Leadership Team 2024-2025
Amina Douidi, PhD, ICIS Co-chair (2024-2025). I collaborate with ICIS and TESOL members to carry out ICIS goals. I actively promote and support our community as our leadership team concentrates on ICIS present and future steps and direction. I am a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) and Intercultural Communication independent consultant in ELT. I hold a doctorate from the University of Southampton, UK. My research focuses on intercultural representation, interaction and dialogic pedagogy. At TESOL ICIS, I aspire to get involved with diverse and critical perspectives on Intercultural Communication.
Daniela Silva, PhD, ICIS CoChair (2024-2025). I collaborate with ICIS and TESOL members to carry out ICIS goals. I actively promote and support our community as our leadership team concentrates on ICIS present and future steps and direction. I hold a Ph.D. in Culture, Literacy, and Language from the University of Texas at San Antonio in the USA. I also hold an M.A. in TESOL from the University of Mississippi. In addition, I have taught EFL in Brazil and Portuguese at various U.S. universities. As a multilingual and multicultural educator, my research interests include teaching of culture, cultural and linguistic self-efficacy beliefs, TESOL, teacher education, and multicultural education.
Leslie Bohon, ICIS Past Co-Chair (2023-2024). I actively promote and support our community as our leadership team concentrates on ICIS present and future steps and direction. In my day job, I teach international students and conduct intercultural learning programs at the University of Richmond in Richmond, VA, USA as Director of English Language Learning. My research interests are international student development / experience and intercultural competence.
Josephine Prado, Past ICIS Co-Chair (2023-2024). As Co-Chair with Leslie Bohon, I collaborated with ICIS and TESOL members to carry out ICIS goals. I actively promote and support our community as our leadership team concentrates on ICIS present and future steps and direction. I serve as Assistant Professor for English Learner Education in the School of Education at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. My research interests include intercultural competence in teacher education, and ESOL teachers’ efforts in advocacy.
Nichole McVeigh, Chair-Elect and ICIS Newsletter Editor. As editor my role is to work with ICIS leadership to publish quality newsletters and encourage contributions from teachers and researchers interested in intercultural communication and sharing their ideas and knowledge with the ICIS community. I hold a PhD in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University for Peace (Costa Rica) and a MATL from the University of Southern Mississippi (USA). My areas of interest are intercultural communication, education for sustainable development and the intersections of language and peace education.
Patricia Moon, ICIS Newsletter Editor. For 24-25, I am working with the ICIS leadership to encourage contributions from TESOL membership and my colleagues in the field so they can share their experience and knowledge of intercultural communication. I have a Master’s in Linguistics with a graduate TESL Certificate. I have worked at the English Language Institute at the University of Florida since 1994 where currently I am responsible for scheduling and the curriculum. We have helped students from all over the world learn English! I am particularly interested in intercultural pragmatics.
Barbara Lapornik, TESOL ICIS Past Co-Chair (2022-2023). In this role I actively promote and support our community as our leadership team concentrates on ICIS present and future steps and direction. I am based in Trieste, Italy, and work for the bilingual high school LS F. Prešeren, also covering the role of the international project manager, who organizes and coordinates student and staff exchanges, competitions in civic education and English language certificates. I focus my research on the manifold aspects of intercultural student education in diverse contexts, presenting them at international conferences.
Roxanna Senyshyn is the Past Chair (2019-2020) and Past Co-Chair (2020-2021) of ICIS. In 2022-2023 she served as the TESOL 2023 Convention program coordinator of the Culture and Intercultural Communication Strand. Roxanna is an Associate Professor in Applied Linguistics and Communication Arts and Sciences at Abington College, Pennsylvania State University in Abington, PA, USA. Her teaching encompasses TESOL/ESL education, applied linguistics, and intercultural communication courses. Her research focuses on transformative intercultural learning in teacher education, intercultural competence development, English learner and newcomer family engagement, teacher professional development, and second language writing. In her current role in the ICIS she is a historian and she supports the leadership team in accomplishing its strategic goals.
Ramin Yazdanpanah, ICIS Member-at-Large. As an ICIS Member-at-Large, I serve as a liaison between the ICIS and the general membership. I am the Director of Full Circle Language Learning. I also work as a project and applicant reviewer with the U.S. Department of State’s English Language Programs, as a teacher educator with the TESOL International Association, an EFL technical expert with the Learning Systems Institute at Florida State University, as well as an instructional designer and teacher educator with the Institute of Professional Adult Educators.
Melanie van den Hoven, ICIS Member-at-Large. As a new ICIS Member-at Large, I hope to learn how to serve as a liaison between the ICIS and the general membership. I am currently working as a Lead Cross Cultural Communications Specialist at a nuclear power plant in the UAE. Before my current role, I have taught teachers in teacher training programs in Seoul and Abu Dhabi. I hold a Ph.D. in Intercultural Education from Durham University, U.K.. My research interests concern how people use the languages they know, with whom and under what conditions. Some topics include COVID-19 linguistics landscapes in the UAE and France, interculturality and English language teaching in Korean, Saudi and Emirati contexts, and English-medium policies and translanguaging practices in the UAE. My articles have appeared in journals such as World Englishes and Multilingua as well as many edited volumes.
Jennifer Lacroix, ICIS Past Chair (2021-2022). I am a pedagogy-focused applied linguist who is interested in the intersection of teaching and research. I taught at Boston University in Boston, MA, USA from 2009-2021 and now serve in a restorative social justice model in a public high school for Newcomers in Chelsea, MA, USA. I enjoy collaborating with the ICIS and the greater TESOL community to create professional development programs.
Andrea Lypka is the Past TESOL ICIS Co-Chair and the President of the Sunshine State TESOL. As the E-Learning Program Manager for the Pinellas Education Foundation in Largo, Florida she oversees digital equity and scholarship projects. She holds a doctorate in Second Language Acquisition. Her research focuses on intercultural communication, language learner identity, digital equity, and digital storytelling.
Susan Calix, ICIS Member-at-Large. As a new Member-at-Large, I have enjoyed getting to know the leadership and members of ICIS. Co-planning the October “Lightning Talk” on Translanguaging and Intercultural Communication gave me great insights into the ICIS community. I hold a double Bachelor's degree in International Studies and Spanish from American University. My Master of Education from Marymount University is in TESOL. I have over twenty years of experience teaching English in public elementary and secondary schools. Currently, I teach “Business English” virtually with Tunisian undergraduate students through the Department of State’s Virtual Educator Program.
Tatang Banda Aka Prince, ICIS Member-at-Large. As a new ICIS Member-at Large, I hope to learn how to serve as a liaison between the ICIS and the general membership. I am available to share my knowledge on intercultural communication from my African perspective to ensure a balanced narrative. I am currently working on my PhD research on popular culture in the Democratic Republic of Congo with a published film and two published articles to my credit. I am an English Language and literature in English teacher with passion in cultural studies and how culture is paramount in environmental sustainability. I hold a Master of Arts degree in literature in English where I showed the kinesthetic and aesthetic functions of orature to current society. I am a member of many national and international Language associations and of the examination boards of Cameroon. My articles have appeared in journals such as the International Journal of Linguistics of the Macrothink Institute and English Language, Literature and Cultural journal of the science publishing group.