Project Team

ESL Consultants

MaryAnn Florez is the Executive Director of D.C. LEARNS, the Washington area’s literacy coalition, where she has done extensive professional development with adult ESL and literacy teachers. Previously she was the lead ESL specialist at the Arlington Educational and Employment Program (REEP), the adult ESOL specialist with Fairfax County Public Schools, and the assistant director of the National Center for ESL Literacy Education. She holds a master’s degree in adult education from George Mason University. MaryAnn authored the instructional materials for the literacy level of the Lifeprints adult ESL series (New Readers Press). During 2007, she was chair of TESOL’s Adult Education Interest Section.

Betsy Parrish is professor and coordinator of the Adult ESL and TEFL Certificate Programs in the School of Education at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota. She established the TEFL Program in 1991 and the Adult Certificate Program in 1995. She is the author of the widely used textbook Teaching Adult ESL (McGraw Hill 2004), and the author of Four Point: Listening and Speaking Advanced (University of Michigan Press, 2009), an ESL text for academic listening and speaking. In addition to her work in the U.S. in adult ESL, she has worked as an ESL/EFL teacher, teacher educator, and consultant in France, South Asia, and Russia. Betsy is one of the primary providers of professional development workshops in adult ESL and community college programs in the Twin Cities area. She is the co-chair of the MinneTESOL Adult Interest Section and currently represents Adult ESL on the TESOL Nominating Committee.

Project Director

Barbara Allaire is the director of the New American Horizons Foundation. She has a background in adult ESL with a TEFL certificate from Hamline University. Prior to her work with the Foundation, she was an editor and author of educational materials for adolescents at Saint Mary’s Press, Winona, Minnesota, and a training specialist at hospitals in Philadelphia. She has a master’s degree in Sociology from Temple University.

Video Producer

Federico Muchnik is a writer/director whose work has been shown at the Sundance, New York and Toronto film festivals. As producer of Destinos, a PBS/WGBH-TV series for learning Spanish, Federico traveled throughout Europe and South America filming this acclaimed series. He also produced the videos for Thomson/Heinle’s ESL series, World Link (2005). Among his documentary films are Touching History: Harvard Square, The Bank and The Tasty Diner (2005) and One Brick At A Time: Building People At An Inner City Youth Center (2007). Federico is the director of the Digital Filmmaking Program at the Center for Digital Imaging Arts of Boston University. He earned a BFA in Film and Television from the Tisch School of the Arts, NYU, and speaks four languages. Visit www.federicomuchnik.com.