Our Team
LaNette Dellinger, PhD
Director
LaNette is a lifelong educator, having begun as an elementary teacher. She holds a bachelor’s in Elementary Education, an MA in Reading, and a PhD in Literacy Studies. LaNette’s areas of interest include teacher development, culturally relevant pedagogy, content-based language teaching, and arts-based personal development. She engages in and teaches ethnographic research methods. LaNette has taught at the university level since 2000 including at Virginia Tech, James Madison University, Suleyman Demirel University, Radford University, and LCC International University. Currently, she works with indigenous teachers, governments, private schools, and refugee programs to develop quality international education.
Andrew Howat
Deputy Director
Andrew has been working with people from various cultural backgrounds and learning from them since learning Mandarin Chinese at Shaanxi Normal University in 2012. He holds an MA in Intercultural Communication from Shanghai International Studies University and has been teaching English and providing intercultural training since 2018. His areas of interest include TPR, online education, and intercultural communication. He currently serves as deputy director for Global Partners for Education, developing new initiatives and partnerships, recruiting teachers, and partnering with local teachers to help them meet their educational and professional goals.
Ruth Derrick, MS
Associate Director
Ruth’s love for teaching was nurtured while home schooling her children, but it officially launched during a ten year stay in East Asia where she taught conversational English. She earned her Master’s Degree in English and a Graduate Certificate in Appalachian Studies and followed that with eleven years of teaching at Radford University in Southwest Virginia. During her tenure there, she presented research at NTSC (National Council of Teachers of English) and ASA (Appalachian Studies Association) Conferences. She also developed place-based curriculum for experiential learning. She has taken teams of students to serve and teach in East Asia and North Africa. Ruth enjoys both teaching writing and creating her own works, having published a chapbook of poetry in 2017.
Gretchen Ketner, MA
Europe Field Specialist
Gretchen is an English language teacher and program administrator who has been working with English language learners for over 15 years. She holds an MA in Teaching English as a Second Language from Penn State University. Her areas of interest include English for Academic Purposes, content-based language instruction, teaching second language reading, and language teacher development. She has taught in university intensive English programs at Penn State University, Juniata College, and LCC International University, as well as leading teacher professional development seminars in Lithuania, Ukraine, Georgia, and Kazakhstan. She serves as the Director of the English Language Institute at LCC International University in Klaipeda, Lithuania, and is the Europe Field Specialist for Global Partners for Education.
Joy Banik, M. Ed, Teaching & Learning
South Asia Field Specialist, Thailand
Joy’s 20+ years in education have taken her around the globe with teaching and training experiences in the United States, China, Turkey, India and presently, Thailand. Joy enjoys working with students of all ages, but has a special love for training, equipping and problem-solving alongside teachers and adult learners in their particular areas of focus. Joy loves the relationships she has gained through her various teaching adventures. Currently, Joy resides with her husband and three young sons in Bangkok, Thailand.
Patrick Banik, M.A., TESL
Southeast Asia Field Specialist, Thailand
Patrick began his career in education in 2018, teaching English to adult learners at a student center in Bangkok, Thailand. Through this experience, Patrick quickly realized that he enjoyed equipping students, particularly university students and adult learners, with skills enabling them to take risks in language learning and confidently engage others using English in natural ways. As a teacher, Patrick resonates with Krashen’s theory of learning language in a natural and fun way. Patrick’s teaching career has led him to opportunities, including being a lecturer at Assumption University in the Business English Department, serving as a speaker and trainer for cross-cultural seminars, and teaching English on a volunteer basis. Patrick resides with his wife and three young sons in Bangkok, Thailand.
Ken Kong
Southeast Asia Field Representative, Cambodia
Ken has an MA in TESOL from LCC International University, an English teaching certificate (CELTA), and teaches English in Cambodia. His area of interest is cooperative learning and how it can improve the students’ English. He enjoys casual cycling with friends and watching a good movie in his free time. He is married and has two beautiful children.
Mara Johnson
South Asia Field Specialist
Mara has a BA in TESOL and specializes in teaching English to children and youth. Her passion in education is for cross cultural participation between learners and teachers. She has two years experience teaching ESL to adult learners in inner-city Chicago, as well as experience teaching in Southeast Asia in person and online. As an educator, Mara seeks to employ teaching methods that actively engage students in their learning.
Gabby Nicklas
Resource Development Specialist
Gabby Nicklas is from Stillwater, Oklahoma. She graduated from Oklahoma State University with a Business Management and Marketing degree in 2014, and since then has worked in several organizations in management and administration roles. She is currently working on a master’s degree in Global Studies at Oklahoma State University.
Gabby and her amazing husband, Ryan, have been married 11 years and live in Stillwater, Oklahoma. When she is not studying, Gabby loves to play sports (basketball, golf, and futbol) and make delicious creations in the kitchen to share with friends and family.
Ryan Nicklas
Latin America Specialist
Ryan is currently an English teacher and PhD student in Applied Linguistics at Oklahoma State University (OSU), Stillwater. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in education and a master’s degree in teaching English as a second language, both from OSU. He has taught English in a variety of settings in and outside of the U.S. and is involved with several international projects to provide equitable access to education for under-resourced communities. His research interests involve autonomous language learning strategies, language learning motivation, and factors that facilitate student interaction in the
classroom.
Allegra Brown, M.Ed
Elementary & Language Specialist
Allegra Brown has a BA in Early Childhood Education and an M.Ed in TESOL from the University of Maryland College Park. Allegra has worked in public education her entire career and has a passion for working with students of all socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds. She served as an elementary English teacher for 8 years and taught and designed Summer English classes abroad in the Republic of Georgia. Allegra presently works with federal programming, advocating for English learner’s rights to Education in Virginia. She is a language enthusiast who believes multilingualism is a superpower and takes pride in being able to support students learning English in addition to any other language. Teacher mentoring and educator empowerment through modeling and coaching are also core to Allegra’s teaching philosophy in ensuring the next generation of educators is equipped to teach students using the resources available to them.