Who We Are
The Teacher Educator Interest Section is led by a committee of dedicated and experienced leaders. Find out more about them here.
Past Chair
Grazzia María Mendoza Chirinos is an award winning author and editor recognized by Scholarship and Service and Outstanding Advocacy by TESOL International Association. She is also a US State Department Alumna recognized for project development for teachers’ professional growth projects. She has been in the TESOL field for 32 years training teachers globally for the last 17 years. Her research interests include CALL, Advocacy, SEL, Multilingualism, Competency Based Language Teaching and Methodological Improvements for Professional Development. She is the founder and former President of HELTA TESOL in Honduras, Former President of the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) TESOL Group and former Member of TESOL International Association Board of Directors. She has held multiple Leadership roles within TESOL and other language organizations. She is Past Chair for the TEIS and Co-Chair for the Dual Language Bilingual Education Committee for NAELPA
Chair
Khanh-Duc Kuttig, winner of the TESOL/NGL Teacher of the Year award in 2021, is an EFL instructor at the University of Siegen in Germany and has an MA in TESOL. She teaches mainly pre-service teachers and is also a doctoral student at the Heidelberg University of Education, where her research focuses on the language competences of language teachers. Khanh-Duc has been on the Professional Development Professional Council and is also an active member of IATEFL. As TEIS Chair, she would like to focus on addressing some of the core questions of our profession: How do we become teacher educators? What skills and knowledge do we need?
Chair-Elect
Bridget R. Schvarcz, PhD, is an associate professor of TESOL, the head of the Unit of English as a Foreign Language at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a lecturer in the MA TESOL program at Tel Aviv University. She has been a teacher educator for the Israeli Ministry of Education, Department of Professional Development of Teaching Staff since 2011. Bridget is past chair of ETAI (2020–23). Her research interests include language in areas of intractable conflict, linguistic landscape and the integration of advocacy and social justice in the language classroom.
Chair Elect-elect
Amber Warren is an Associate Professor of the Practice in Multilingual Education at Vanderbilt University. She has taught English in Thailand, South Korea, and Tennessee. In her research, she is interested in teacher agency and sensemaking, especially related to policy, curriculum, and pedagogy. Recently, her work has focused on how educators learn to create conditions for multilingual possibility through relationship-centered, contextually responsive practice. Amber has held several leadership roles in TESOL, and currently serves as Classroom Explorations editor for TESOL Journal. As TEIS chair-elect-elect, she looks forward to building a collaborative community and fostering co-mentoring across TEIS membership globally.
Community Manager
Zeno Benjamin is an English language educator from Tanzania who has taught for more than ten years, with experience in teacher training and educational leadership. He served as a volunteer Regional English Language Coordinator, supporting professional collaboration among educators. Zeno is an OER material writer for the Africa ELTA website, a teacher trainer, and a champion of AI for ELT and educational technology integration in ESL classrooms. His action research focuses on gender representation in English language textbooks. He also provided digital leadership support within the OPEN Community of Practice platform in 2025. As TEIS Community Manager, he hopes to strengthen member engagement, collaboration, and professional learning opportunities within the TEIS community.
Newsletter Editor
Melissa Mendelson is a Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Utah as well as the Director of Faculty and Curriculum for Utah Global. Melissa has been teaching in ESL spaces for 20 years and loves her work. She’s taught all levels of ESL, from very beginning to advanced, in 4 states, Minnesota, Oregon, Texas, and Utah, and 2 countries, China and Bosnia-Herzegovina. In recent years, Melissa has shifted her focus to teacher training in several environments including the University of Utah’s TESOL Certificate, Utah Global, and Weber State University’s UElevate program. As Co-Editor of the TEIS Newsletter, Melissa looks forward to a productive year of sharing relevant and useful materials to our community and learning from its members about the topics they see as critical to teacher training.
Newsletter Editor
Dr. Rebecca Turk is the Director of the Center for Bilingual and Multicultural Education at Montana State University. She leads and teaches within the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education Certificate and ESL Endorsement pathway in the Educator Preparation Program. Her work focuses on ESL teacher preparation, district and state compliance, multilingual learner support, and fostering student sense of belonging.Beyond ESL education, her work centers the unique needs, strengths, and contributions of Indigenous languages and perspectives in educational spaces, including efforts related to Indigenous language restoration and revitalization in Montana communities. Dr. Turk looks forward to contributing to the TEIS Newsletter editorial team as Co-Editor and supporting continued dialogue and collaboration within the field.