular focus is in Advanced and Gifted/Talented education - a population that she feels is historically underserved. Heather was inspired to study and teach about gifted education after the experience of advocating for her own son’s gifted identification and education in Arizona.
In an attempt to elevate the conversation regarding gifted/advanced education, Heather earned a Master of Education in Curriculum and Literacy Studies from the University of Texas at Arlington in 2015 and a Master of Education in Instructional Design from Western Governor's University in 2019. Both degrees focused on the curricular and intellectual needs of gifted and advanced learners. Her classroom instructional techniques include problem and project-based learning, hexagonal thinking, TQE discussion method, Socratic seminar, and individualized learning, using a balance of technology and hands-on text analysis. Her experience in curriculum development and design at the secondary level makes her uniquely qualified in her field.
She currently teaches AP Language and AP Literature for the Department of Defense Education Activity at Vilseck American High School in Vilseck, Germany. Heather is working on her Doctorate of Arts in English Literature and Pedagogy at Murray State University. When she isn't irking her administration with constant questions and ideas on how to improve education, she travels with her best friend and husband of 21 years, Joe, and their too-smart-for-his-own-good 12-year-old son, William.

“How many of you are generic English majors?” asked her undergraduate Senior capstone professor. “You know, you enjoy reading and writing but have no idea how you might earn a living?” Slowly, ashamedly, Leanne Price raised her hand, wishing someone had asked her this question before her senior year.

Nevertheless, that same professor suggested she interview for an EFL teaching position at the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in Chengdu, China. Here, Leanne became what was likely a pretty terrible teacher, though she knew she wanted to improve. Leanne served as an assistant teacher in the ESL program in the Stoughton Public Schools in Massachusetts before earning her MAT at the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont.

After briefly teaching ESL in public schools, she began in the high-powered higher education role of “adjunct” for several years at the University of Akron and Mount Union University before landing a full-time position at Marietta College, her alma mater in southeastern Ohio, where she has taught for 13 years. Leanne currently serves as the Director of ESL and the TEFL Certificate programs at Marietta College; in addition, she has experience teaching first-year writing and other general education courses.

The pandemic made Leanne learn how to do cool new teachy things on the magical interwebs worth sharing because she is a “generic English major” no more. When teaching ideas suddenly excite her, she shares them with her underwhelmed husband, two angsty teenage sons, and doggies, Reggie and Maggie.

Although she had never thought of herself as the "teacher type," Meredith Struebing's first experience volunteer tutoring in a local ESL program in the summer of 2000 set her on the path to a life-long career in English language instruction. She went on to earn her M.A. TESOL in 2014 and is currently in her 3rd year of the Doctorate of Arts in English Pedagogy program at Murray State University. Meredith is now an English Language Acquisition Specialist with over 22 years of experience teaching, tutoring, and advising adult English Language Learners.

Meredith is a versatile, compassionate educator with the knowledge and experience to teach basic literacy through college composition. Her broad range of experiences also include course, curriculum, and assessment development. Through her resourcefulness and a bit of creativity, she aims to empower her students with the English language and digital literacy skills and independent learning strategies necessary for the 21st century’s social, academic, and career demands.

The quiet girl. The new kid. The daydreamer. Seana Sundermeyer is no stranger to acclimating to new environments and adapting to ever-changing circumstances. As a military kid and now a military Chaplain’s wife, she embraces living in new regions, learning new cultures and languages, and exploring the local cuisine! As a young girl, Seana was inspired by the ambitious Anne Shirley, the adored protagonist of L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables series. This young Anne character pursued her dreams of becoming a teacher and writer despite the hardships life threw her way. After losing her father to cancer at a young age, Seana sought the same determination as her beloved Anne to pursue her own dreams of teaching and writing.

Seana has been a high school ELA teacher for the last 23 years with teaching and tutoring opportunities in public, private, and home-schooling settings in various regions of the United States and abroad. She is an avid and certified member of Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI), pursuing her goals of being relevant in international educational settings. Seana is the Lead Teacher of her AP Department at a private international online school, encouraging and inspiring her team to connect with students in creative and effective ways. Her desire is for her online students to receive authentic connection and experience that longed-for sense of school community within the online classroom format.

Seana holds a B.A. in English Education, a M.Ed. with a focus in Reading Literacy, and is completing her last year in her doctoral program of English Pedagogy and Technology. Still the daydreaming girl of years past, Seana loves creating children’s stories, teaming up with her artistic daughter to do the illustrations. In her leisure time, She loves watching cooking shows and trying out new recipes, reading the latest recommended books, and spending time with her husband and two children.

Since Benedetto Youssef was young, he has had propensity for thinking about the future, for understanding the symbiotic relationship between the human and the machine. He also had a drive and passion for learning, and it was this that brought him to a career in education. He received his bachelor's degree from Fordham University in 2012. In 2016, he graduated with his master's degree in English and Creative Writing from Southern New Hampshire University. He is currently studying for his Doctor of Arts in English Pedagogy from Murray State University, where he is expected to graduate in 2023. Now, more than ever, Benedetto understands that technology—social media, smart phones, zoom meetings, laptops, visual texts, and on and on—is here to stay; it creates a classroom environment that promotes the greatest student growth and achievement. It also allows education to prevail, even when faced with a global pandemic. And with nearly a decade of teaching experience, at both the high school and college level, and having spent the past three years as a doctoral student in a program that emphasizes pedagogy and technology, Benedetto is well aware of the double-edged sword that technology offers. The artificial light that consumes so many educators, as they toil away in lesson planning, virtual instruction, the reading of essays, and answering student and parent emails, interrupts the body's natural release of melatonin, thus creating a myriad of negative implications. The numbers don't lie: the mental health and wellness of teachers—at a national level—is at an all time low. There is a growing teacher shortage due to teacher burnout and the challenges associated with being a teacher in the 21^st century. As such, Benedetto is excited to share his strategies, resources, and methods for an often ignored but utterly important topic: the social and emotional wellness of professional educators.