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ESL Department Chair

Gabriela Segade joined Contra Costa College in 2002, after working as an ESL teacher and program administrator at the University of Hawaii English Language Program for five years and teaching at the English Language Institute, also at the University of Hawaii, for two years. Gabriela received an M.A. in English as a Second Language and a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She started her career as an ESL/EFL teacher in Argentina in the eighties. She later taught and tutored ESL writing at the high school and community college levels. Gabriela has also worked as a teacher mentor and has developed and taught teacher training workshops for EFL teachers. She is interested in teaching ESL writing and is the ESL Department Writing Coordinator. A native of Uruguay, Gabriela learned English as an adolescent in Argentina and in her twenties in Hawaii. She enjoys being in nature, reading about politics and society, learning music, and singing.

e-mail: gsegade@contracosta.edu

Nooshi Borhan received an M.A. in Teaching English as a Second Language from San Francisco State University and a B.A. in Sociology and English Literature from the University of California, at Berkeley. She then received a Diplome in Cuisine from Le Cordon Bleu, in Paris. She started her career at Contra Costa College in 2001 after teaching ESL for 6 years at UC Berkeley. During that time, she worked for a year in Fukuoka, Japan, on a joint teaching project between UC Berkeley and Kawaijuku International Education. In an attempt to bring together her two passions, teaching E.S.L. and cooking, she has worked on developing an International Cooking Course for ESL students which is offered every spring semester. Nooshi loves her job as she finds her students to be inspiring. She is very happy to be teaching here at Contra Costa College.

 

e-mail: nborhan@contracosta.edu

Lee Brelie received her B.A. from Michigan State and her M.A. in Teaching English as a Second Language from San Francisco State University. After earning her B.A., Lee taught fifth grade for a year in Michigan before spending two years teaching high school in the Fiji Islands as a Peace Corps Volunteer. After Fiji, she again taught fifth grade, but this time in Australia. Lee travelled extensively in Southeast Asia and Asia before a six-month stay in England. Back in the U.S., she earned her MA TESL degree while working at the College of Notre Dame in Belmont. She subsequently taught ESL courses at San Jose City College, San Jose State University, the College of San Mateo, and the ESL Institute of New College. Lee has been at CCC since 1989 and is the department's grammar specialist. Lee likes cryptic crossword puzzles, parakeets, and mystery novels.

Lee retired in Spring 2009.

e-mail: lbrelie@contracosta.edu

Ellen Smith- Although Ellen has always enjoyed learning foreign languages and comes from a family of teachers, she didn't always want to be an ESL teacher. Ellen grew up in a small town in upstate New York. Her B.A. is from New York University with a major in political science and a minor in Spanish. After college, Ellen worked as a bilingual secretary for a company in Boston that sold machines that make plastic bags to South America, as a paralegal for the Boston Legal Assistance Project, and as an administrator for a neighborhood health clinic in San Jose, CA. When she wasn't working, she would travel for several months at a time throughout Mexico, Central and South America, and Europe. It was after living in Israel in the early 1980's and studying at an intensive Hebrew institute that she decided to get her Master's in Teaching ESL at San Francisco State University.
Ellen has been teaching ESL at Contra Costa College since 1987. From1991-1997 she was the chair of the Communication, Arts, and Humanities division. In 1998, she spent the spring semester teaching English in the Foreign Language Department at the University of the Americans (UDLA) in Cholula, Mexico. When she returned from that sabbatical, she was instrumental in establishing the Academic Skills Department at the college, a department that offers courses in developmental reading, writing, and mathematics to native English-speaking students, and was the Academic Skills Department chair until 2006.  Ellen became the interim Dean of the CLASS Division from 2006 – 2008.  But she missed the joy of teaching and having direct contact with students, so she voluntarily returned to the classroom and now teaches ESL full-time.

email: elsmith@contracosta.ed

 

Larry Statan has taught EFL in Skopje, Yugoslavia and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and he has taught ESL at Contra Costa College since 1988. Larry received his BA and MA in English from Sonoma State University. He has been involved in writing computer-aided instruction programs for ESL and has several titles published, including Making Connections for Heinle&Heinle and Live Action English Interactive and Live Action Spanish Interactive for Command Performance Institute. He also wrote the software for the Peace Corps Language Coordinator's Resource Kit. Currently, Larry is involved with technology and vocational English as a Second Language at CCC. He is an avid digital photographer and enjoys international music and film, reading, and traveling. He lives in Richmond, California.

e-mail: lstatan@contracosta.edu

 

 

Elisabeth Xiezopolski is a full-time tenured instructor at Contra Costa
College, where she has been teaching since 1992. She is the coordinator for
the beginning level class and specializes in teaching beginning and
intermediate levels. Ms. Xiezopolski graduated from California State
University, Hayward in 1982 with a Bachelor's degree in Foreign Language and
Literature (Spanish and French). In 1984, she graduated from San Francisco
State University with a Master's Degree in English with a concentration in
Teaching English as a Second/Foreign Language. After graduate school, Ms.
Xiezopolski taught English in Madrid, Spain for two years before returning
to teach in the San Francisco Bay Area. She then taught in intensive English
programs at Dominican College in San Rafael and Mills College in Oakland
before accepting an ESL position at Contra Costa College. Ms. Xiezopolski
has traveled extensively and has visited 29 countries in North, Central and
South America, Asia, Europe, and Africa. Her hobbies include traveling with
her husband and son, photography, and studying maritime history. Ms.
Xiezopolski is the Level 50 coordinator and ESL new instructor mentor.

e-mail: exiezopolski@contracosta.edu