Marlboro's graduate faculty is comprised of dedicated teachers and seasoned practitioners from a wide range of professions, who bring their real-world experience to bear in the classroom. Faculty members are exceptionally supportive of students, because they see themselves as colleagues invested in a vibrant and productive exchange of ideas to benefit their respective disciplines.
Beverley Burkett has been a language teacher educator for more than 25 years. She was head of the Language in Education Unit at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, from 1985-2007. She engaged in research, teaching, and curriculum development, with a particular focus on the role of language in learning in multilingual contexts. She is co-author of an ESL textbook series, Keys to English, and was team leader of a research project investigating the impact of additive bilingual (English–isiXhosa) curriculum delivery in a rural school in South Africa. She has presented academic papers at conferences in the UK, the US, Canada, Finland, Germany, Uganda, Botswana, Hong Kong, South Korea and has been an invited speaker at KOTESOL and southern African conferences. She has worked on language in education projects in Algeria and South Africa.
Beverley was an active member of a community-based organization that worked for peace and justice in South Africa. When not teaching, she enjoys yoga and has an avid interest in design.
Ray Clark has been involved in education since 1962 as a high school English teacher, Peace Corps Volunteer teacher trainer in Nigeria, teacher of English as a Second Language at the School for International Training. He also taught ESL for USAID in Islamabad, Pakistan, and for CitiBank in Istanbul, Turkey.
Also at the School for International Training he has held a variety of assignments. He was on the Peace Corps Training staff at SIT as language coordinator, TESOL instructor, and project director for training programs for Iran, India, Korea, and West Africa. He was the director of the Master of Arts in Teaching program as well as a faculty member teaching a variety of courses, including Approaches, Four Skills, and Applied English Linguistics. He also supervised MAT candidates in every New England state and developed and/or managed ESL projects in New England, Louisiana, and Somalia. He directed a two-year project for the Peace Corps to develop materials for uncommonly taught languages.
Currently he is adjunct faculty at SIT, supervising student teachers and teaching introductory Turkish, and adjunct faculty at Southern New Hampshire University where he teaches for the University of Hanoi MA EFL Program. Since 1980, he and four partners have developed Pro Lingua Associates, a publishing company specializing in ESL materials. He is vice-president and senior editor, and has written several textbooks.
Kathleen has worked on curriculum renewal and language teacher education in the U.S., Algeria, Bahrain, Brazil, Japan, and Korea. Her research focuses on the role of classroom practice in curriculum renewal and supporting teachers’ professional development as central to successful educational and curricular reform. She is interested in helping teachers to ‘think curricularly’ as they develop a reflective practice both individually and collaboratively. She started her career as an English teacher in Taiwan and later taught English in the US, Japan, and Brazil. She has served the faculties of the School for International Training, and the School of Education at the University of Michigan She is the editor/author of two books on course design, Teachers as Course Developers (Cambridge University Press) and Designing Language Courses: A guide for Teachers (Heinle Cengage). She is the series editor of TESOL’s Language Curriculum Development series.
Suzan Kobashigawa is professor in the School of Education at Northwest University. Suzan began her career teaching English in Japan and stayed for five years before beginning graduate school. She completed her MAT degree in TESOL through the School for International Training, Brattleboro, Vermont. Suzan completed her Ph.D. in composition and TESOL at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. While there, she focused on language and culture, literacy, and language revitalization. At Northwest University, Suzan has directed the English language program, and is the coordinator for the TESOL certificate program. She also teaches courses in Multicultural Education, Content Literacy/Secondary Methods, Research, Testing and Evaluation, and Phonetics. Currently, Suzan’s research interests are focused on qualitative inquiry (ethnography), language and culture, and literacy. In her spare time, Suzan has had a love-hate relationship with running, although she completes a half marathon annually, and she loves traveling, returning back to her family home in Hawai’i as often as she can.
Josh began his teaching career in 1990. He has taught and trained in Japan, Spain, the Republic of Georgia, and the United States. He received his master's degree in teaching from the SIT Graduate Institute and also holds the Cambridge CELTA and DELTA. Josh has been involved in developing the curriculum for the SIT TESOL Certificate and is a trainer of trainers. In addition to working on the SIT course, Josh has been a trainer with the Peace Corps and does educational consulting through the company, Berkeley Learning Teaching Consultants, which he co-founded. He is the author of Understanding Teaching Through Learning, which was published by McGraw-Hill in 2006, and his particular areas of interest include Experiential Learning, reflective practice, and lesson design. Josh lives with his wife and son in Berkeley, California.
Kim’s experience in the field of education includes language teaching, program administration, and teacher training. In 1982 she went to Japan and spent three years teaching English to children, high school students, and adults. Upon returning to North America, Kim started teaching Japanese, initially at the junior and senior high school level in Indianapolis and later at two community colleges in North Vancouver, B.C.. These experiences generated so many questions about teaching and learning that she enrolled in the School for International Training (SIT) where she received a master’s degree in teaching. She stayed at SIT as a project manager for the next 10 years. During this time she returned to Japan to teach in and administer the final two years SIT’s Intensive English Program at Tokyo Jogakkan Junior College. Most recently Kim has taught Japanese at Marlboro College, conducted training for public school teachers in Massachusetts, helped develop a teacher-training course for a major publisher and returned to administrative work at the Marlboro College Graduate and Professional Studies in the Nonprofit Management Program.
Jamie Polzin is a Marlboro MATESOL graduate with experience in adult language education and curriculum development in English and Italian. She is currently an e-learning development consultant with Cardinal Health developing blended coursework for pharmacy business consultants. She formerly taught non-credit ESL and computer courses at Columbus State Community College and designed online coursework for Saudi Electronic University and Urbana University through Franklin University Learning Solutions. She has extensive experience working with adult refugees and navigating technology barriers with adult immigrant and refugee populations through the non-profit Community Refugee and Immigration Services in Columbus, Ohio. In her free time, she enjoys teaching and performing circus arts and visiting NECCA, her second circus home in Brattleboro, Vermont.
Mary Scholl lives in rural Costa Rica and is the founder of Centro Espiral Mana, a teacher training center, a community English program and a volunteer teacher placement program. With over 20 years of language teaching experience, Mary has been working with developing teachers for over 15 years. She is a graduate of the School for International Training and has lived and taught in both public and private settings on three continents and has worked with developing teachers in the U.S., Japan, Libya, and most countries in Latin America. Mary is a frequent presenter at conferences in Latin America. Mary is deeply interested in creating joyful, compassionate, engaged, and empowering learning opportunities and has presented on topics including leadership within the classroom, the role of creativity in language learning, the role of compassion in learning, reflective practice, observation and feedback, learning-centered language teaching and thinking skills and intuition.