Letter from the Chair-Elect

Morag Burke, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Dear ITA Professional Community Members,

I am looking forward to seeing many of you in Long Beach next month for the TESOL Convention from March 18-12, 2025. For many of us, this is our opportunity to connect in person with our colleagues from our community whom we interact with virtually throughout the year. If you are not going to attend TESOL, we will still have many chances to interact through the webinars and other community events that are scheduled regularly by our dedicated Community Events Organizers, Mike O’Niell and Eva Miszoglad.

I am excited to be moderating the Academic Session this year titled: “Essential Online Tools for ITA Pronunciation Instruction”, with a lineup of 3 excellent presentations by our panelists, Justin Sewell, Kyle Swanson, and Wendy McBride. We are looking forward to introducing the audience to current and longitudinal data, plus strategies for facilitating student learning with a focus on online tools and strategies outside of classroom contact hours. Please join us on Thursday, 20 March, 3:00 PM-4:15 PM (PST) in Grand Ballroom A at the Long Beach Convention Center.

The ITA-IS dinner is another opportunity for in-person community connection which comes around once a year. I hope you will join us on Thursday, 20 March, from 5:30 - 7:30pm (rsvp required). Many thanks to our 2023-2024 Member-at-large, Laurie Frazier, for organizing this event. If you’re interested in joining us, but you haven’t had a chance to confirm, please get in touch with Laurie at [email protected].

For many of us, a significant motivation for attending TESOL is the opportunity to work together within our professional community and learn from each other in person for several days during the convention. In past years, we have held other in-person events that served ITA professionals (i.e., The ITA Symposium), and there is an on-going conversation about leveraging other events as opportunities for the ITA professional community to gather. Please reach out to me or Sarah Emory ([email protected]) if you are interested in joining this conversation.

As I take over the role of ITA-IS Chair, I would like to sincerely thank Sarah Emory for all her hard work over the last year as our Chair, and for tirelessly advocating on behalf of our professional community. We are lucky to have had her in this leadership position. I would also like to say a sincere “thank you” to the entire ITA-IS Steering Committee for working all year on behalf of our community.

I’m looking forward to an interesting year ahead for all of us!

Warmly,

Mo Burke

As the Director of International Instructor Training & ESOL Specialist at Georgia Tech, Dr. Burke develops, implements, and facilitates courses for teacher training, cross-cultural adaptation, and language support with ITAs, international post-doctorates, and international faculty. In addition, she is responsible for a variety of student success programming for domestic and international graduate students. She is actively involved in assessment of faculty teaching effectiveness.