Fatma El-Turky

Mrs. El-Turky has been teaching Arabic language for the past 20 years in Michigan and Pennsylvania including the University of Detroit, Moravian College, Muhlenberg College and Lehigh University. She is an approved interpreter at the Lehigh Valley Court in Pennsylvania and for the USA Air Force. Fatma El-Turky lectures locally on the cultural, political, and religious aspects of Middle East and has served as a media commentator for local newspapers and television stations. She holds a Master’s degree in Near Eastern Studies from Wayne State University and a B.A in Social Science from the University of Alexandria, Egypt.

Marwa El-Turky

Ms. El-Turky received a Bachelor’s of Arts from Temple University and Masters of Science from the London School of Economics. She studied Arabic to the advanced level and has studied both Modern Standard Arabic and the Egyptian Colloquial Dialect extensively in Egypt in both Cairo and Alexandria. She has taught and tutored all levels of Arabic in both Pennsylvania and Egypt. Ms. El-Turky resides in Allentown, PA.

Joy Betz

Prior to living in the United States, Ms. Betz earned her B.A. in English Language and Literature from Tianjin Normal University in China. She taught Chinese as well as translated at the Tianjin University of Finance and Economics in Tianjin, China. She was awarded an M.A. degree in TESOL form Oklahoma City University. She has taught various levels of Chinese classes for the Tulsa Public Schools and is a lead Chinese instructor at Tulsa Community College.

Wan-Tzu (Katrina) Chen

Ms. Chen received her B.A. in English and a Master of Education in Teaching and Learning from Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania. She has taught Mandarin Chinese to students within the Jersey Shore homeschool program and English in Taiwan. She has had experience working students with learning disabilities and behavior disorders.

Yan Chen-McBride

Yan Chen-McBride earned her M.A. in Educational Studies from the University of York in England. She was awarded her B.A. in English & Education from Suzhou Railway Teachers’ College. In China, she was an English Lecturer at Ningbo University and an English teacher at Guangzhou #1 High School. In addition, Yan Chen-McBride is Vice-President of International Partnerships in Education.

Limei Shan

Ms. Shan earned her B.A. in Russian from Northeast Normal University in ChangChung, China, and her M.A. in Education Administration from East China Normal University in Shanghai. While in China, she taught Chinese at the Shenzhen New World Training Center and English at Donghua Middle School in Shenzhen. She was a Chinese teacher at Ross Global Academy Charter School in New York City. She currently is a Professor of Practice of Chinese at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Felicia Weng

Aside from holding a psychology degree from the University of Washington, a TCSOL teaching certificate, and TBC (Teaching Business Chinese) and TCYL (Teaching Chinese to Young Learners) certificates, Ms. Weng has trained at Beijing Language and Culture University on methods and skills of teaching Chinese. She is has lived in China, Taiwan, the US and Canada and has traveled to Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia and Germany.

Rui Wu

After completing her BA in English from Sichuan International Studies University, Rui Wu received her Master of Education in Foreign Langauge Education as well as the Advanced Certificate in Asian Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. Ms. Wu has taught a variety of courses at the University of Pittsburgh and Allegheny College; including Mandarin across all levels, Chinese Films, as well as Independent Study.

Reiko Aya

Ms. Aya has been teaching different grade and language levels for over ten years. She was a classroom teacher at a Japanese immersion school in Oregon and recently teaches Japanese as a foreign language through near native levels at an international school in Tokyo. She received her Master of Education and teaching Japanese as a foreign language program from Portland State University.

Aya-sensei lives in Japan and likes to make stained glass panels at her spare time.

Ellen Bearn

Mrs. Bearn earned her B.A. in Art History from Williams College in Williamstown Massachusetts, and her M.A. in Japanese Pedagogy from Columbia University in New York. She taught Japanese as an adjunct at both Lafayette College and Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. We welcome her back from teaching Japanese at Bogazici University in Instanbul, Turkey.

Lie Narukawa Gitzel

Mrs. Gitzel studied Japanese Language and Culture at both Sao Paulo University in Brazil and Waseda University in Japan. She earned her Educational degree at Ursinus College in Pennsylvania and took a course in Elementary Japanese Pedagogy at Columbia University in New York. She has taught Japanese in Downingtown and Lower Merion, Pennsylvania.

Mari Hayashi

Mari Hayashi has been teaching at Lehigh University since September 1997. She has over 15 years of Japanese language teaching experience at the college level and has been a lecturer in Japanese at Haverford College, Villanova University, and the University of Pennsylvania. She began her teaching career at the University of Pittsburgh, where she earned an M.A. in Linguistics. Before coming to America, she earned a B.A. from Ritsumaikan University, Kyoto, Japan and worked for 6 years at the Gifu Prefecture Board of Education.

Iryna Kozlova

Iryna Kozlova received her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from Georgia State University and M.A. in Teaching International Languages from California State University, Chico. Dr. Kozlova has taught a variety of courses in Applied Linguistics, ESL, and Russian in the United States and internationally. She taught regular Russian courses in California State University, Chico and fully online Russian courses, three of which she co-authored, in Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta). Currently, Dr. Kozlova teaches Russian at Carleton University and courses in Applied Linguistics at Algonquin College, Ottawa, Canada.

Emily Saunders
Ms. Saunders received a B.A. in Russian Language and Literature from Bryn Mawr College and an M.A. in Slavic Linguistics from the University of Washington. She also has training in TESOL and earned an initial certificate from the School for TESOL in Seattle, WA. She has lived and worked in Russia extensively beginning in Leningrad in 1991 and most recently in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in 2005. She taught Beginning Russian for several years at Bellevue Community College and summer intensive Russian at the University of Washington. In addition to her work through blendedschools.net she also conducts private tutorials in her hometown of Olympia, WA.

Nicole Burtch

Nicole Burtch earned dual certification in Spanish and English education from the University of Pittsburgh and Slippery Rock University in Pennsylvania. She has also studied Spanish Language and Culture at La Fundación Ortega y Gasset in Toledo, Spain and in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. She has over 8 years of High School

Spanish teaching experience as well as teaching English abroad at La Universidad de los Andes in Mérida, Venezuela. Nicole lives in Pittsburgh with her husband and her two sons.