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Green Mountain College, VT
Oberlin College, OH 
Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Spanish
 

Meet Our Staff

 

 

Arabic Academy

Co-Director (OH): Britten Milliman

Britten’s love of travel and passion for languages have led her to such far corners of the world as Australia and Kenya and have resulted in her fluency in Italian, Spanish, and Arabic. After graduating from Middlebury College, Britten received a CASA (Center for Arabic Study Abroad) Fellowship that allowed her twelve months of intensive study in Cairo, Egypt. “Languages are an addiction for me and I can’t imagine not working with them, especially Arabic. It has been my greatest frustration and an even greater joy.” Britten is currently enrolled in a master's program in Arabic language and linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin.

Co-Director (OH): Jean-Pierre Taoutel

Jean-Pierre is a native speaker of both French and Arabic, with a BA from the Université Saint-Joseph in Beirut, Lebanon and an MA from the Sorbonne Nouvelle in Paris. He is currently a Senior Lecturer of French and Instructor of Arabic at Iowa State University, and for many summers managed European tours for high school students.

 

Chinese Academy

Director (VT): Yuan Gao

Yuan Gao has been a teacher of Chinese and French for more than 25 years.  Gao currently teaches at Peddie School, a private boarding school in New Jersey.  He established Peddie’s Chinese program when he first joined the school in 1990.  As a member of CLTA and CLASS, Gao has been actively involved in the field of teaching Chinese as a foreign language.  He currently serves as a member of the College Board’s AP Chinese Curriculum and Assessment Committee (CDAC) and as a leading reader for the AP Chinese exam.  Gao is the author of “Preparing Students to Narrate Stories Based on Chinese Idioms (Chengyu)” in College Board’s 2008 AP Chinese publication of a Special Focus Material for professional development. Gao earned his bachelor’s degree in French from East China Normal University in Shanghai, China and his master’s in French Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, specializing in nineteenth- and twentieth-century novels and poetry. 

Director (OH):

Director (MA): 

Assistant Director (MA): Lisa Li Urbonya

Lisa Li Urbonya is the president of Action Language Learning, an organization dedicated to the active teaching and learning of world languages through seminars and materials. Action Language Learning also assists educators in integrating Chinese educational thought, language and methods into the K-12 curriculum. As a speech-language pathologist with a background in language development theory, she learned Chinese through immersion while living in China for 12 years. Lisa became “Li Laoshi” (Teacher Li) and created a curriculum for teaching Chinese at the International School of Beijing and the Madison Lakeside Chinese Language School. She has taught the Chinese language to over 1,000 students in the U.S. and China, many of whom have gone on to become fluent in the language. As a certified K-12 administrator and director of instruction, Li Laoshi has developed and is preparing to publish a multi-sensory musical Mandarin program that helps beginners learn Mandarin at an accelerated pace. She has used the principles for developing these materials to assist Mandarin instructors and other world language teachers with methods and material development.

 

French Academy

Director (VT): Mark Rosenblum

Mark currently serves as World Language Department Chair at La Jolla Country Day School in San Diego, California. He holds a Master of Arts in French from Middlebury College and a Master of Education from Columbia University Teachers College. Originally from Connecticut, Mark has lived in Maine, New York, Paris, the south of France, and southern California. He brings over 15 years of experience teaching French at the middle and high school levels and has led numerous immersion trips abroad with American adolescents, to France and other countries. In addition to French, Mark also speaks fluent Spanish and is proficient in Arabic and Italian. Among other interests, Mark has a passion for languages, for soccer, and for cooking. He has a son in college and another who is just one year old! Mark is excited to return to MMLA in his second year as director of one of the French Academies.

Director (OH): Andrea Newsom Ebarb

Andrea is a graduate of Middlebury College and the Middlebury Language Schools (French). While in France, she studied theater at the Sorbonne and music at the Ecole Normale de Musique. She enjoys incorporating the arts to generate interest and excitement in the classroom. She is presently at the Alliance Française de Dallas, where she teaches middle and high school students.

