SELS Faculty

 See our amazing faculty members here:

Zuleica Acker

Zuleica Acker gained her first teaching credential in London in 1986. After teaching in Spain, Ecuador and Oxford, she came to San Francisco and became a teacher trainer for the Cambridge CELTA. Working for various language schools, she taught both teachers and ESL students for 12 years....Read more about Zuleica Acker

Michelle Baptiste

Michelle Baptiste, an applied linguist, has been teaching writing at UC Berkeley College Writing Programs since 2002. She specializes in teaching culturally, racially, and linguistically diverse classes of developing writers. Her passion is supporting students to cultivate their own unique voice...Read more about Michelle Baptiste

Matthew Barclay

With a Master’s degree in English: TESL/TEFL from Central Washington University, Matthew Barclay brings a strong background in Linguistics to his teaching. Matt began his career as an ESL instructor at Mordovian State University in Saransk, Russia as a Peace Corps volunteer. Later, as a...Read more about Matthew Barclay

Cathy Beck

Cathy is the Legal English coordinator and instructor for international LL.M. students at the IU Robert McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis, Indiana. She created the Legal English program in 2003 and has presented on various aspects of Legal English pedagogy at numerous conferences, most...Read more about Cathy Beck

Elizabeth Boner

Liz Boner earned her PhD at UC Berkeley in Education in the Language, Literacy, Society, and Culture program. Her sociolinguistic research explored social entrepreneurship programs and intercultural communication between American and Tanzanian Development practitioners in rural Tanzania...Read more about Elizabeth Boner

Nicole Brun-Mercer

Nicole Brun-Mercer received her PhD in Applied Linguistics at Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff. She has taught English in the United States, Switzerland, France, Russia, and Guinea. Her research interests include corpus linguistics, pedagogical grammar and vocabulary, reading, and...Read more about Nicole Brun-Mercer

Jennifer Burton

Jennifer Burton teaches classes in conflict resolution, new media, American culture, and the linguistic landscape. She has a master’s degree in linguistics from Université Paul Valéry in Montpellier, France. She has worked as a teacher, writer, editor, translator, and researcher on four...Read more about Jennifer Burton

Carolyn Carr

Carolyn Carr initially began teaching ESL in Mainland China and then Japan before relocating to the San Francisco Bay to work with an immigrant and refugee population at JVS and AnewAmerica, two non-profit organizations. She has maintained her interest and passion in the field of education...Read more about Carolyn Carr

Janet Christensen

Janet is an academic editor primarily for researchers in the social sciences, and an academic mentor at Newport Academy, a residential mental health facility for adolescents. After receiving her MA in TESOL from San Francisco State University, Janet taught ESL and English Composition at several...Read more about Janet Christensen

Michael Clark

Michael Clark has taught at UC Berkeley since 1991, for College Writing Programs and for the Language Proficiency Program in the Graduate Division. He has also taught university courses in Malaysia and Japan and was a volunteer teacher in the U.S. Peace Corps, serving in Central Africa....Read more about Michael Clark

Chisako Cole

Chisako teaches Reading & Composition courses (R1A and R4B) and has also taught in the Summer English Language Studies program and in the Summer Bridge Program, with a particular focus on multilingual student writers. Chisako holds an M.A. from Columbia University, and a B.A. from Boston...Read more about Chisako Cole

Andreea Corona

Andreea Corona currently serves as a Continuing Lecturer in the Linguistics Department in the English for Multilingual Students (EMS) Program at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she teaches multiple levels of academic reading and writing courses for international...Read more about Andreea Corona

Scott Crisp

Scot Crisp has taught English in Paris, Prague and the Bay Area. He has also worked as a teacher trainer and faculty developer for many years. Scot has an MA in TESOL and a BA in Acting. Combining principles and approaches from both acting and communitive teaching, Scot fosters a highly...Read more about Scott Crisp

Teri Crisp

Teri Crisp has an M.A. in international studies from the University of Washington and did Ph.D. coursework in education at UC Berkeley, where she received an Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award in the College Writing Programs. Certified in Teaching English to Speakers of Other...Read more about Teri Crisp

Robert Downey

Robert Downey teaches Legal Research and Writing to JD students at Indiana University Maurer School of Law. Professor Downey joined the faculty at Maurer after working as an associate attorney at a large law firm in Chicago. Directly after graduating law school, he clerked for Judge...Read more about Robert Downey

Shelley Dykstra

Shelley Dykstra is originally from the Bay Area, so she’s happy to be serving her multilingual students so close to home. She holds an M.A. and B.A. in linguistics, from the University of Barcelona and University of California San Diego, respectively. A multilingual student herself,...Read more about Shelley Dykstra

Jeff Ellenbird

Jeff’s passion for teaching comes out of community organizing and community-based teaching in San Francisco when he was known as Jeff McClelland. He then got his Masters in TESOL at San Francisco State University and later served as a Fulbright Fellow in Chile developing and piloting an ESL...Read more about Jeff Ellenbird

David Frasca

David Frasca received his M.A. TESL from CUNY Hunter College in New York and has been teaching ESL at various university centers since 1985 [City University of New York, La Guardia, University of New Mexico, Los Alamos, Santa Fe Community College, Hudson County Community College, City...Read more about David Frasca

Nancy Hunt

Nancy Hunt taught at the UC Berkeley Extension’s English Language Program, Laney College, Holy Names University, and in the College Writing Program’s Summer English Language Studies program at UC Berkeley. Her path to Berkeley and English as a Second Language teaching has included high school in...Read more about Nancy Hunt

Jennifer Johnson

Jennifer Johnson teaches in the Program in Writing and Rhetoric and in the Leland Scholars Program at Stanford University. She received a B.A. in Art History with Honors from the University of Maryland at College Park and a M.A. and PhD in Education (Language, Literacy and Culture)...Read more about Jennifer Johnson

Mona Khabiri

Mona Khabiri has a PhD in TESL/TEFL from Azad University, Iran. She teaches college reading and writing, advanced reading and composition, and grammar for reading and writing at Las Positas College and Diablo Valley College. Before moving to California in 2017, she was an associate...Read more about Mona Khabiri

Candace Khanna

Candace Khanna graduated with a B.A. in English from UC Berkeley, worked in a variety of non-teaching jobs that included business writing and editing, and then returned to college at San Francisco State University, graduating with a M.A. in TESOL and a Certificate in Teaching Composition....Read more about Candace Khanna

Rachel Kotok

Rachel Kotok has taught English language, literature, and literacy for the past sixteen years. She earned an M.A. in TESOL and ESL Public School K-12 Licensure at the School for International Training, and a B.A. in World Religion from Smith College. She currently teaches Business English...Read more about Rachel Kotok

Amy Joy Lashmet

Amy Joy graduated from UC Santa Barbara with a degree in Spanish Linguistics and a minor in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). She then earned her master's degree in TESOL from Columbia University in New York City. While in New York, she...Read more about Amy Joy Lashmet