HEIS Leadership 2024-2025
Namsook Kim - HEIS Chair
Dr. Namsook Kim is the Chair of the Higher Education Interest Section (HEIS) at the TESOL International Association. She is also a clinical associate professor at the University at Buffalo (UB)’s Graduate School of Education, and holds an assistant director role at the English Language Institute at UB as well. Namsook focuses her instruction on subjects such as equity, diversity, justice, and inclusion, with a particular emphasis currently on academic writing for international college students. Furthermore, she chairs the UB Curriculum (general education) Communication Literacy Committee and manages the English language proficiency assessment and support program for international assistants.
Mary Elizabeth Wilson-Patton - HEIS Associate Chair
Dr. Mary Elizabeth Wilson-Patton is a Professor of English as a Second Language at Nashville State Community College in Nashville, Tennessee. She teaches English for Academic Purposes courses in the ESL program and reading/writing development courses for multilingual community college students. She also teaches undergraduate and graduate Second Language Acquisition and Applied Linguistics courses. Dr. Wilson-Patton has worked in K-12/post-secondary education for over 30 years and given numerous presentations at state, regional, national, and international conferences. She specializes in reading research, policy analysis, and post-secondary program development for multilingual learners. She recently co-edited English Language Learners in the Southeastern United States: Considerations for Practice, Policy, and Advocacy (Lexington Books).
Matthew Allen - HEIS Chair-Elect
Dr. Matthew Allen is the Director of the Purdue Language and Cultural Exchange (PLaCE) at Purdue University, a program that supports international students through English language and intercultural classes and programming. His areas of scholarship include second language reading fluency, academic writing, curriculum development, and program administration. Matthew holds a Ph.D. in English from Purdue University.
Chadia Mansour - HEIS Past Chair
Chadia Mansour holds a Doctor of Education with a Focus on Instructional Design, Teaching and learning Innovation and digital learning (Canada), an MA in Applied Linguistics (USA) and a BA in English for Academic Purposes (Tunisia). Dr. Mansour has over two decades of higher education teaching and leadership in the United States, Canada and Qatar. Dr. Mansour’s research explores the role of instructors in assisting adult learners and their interaction with digital technologies (including AI-Human interactions) for teaching effectiveness and enabling learning.
Khoa Do - HEIS Community Manager
Khoa Do is a lecturer at The National College of Education in Ho Chi Minh City, specializing in teaching English for general purposes, TESOL, and Conversation Analysis. He received the Hornby Trust Scholarship in 2021 and the TESOL Award for International Participation in 2024. Khoa is dedicated to enhancing English language education and supporting teacher communities of practice in Vietnam.
Tatsiana Baltsevich - HEIS Editor
Tatsiana Baltsevich is an adjunct instructor in the English Language Institute at the University at Buffalo, specializing in academic writing. She holds a Master’s in TESOL from the University at Buffalo, with a focus on the assessment of writing. Her academic interests also include language acquisition theory and cultural competence.
Betemariam Baylign Zenebe - HEIS Events ManagerDr. Betemariam Baylign Zenee is an advocate of CLT (Communicative Language Teaching). He has served as the department head of English Language and Literature at Dire Dawa University. He has been the coordinator of the English Language Improvement Center at the same university. He has led various workshops and participated in English improvement programs. He received numerous national and international certificates in TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and is a member and the secretary of the Ethiopian English Language Professionals Association, Dire Chapter. Additionally, he serves as an Events Manager of the Higher Education Interest Section (HEIS) at the TESOL International Association.
Cynthia S Wiseman, Board Liaison, HEIS
Cynthia S. Wiseman, EdD, is currently serving on the TESOL International Board of Directors. She is a long-time member of HEIS and prior to being elected to the BoD, served as HEIS Community Manager. She has been teaching for more than 40 years in higher education and is presently full professor in the Department of Literacy and Linguistics at Borough of Manhattan Community College City University of New York (BMCC CUNY). She has also conducted ELT teacher training in universities abroad, including Xinzhou Teachers Normal University in Shanxi, Xinzhou, and Hebei Normal University, Hebei in China, and as Fulbright Scholar Vietnam 2015 at Pham Van Dong University in Quang Ngai, Central Vietnam. Dr. Wiseman conducted a study on the use of the communicative approach in the teaching of English language in China reported in Trends in Assessment in the Pacific Rim. Dr. Wiseman earned her doctorate in Applied Linguistics from Teachers College, Columbia University with a concentration on evaluation and assessment of second language writing ability.