Director (MA): David Sainsily

David was born in French Guiana, an overseas department (DOM) of France located in South America. He graduated from the University of Paul Valery (Montpellier, France) in English and Portuguese studies. David has taught French in Brazil and at Sierra College in California. He is currently living in Vermont, where he teaches five different levels of high school French at Burke Mountain Academy. David is passionate about languages; he speaks French, English, Portuguese, Spanish, and Creole fluently. As an avid learner, his new project is to learn Polish, which is his wife's native language. David worked as a Senior Teacher for MMLA in the summer of 2008. He is very excited about beginning a new adventure with MMLA this year and creating a studious and fun environment for the students. 

 

Spanish Academy

Director (VT):


Director (OH):
 

Director (MA): Nance Everts

Nance is an educator from upstate New York with extensive administrative, leadership, and Spanish language experience. She has taught Spanish at the college level and English as a Second Language for grades K–5; she currently teaches Spanish in the Upper division of Sayre School, an independent school in Lexington, Kentucky. She holds a Ph.D. in Spanish from the University of Kentucky. This is her second year as Spanish Language Director for MMLA.

Director (MA): Marco Mena

Marco is a native of Costa Rica. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Spanish at Massachusetts Bay Community College. He has extensive experience in immersion language camps and study abroad programs. He holds a BA from the University of Northern Iowa and an MS from Minnesota State University at Mankato.

 

Administration

Director: Roberto d'Erizans

Roberto is the Director of the Middlebury-Monterey Language Academy. He holds an MA in Spanish from Middlebury College and a BA, magna cum laude, from Wofford College. Before joining the MMLA staff, Roberto chaired the Modern Language Department at the Taft School in Watertown, Connecticut, where he was also a dorm parent and tennis coach. For five recent summers he held various leadership roles, including assistant dean of students and director of curriculum, with Wellesley College’s Exploration summer academic enrichment programs for middle and high school students.

Assistant Director and GMC Site Manager: Mary Cairns

Mary Cairns has joined the Middlebury-Monterey Language Academy in the role of Assistant Director. Prior to her arrival at MMLA, Mary was the Administrative Coordinator for International Student & Scholar Services at Middlebury College. Mary earned a BA from Middlebury College and received an MA in Special Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. Mary spent a number of years as a special education teacher, working primarily with children possessing developmental and language delays, autistic spectrum disorders, and behavioral challenges. Mary has also served as a tutor and camp counselor at various times and has coached soccer and tennis to youngsters. Mary and her husband live with their three children in Shoreham, Vermont and are actively involved in the Middlebury and Shoreham communities.

Site Director (MA): Katherine Kidd

Katherine is a senior program manager at the Center for Talented Youth. She was the site director for the joint CTY/MMLA site last year. She comes to the language-immersion program at MMLA with great interest from her own professional and personal background. She chaired international studies majors at Sacred Heart and Fairfield universities in Connecticut for 13 years, where she worked closely with modern language faculty. Her doctorate is in international relations from the University of Pennsylvania. She has lived, studied, and worked in Europe, Latin America, and Africa, and has learned Dutch, German, and Spanish by immersion.

Director of Residential Life (VT): Kevin Conroy

Kevin has been a colleague of Roberto d’Erizans at the Taft School, where he currently serves as the Class Dean of Upper Mids, Spanish teacher, and coach of the boys’ thirds squash and JV tennis teams. At Taft he has also served as a dorm parent and member of various school committees, most of them centered on student well-being and residential life. He coordinated the Taft Summer Program in Madrid and recently has been working on a video-conferencing project to connect students in Mexico with students at Taft. Kevin recently completed his MA in Spanish at Middlebury College and holds a Master of Arts in Teaching from Quinnipiac University. He received his bachelor’s degree from Gettysburg College. Kevin has worked at boarding schools throughout his professional life; before serving at Taft, he worked as a Spanish teacher and dorm head at the Hill School, in Pennsylvania. Kevin will serve as the Director of Residential Life at MMLA.

Operations Manager: Jessie Jerry

Student Coordinator: Ann Taylor

Administrative Coordinator: Michelle Davis