Karin Bates

Karin has over 30 years of experience teaching English to speakers of other languages of all ages and in multiple settings. Karin joined Intercambio Uniting Communities in January 2022 after most recently working for five years at a non-profit teaching English and adult basic education to immigrants and refugees.

As the TESOL Specialist, Karin is responsible for the training and ongoing development of teachers in The Intercambio Way, both locally and nationally, along with supporting the development of curriculum and materials. Karin received her M.A. in Curriculum and Instruction for Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) in 1995 from the University of Colorado at Denver. Additionally, Karin received her Adult Basic Education Authorization (ABEA) from the Colorado Department of Education in 2019.

Karin has experienced living overseas in the U.K., the People’s Republic of China, and Paris, France. She enjoys her monthly book club, binge watching series, and spending time with her two young adult children.

About Intercambio: Intercambio Uniting Communities is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit headquartered in Boulder, Colorado. Over the past 23 years, the organization has grown from a few volunteers visiting adult English language learners in their homes to thousands of participants throughout the country using their curriculum released in 2019: Confidence and Connections. Learn more about Intercambio here.

Liz Bigler

Liz Bigler specializes in helping advanced level Japanese speakers of English be understood “the first time.” Over her career, she has worked with many other types of learners. Based in Atlanta, her business became worldwide when she was forced online in the spring of 2020. Find out more about what she offers at biglerenglishcoaching.com.

Alex Birmingham

Alex has always had a genuine passion for both teaching and foreign languages. When these two interests come together, they create a vibrant language instructor with over 10 years of experience, leading Alex to become a teacher trainer. He has a knack for motivating and inspiring others to chase their dreams while making the most of their time and energy. As a lifelong learner, Alex believes that education is a continuous journey, and he’s dedicated to constantly improving his own skills along the way. You can find him on Instagram @englishville.online.

Derek Callan

Derek started working as an ESL teacher in 2004. Originally from Ireland, he has been living and working in Austria for over 20 years. Since the start of his career, he has focused on Business English and has completed over 10,000 hours of in-company teaching.

In 2012, after 8 years working as a freelancer for different language schools, he set up his first website and went out on his own. After cutting out the “middle man”, Derek was able to double his income and build a loyal client base.

He started the YouTube channel, English for Professionals, in 2019, and in the second half of 2020, he created and started selling his online course, Small Talk for Professionals.

Rhiannon Carter

Rhiannon has been working in and around the ELT industry since 2012, when she had her first teaching position in a summer school in Belgium. A few jobs in Spain and the UK later, she completed her DELTA in 2018, in which she focussed on creating a course which helped newcomers to the UK integrate as quickly and efficiently as possible. For her, language has always been a tool to get other stuff done - and she gets really frustrated by fusty course books and endless grammar exercises that suck the life and meaning out of English.

She now works as a Mindset Coach, helping language learners and teachers re-frame the role of English in their minds and lives and get them unstuck from the stultifying “right answer / wrong answer” framework with which so many of us have been taught to understand language learning. You can find out more about her work here.

Fergus Fadden

Born in rural Ireland, Fergus Fadden is a language teacher and teacher trainer. In addition to his native Ireland, he has lived and worked in France, Spain, Brazil, South Africa, the US, and Canada (where he now resides).

Since his early childhood family holidays to continental Europe, he has been passionate about language, people and exploring what the world has to offer.

Fergus gained his Cambridge ESOL DELTA in 2009 and has worked as a CELTA teacher trainer since 2011. In addition to running Integrated Skills (including the Integrated Skills YouTube channel), he works as an Instructional designer, creating eLearning for a variety of professions.

Shannon Felt

Shannon Felt is the founder of TEFL Horizons and has been an English language teacher and teacher trainer for over ten years. She holds a Cambridge CELTA and DELTA and is also a certified CELTA trainer.

Through TEFL Horizons, Shannon hosts Expand Your Horizons, an ELT podcast, and offers regular professional development webinars for teachers. She also trains teachers through her Online English Teacher certification course and helps current and prospective online teachers build their own freelance businesses in the Online TEFLpreneur program.

Shannon thoroughly enjoys the location-independence that comes with being a TEFLpreneur, and recently moved to Asheville, NC somewhat spontaneously. When she’s not teaching or training, you can often find her reading on a patio, planning her next travel adventure, or in search of more coffee and chocolate.

Peter J. Fullagar

Peter’s ELT career started in 2001 teaching English in Japan, followed by stints in Russia, Poland and the UK. Having taught for 17 years, which included IELTS examining, he ended his teaching career as head of department in a London college.

