ESP Project Leader Profile: Elena Ellingburg

Kevin Knight, Kanda University of International Studies, Chiba, Japan

Hello, ESPers worldwide!

The 65th ESP Project Leader Profile features Elena Ellingburg, who is Curriculum Coordinator at the Aviation English Department of the College of Aviation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide. She is a Steering Committee Member for the TESOL CALL-IS Board and is the CLIL Strand Proposal Co-Coordinator (with Jennifer Roberts) for TESOL 2026. (Jennifer has served as ESPIS Chair twice and has also been a featured leader in the ESP Project Leader Profiles.) Jennifer and Elena are colleagues at ERAU. Please see Elena’s bio below.

Elena Ellingburg is Curriculum Coordinator for the Aviation English Department of the College of Aviation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide. She holds a Master of Arts (M.A.) in Applied Linguistics from Georgia State University, a Graduate Certificate in Learning, Design, and Technology from University of North Carolina, a CELTA Certificate, and a Bachelor of Arts (B.A) in Linguistics and Intercultural Communication from Amur State University, Russia. She is an experienced instructor and a growing instructional designer with many years of online and in-person teaching experience to groups of multicultural learners. Her passion for innovation is driven by her deep care for learner success and knowledge of learning theories and approaches. She enjoys design and implementation of learning experiences and is committed to continuously enhancing her skills. Elena has presented on a variety of topics at TESOL Conventions 2023, 2024, 2025.

In her responses to the interview prompts, Elena defines leadership in terms of self-awareness and team collaboration. In her narrative, she explains how she meets the challenge of communicating to “find the right balance of compromise between best practices, feasible solutions, and learners’ needs.” 

Elena Ellingburg, Grad. Cert., MA., MEd
Curriculum Coordinator, College of Aviation, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

Define Leadership in Your Own Words

“Good leaders know who they are—their strengths, weaknesses, passions, talents, and values. And, developing leaders always starts with self-awareness” (Ellis, 2024). This quote expresses well one of the main tenets of authentic leadership. Authentic leadership is rooted in self-awareness, transparency, and genuine relationships. Self-aware and authentic leaders take time to explore their weaknesses, strengths, values, and impact while presenting their true selves openly to others. Such transparency and vulnerability not only create trust but also improve engagement and performance. Knowing yourself well also means you can build teams with members who can compensate for your weaknesses. There is no one leader who is perfectly equipped and suited for the job. We all need others to smooth our rough edges, pick up our slack, and challenge us when we are making poor decisions. Good leadership builds trusting teams in which the members “admit weaknesses and mistakes, take risks in offering feedback and assistance, and focus time and energy on important issues, not politics” (Lencioni, 2002).

Tell Me an ESP Project Success Story. Focus on Your Communication as a Leader in the Project. How Did You Communicate with Stakeholders to Make That Project Successful?

My department of Aviation English at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University delivers online Aviation English courses using Canvas. In the past, the Instructional Design Department of the university built our courses. They created assets and media and moved them all into Canvas. However, because our courses were different from other traditional courses and because we needed to be more dynamic and flexible in our design and implementation processes, we moved from relying completely on the IDD department to collaborating with them while doing some of the IDD work ourselves. In this process, I became the main point of contact between my department and the IDD department while also working on instructional design tasks.

I tried to approach my collaboration and communication with the instructional designer who was assigned to our project with transparency about gaps in my own knowledge and skill set. Even though I had taken courses in Learning, Design, and Technology and had had experience with Canvas and other education apps, I knew that there was so much more I did not know or couldn’t do well enough. I asked many questions and clarified often to ensure I was not making decisions under assumptions. Sometimes it seemed like I needed to ask about the obvious which felt uncomfortable, and I would try to find answers myself, only needing to send another email or text on Teams later. Leading this project meant vulnerability in communication and a commitment to constant learning.

Another important aspect of working with the IDD department has been finding the right balance of compromise between best practices, feasible solutions, and learners’ needs. As a department, we understand our learners and their needs best, we have the training in language learning and teaching, and we know what instructional approaches serve our audience most effectively. It has been important to advocate for what we know to be effective while at the same time showing respect for the expertise and decisions of our colleagues. For example, the best practice for accessibility of online learning is to provide captions for videos or scripts of audio files. In our courses, we have radiotelephony activities. Radiotelephony is the radio talk between pilots and air traffic controllers, full of standard phraseology and other operational jargon that our students absolutely have to be able to understand. For these listening exercises, we wanted our learners to only listen without any visual, text-based aids, which went against accessibility requirements. As a result, we had to have discussions and negotiate with the instructional designer about this concern. This is a small example, but it shows how mutual respect and open communication about contradicting priorities can be required for fruitful collaboration.

Finally, a small yet sometimes herculean task that can make a collaboration experience successful is effective documentation. Famously, Brene Brown stated that “Clarity is kind.” Clear documentation of brainstorming and decisions is kind. It is not easy to build systems, processes, and procedures for clear documentation, but it is worth the effort, and I am just now starting to learn how to do it well.

Elena’s description of advocating for the creation of specific learning experiences made me stop and think. How are pilots and air traffic controllers able to understand each other? What communication challenges do they have? When I asked these questions to ChatGPT (free version, 10.16.2025, https://chatgpt.com/), the response was summarized as:

Understanding is achieved through:

• Standardized aviation English
• Rigorous language proficiency requirements
• Structured radio procedures
• Mutual readback-confirmation habits

Challenges include:

• Language accents
• Radio interference
• High workload
• Use of non-standard speech
• Stressful or emergency conditions

These issues are mitigated but not eliminated, which is why communication remains a top priority in aviation safety.

In order to check the accuracy of the above, I should be talking to and learning from Elena! Do you have any questions or comments for Elena? Please feel free to contact her directly.

All the best,

Kevin

PS – The profiles (1 to 55) have been published together in a book English for Specific Purposes Project Leader Profiles: The Leadership Communication of 55 ESP Project Leaders (which can be downloaded for free in the PDF version). The profiles 51 to 64 are accessible in past issues of ESP News. For insights into what inspired me to write the profiles in a certain way, see also Creating Leadership “Ways of Being” in L2 Learners for International Business Careers and Social Good.

References

Brown, B. (2018). Dare to lead: Brave work. Tough conversations. Whole hearts. Random House.

Ellis, L. (2012). Leading with honor: Leadership lessons from the Hanoi Hilton. FreedomStar Media.

Knight, K. (2022). English for specific purposes project leader profiles: The leadership communication of 55 ESP project leaders. Hong Kong: Candlin & Mynard.

Knight, K. (2024). Creating leadership “ways of being” in L2 learners for international business careers and social good. Hong Kong: Candlin & Mynard.

Lencioni, P. (2002). The five dysfunctions of a team: A leadership fable. Jossey-Bass.

Kevin Knight (PhD in linguistics, MBA, MPIA) is Professor in the Department of International Communication of Kanda University of International Studies in Chiba, Japan. His research interests include leadership conceptualization and development, ESP, and professional communication. He is series editor of Leadership in Language Education. (See https://www.candlinandmynard.com/leadership.html.)