faculty
Luca Giupponi, Lead Instructor and Program Coordinator
Luca Giupponi (M.A., Iowa State University) is the Technology Director for the Mellon-funded LCTL Partnership at the Center for Language Teaching Advancement, as well as the Educational Technology Coordinator at the English Language Center at Michigan State University. He is a doctoral student in the Instructional Systems Technology program at Indiana University, and he is interested in investigating issues of online faculty development and quality in online instruction. He is also a Quality Matters (QM) Certified Peer Reviewer.
Austin Kaufmann, Lead Instructor
Before joining English Language Center faculty in 2011, Austin Kaufmann had taught in a public high school, served with the US Peace Corps in Kyrgyzstan, and trained teachers in South Korea. Since 2015, Austin has worked as an Educational Technology Specialist at the ELC, and from 2015 to 2019 he served on the Michigan TESOL Board as the SIG leader for Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL). He has designed and taught several online English and TESOL teacher training courses. Online language teacher trainer by day, Austin Kaufmann moonlights as guitarist and singer in a jazzy indie-folk band, The Dangling Participles.
Adam Gacs, Instructor
Adam Gacs is an Instructor of German and a Technology Specialist at Michigan State University. He has developed and taught first-and second-year blended and online language courses; he also regularly coordinates and trains new online instructors and teaching assistants. His interests include instructional technology support, L2 conversation exchanges and integrating spoken language corpora for authentic material development. He is also a Quality Matters (QM) Certified Peer Reviewer.
Shannon Quinn, Instructor
Shannon Quinn is an Assistant Professor of Russian and Technology Specialist. She received her Ph.D in Slavic languages and literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her ongoing teaching and research interests include instructional technology in language teaching, blended learning, and curricular design, and she completed a second Master’s degree in instructional design in 2015. She is the webinar coordinator for the International Association for Language Learning Technology and the editor-in-chief of the FLTMAG.
Carol Wilson-Duffy, Instructor
Carol Wilson-Duffy has a B.A. in Linguistics and an M.A. in TESOL from Michigan State University. Carol more than 20 years of educational technology training experience in the U.S. and Korea, including ESL CALL teaching methods by distance to remote areas in Micronesia. She was the web designer/editor for the journal Language Learning & Technology for 16 years, materials developer for the Center for Language Education And Research (CLEAR), Past President of Michigan’s Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages organization (MITESOL), and has served on TESOL’s Technology Advisory Board.
Amy Kroesche, Instructor
Amy Kroesche is a full-time faculty member at the English Language Center. With an MA in TESOL from MSU, Amy has more than twenty years of teaching experience. One primary area of interest is in teacher training with a focus on reflective teaching. Another is in teaching reading, which includes developing reading fluency and strategic reading as well as using poetry and literature to teach ESL. She has experience in developing and teaching several online classes, including classes for the Master’s in Foreign Language Teaching program, MA TESOL program, and the Virtual Fulbright English for Graduate Studies Program.
Kim Benedicto, Instructor
Kim Benedicto serves on the faculty of the English Language Center at MSU, where she has taught English as a Second Language since 2008. She has developed online courses for the Online Academic English Program and the Fulbright English for Graduate Studies Program. She received her bachelor’s degree in literature from University of the Philippines and her master’s degree in foreign and second language education from the Ohio State University. Her professional interests include digital tools for language learning, online course development, and instructional technology.
John-Paul Chalykoff, Instructor
John-Paul Chalykoff is a graduate of Algoma University / Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig in Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, where he completed a Bachelor of Arts in Anishinaabemowin. He went on to complete a Bachelor of Education from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, with qualifications to teach Native Studies and History. He completed additional qualifications to teach Ojibwe and French as Second Languages. In addition to being an Ontario Certified Teacher in Good Standing through the Ontario College of Teachers, he holds a Master of Education from Lakehead University.
Mark Albee, Program Contributor
Mark is the MSU English Language Center’s External Programs Coordinator, as well as an ELC student advisor and instructor. He has coordinated teacher training programs for pre-service and in-service teachers from Panama, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and China. In addition, he has coordinated and taught online courses and seminars for the Fulbright English for Graduate Studies Program (EGSP) and Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) program.
Emily Heidrich Uebel, Program Contributor
Emily Heidrich Uebel (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin‐Madison) is an Academic Specialist at the Center for Language Teaching Advancement at Michigan State University. She serves as the project manager for the LCTL and Indigenous Languages Partnership, an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant project focused on improving instruction in less commonly taught languages. Her work on topics including language proficiency and technology has been published in several journals and edited volumes. Her research interests include proficiency in foreign languages, educational technology and online instruction, curriculum design, and education abroad topics.