Since 2017, he has been a freelance writer and editor of ELT materials and more recently, has become a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) consultant in ELT. Alongside reviewing material and creating guidelines for the big publishers, Peter creates his own materials and has recently branched out into giving training workshops. You can see more on his website, www.peterjfullagar.co.uk.

Shereen Jaff

Shereen is a seasoned English teacher with over 15 years of experience, dedicated to helping clients achieve clear and confident communication skills. In 2019, she launched her Instagram account @anenglishnerd, which has since grown to an impressive 135,000 followers. Leveraging her online presence, Shereen has successfully attracted a steady stream of clients.

Carmen Joseph

Carmen Joseph is a non-native ESL teacher who turned her enthusiasm for languages and cultures into a thriving in-person English teaching business. She passionately helps local immigrant women improve their English, speak with more confidence, and find community through private classes and small group classes, as well as social events. She runs her successful small business from her home in Northern Virginia, and is continually trying to find new ways to help even more women become confident English speakers. Find out more about her business at englishempowers.com.

Olga Kiriushina

Olga is a language learning enthusiast who loves sharing study tips with her fellow English learners. She created her YouTube channel, Fluent English with Lady Giraffe, in 2021, and it now has 14 thousand subscribers and almost half a million views. Olga is especially passionate about reading in foreign languages, dictionaries, and studying vocabulary and grammar.

Rachel Laycook

Rachel's EFL career spans more than a decade and has involved classroom teaching, performing linguistics research, and coaching and training teachers at a multinational Ed-Tech company.

As an adult language-learner herself, Rachel appreciates what's happening in the classroom from the teacher's and learners' perspectives, which heavily informs the work she does with co-founder and friend Jacqueline Sedore at The TEFL Lab, where the two design interactive content and curricula to help teachers of all experience levels to lead their students to success.

Jason Levine

Jason R Levine is an English teacher, trainer, and materials writer from the United States currently living in Paris, France. He has led student workshops and teacher training programs in twenty-two countries around the world based on the songs and videos he creates as Fluency MC.

Jason has published with Oxford University Press, Editions Didier, and Black Cat and works as an English Specialist with the U.S. Department of State. “Stick, Stuck, Stuck,” his music video to practice irregular verbs, has more than 50 million views across social media.

Nika Minchenko

Nika is the founder of the online Ukrainian language school VERBA, a YouTuber, and the author of Ukrainian Readers designed for Ukrainian language learners. She embarked on her online teaching career in 2013, initially teaching the Russian language for 9 years.

However, a significant turning point occurred with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Nika made the conscious decision to cease teaching and speaking Russian entirely, fully transitioning to the Ukrainian language. Nika and her family were compelled to flee from the invasion twice: first in 2014 from Luhansk and then in 2022 from Irpin. Remarkably, the war has served as a catalyst for substantial professional growth.

Just a year and a half after rebranding, Nika's school VERBA achieved greater success than in all previous years. Nika's main mission is to facilitate the dissemination of the Ukrainian language and culture to a global audience, thus ensuring its rightful recognition and place in the world.

Nik Peachey

Nik Peachey is Director of Pedagogy at PeacheyPublications, an independent digital publishing and consultancy company that specialises in the design of digital learning materials, and is the editor of the Edtech & ELT newsletter. He has been involved in Education since 1990 as a teacher, trainer, educational consultant and project manager. He has more than 25 years experience of working specifically with online, remote and blended learning environments.

He has worked all over the world training teachers and developing innovative and creative products. He is a two-time British Council Innovations award winner and has been shortlisted six times. His customers include British Council, Eton College/EtonX, Open University, Google Creative Labs, OUP, CUP, Macmillan and International House.

His more recent projects have included two years as pedagogical manager for a 100% online school delivering language learning remotely to students in Brazil, Head of Content Development for EtonX a 100% online school owned by Eton College and content developer for an English and Interfaith Dialogue course designed for the British Council and Al-Azhar University in Cairo.

His books include:

ChatGPT in the Language Classroom
Team Building Activities for the Remote Classroom
Digital Tools for Teachers
Thinking Critically through Digital Media
Digital Video - A Manual for Language Teachers
Hacking Creativity
Conversation & Listening - A series of lessons for the digital classroom

He also co-edited Creativity in the ELT Classroom and Creativity and the Sustainable Development Goals for the British Council

You can find out more about what he shares on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Jelena Petkov

Jelena Petkov is an English language teacher who specialises in preparing students for Cambridge English Exams. She holds a university degree in English language and literature, and a Cambridge CELTA.

