Genie Smiddy
Editor
Genie Smiddy has been tutoring or teaching undergraduate and graduate students writing since 2005. During this time she has taught in the intensive English program for St. John’s University as well as in Hunter College‘s freshman composition and introduction to literature courses. Very early on, this work sparked her interest in the unique experiences of ELLs in American universities, particularly in how they respond to writing and the revision process. She holds both a B.A. in Art History and an M.A. TESOL from Hunter College.
Ann C. Wintergerst, Ed.D.
Promising Practices Editor
Ann Wintergerst is a retired Professor of TESOL in the Department of Languages & Literatures, St. John’s University. She established the university’s first ESL program and was its first director. A native speaker of German, she holds an EdM (Applied Linguistics), MA and EdD (TESOL) from Teachers College, Columbia University. She has authored five books: Crossing Cultures in the Language Classroom (w/ A. DeCapua), 2004, 2016; Tips for Teaching Culture (w/ J. McVeigh), 2011; Focus on Self-Study: Evaluating Postsecondary ESOL Programs (1995); Second Language Classroom Interaction (1994), written 70 professional articles, and delivered 90 conference presentations on culture, learning styles, writing assessment, classroom interaction, program review, and professional standards. A past president of NYSTESOL and a past chair of TESOL’s Higher Education Interest Section, she is a member of the NYSTESOL Journal Advisory Board and has served as Promising Practices Editor for over 25 years.
Jocelyn Choi
Cultural Connections Editor
Jocelyn Choi is pursuing an EdD in TESOL at Anaheim University. She has a BA in psychology and an MA in Curriculum and Instruction from Caldwell University and an MS in Applied Linguistics from Montclair State University. Though she has been in education since 2001, she began to focus on adult language learning in 2007. She has taught ESL courses (all levels) as well as OEFL, literature and writing courses. Since 2015, she has been teaching in an Intensive English Program at Saint Peter’s University, and in 2019 began working at an English as a Second Language Program at ASA College. She has also presented at 2018 Applied Linguistics Winter Conference (ALWC 2018) on Integrating Student Art in ESL Classrooms. With her background in psychology, education and applied linguistics, she strives to understand classroom dynamics from the student’s perspective leading to her current research interests into the psychology of the learner and multicultural sensitivity in the classroom. Some countries she has lived and worked in are Iceland, South Korea, and France.
Amanda Moody
Mentoring Matters Editor
Amanda Moody Maestranzi is an Adjunct Assistant Professor (TESOL) in the Middle and High School Education department at Lehman College. She is also a TESOL Student Teacher Supervisor in the department of Curriculum and Teaching at Hunter College. Amanda recently completed her PhD at Fordham University Graduate School of Education in the Contemporary Learning and Interdisciplinary Research program (conferred August 2020). She earned her Master's degree in TESOL at Teachers College as a Peace Corps Fellow and is a returned Peace Corps volunteer (Mauritania, 2005-2007). Her research is focused on using self-study methodology to examine her teacher mentoring and supervision practices, and she is interested in expanding to other qualitative methods and collaborative teacher education research.
Timothy Foran
Identity and Liberation Editor
Timothy M. Foran has been teaching primarily international college students since 2014. Currently, he is the Director of the Writing Center at LIM College and is pursuing a PhD in Literacy at SUNY Albany. His research interests center on exploring the ways in which linguistially and culturally diverse students construct knowledge and convey meaning in varying contexts while considering notions of transliteracy, translanguaging, power and representation. He earned his MA in TESOL from the University of Mississippi.
Xiaochen Du
Research in Brief Editor
Xiaochen Du is a doctoral candidate at the University of Florida. Before pursuing her doctoral degree, she acquired her master’s degree in TESOL at Fordham University. Her personal, educational, and teaching experiences have led her onto the path of becoming a bilingual educator and researcher. Recently, she focuses her research on the teaching and learning of bilingual and multilingual students in a variety of contexts. She has conducted qualitative studies to explore individual emergent bilingual students’ language and literacy experiences. Her personal transnational and translingual experiences have shaped her unique perspectives in viewing these students’ learning experiences and designing data-informed instructional approaches in the teaching of bilingual learners.