Little did she know that the moment she created her teacher Instagram account, (@CambridgeEnglish.Ellen) 4 years ago would become a significant milestone in her 17-year-long teaching journey. The world suddenly turned into a global village, and people from across the globe started entering her virtual (but very real) classroom. Her online courses, e-books, webinars and newsletter have helped myriads of high-flyers improve their English and pass Cambridge English exams.

Jelena lives in Novi Sad, Serbia, where she runs her Language Centre English with Ellen. Her motto — If it’s not fun, you’re not doing it right — is what she lives by in her classroom, business, and personal life.

Nicola Prentis

Nicola Prentis is a former EFL teacher and author of two award-winning Graded Readers as well as B2+ Speaking, Collins: Skills for Life.

Published books? Yes. Financial security? No. Until 2021, Nicola didn’t have a pension or any way of growing money, only savings sitting idle in a bank account while she worked all hours as a materials writer.

But, after she taught herself all about personal finance, Nicola realised pretty much everyone else in this industry had all the same blocks and lack of knowledge… because no-one teaches us about money. So, with a background in teaching and writing, the next step was obvious: create courses to teach other people what she’d learned about investing and putting money to work. Find out more at www.chilledinvestor.com.

Leo Roux

Leo is a seasoned entrepreneur with a background in language learning and linguistics (his focus at university), communicating and building relationships with clients (over a decade in massage therapy), and teaching (self defense and boxing).

After getting his CELTA in 2022, he realized he had no desire to bury his queer and trans identities in order to fit into the mainstream culture of traditional ELT. Instead, he set out to develop an online community for LGBTQIA+ English learners. He is passionate about providing an affirming learning environment, empowering queer learners to think critically and advocate for themselves in real-life English-language situations, and helping queer people around the world to connect with each other and find community.

Jacqueline Sedore

Jacqueline's career in EFL began with her TEFL certification in Santiago, Chile in 2009. Since then, she has taught countless adult learners of all levels, led TEFL certification courses through Bridge Education Group where she certified over 200 new teachers, and worked as an academic coordinator for a language institute in Chile.

In 2020, she partnered with friend and fellow teacher and linguist, Rachel Laycook, to create The TEFL Lab -- a platform that equips teachers of all experience levels with easy-to-use, pre-planned interactive lesson materials.

Kirsten Smith

Kirsten spent most of her career as a geologist/metallurgist in the mining industry, both in Australia and as an expat in South East Asia. As a senior processing engineer, she was not only responsible for developing innovative design choices for multi-million dollar processes, but in training and developing staff to follow in her footsteps.

As her career progressed, she felt less inspired by the high conflict world of the board room and more satisfied with watching others grow and embrace challenges head on. So when the time came to change course, she knew exactly which direction to go.

She has worked tirelessly in building her own English communication business online through 1-1 online programs, asynchronous learning programs, and online courses. It is her aspiration to empower more non-native English speaking mining industry professionals and to open the doors to the careers and opportunities they dream of. On a more personal level, becoming a TEFLpreneur also supports her own family’s move from Malaysia to Cairo to pursue their dream career and study opportunities.

Karen Taylor

Karen Taylor is founder and director of English Language Training Solutions, home of the Color Vowel Chart, a teaching tool she created in 1999. She holds an MA in TESOL from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey and a BA in English Literature from Georgetown University.

A former Fulbright TEFL Specialist, Karen was Practitioner in Residence at American University for nine years. She received Ed Tech’s 2020 Visionary Leader award for her work as Head of Education and serves on the board at Blue Canoe Learning Inc.

Teacher Little Mary

Maria, known on social media as Teacher Little Mary, has been working in the international education industry for more than 12 years and has held a wide variety of roles in language schools around the globe.

Her experience traveling to 36 countries and working with students of all backgrounds has helped her understand the market deeply, inspiring her to start her YouTube channel and her own business, Just Teach Method, which offers ready-to-teach ESL lessons.

Maria is a CertTESOL-qualified teacher and a mother of three, currently enjoying the benefits of living a digital nomad life thanks to her TEFL entrepreneurship.

Boelo van der Pool

Boelo (pronounced "Bulo") has been active in the language teaching industry since 1994. He's been a school owner, language coach, course developer, teacher trainer, and international researcher. Being dyslexic himself, he has spent the past five years developing dyslexia-friendly language teaching strategies that have already helped over 200 students in Spain and Latin America improve their English skills. He now works to help language schools and teachers worldwide to successfully gain new clients among the 10-15% of the population with a dyslexic brain.

Conference speakers