Eaquals Online Event 2020

Alex Warren

Alex is a DELTA trained teacher trainer with over 18 years’ experience of working in ELT as a teacher, teacher trainer and academic director. He has presented in over 50 countries throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. Based in the UK, Alex is currently the Senior ELT Academic Consultant for National Geographic Learning.

Ania Kolbuszewska

Ania Kolbuszewska works internationally as a teacher trainer, management trainer, inspector and educational consultant at all levels of education. Ania is also a licensed mediator and conflict management specialist.

Arum Perwitasari

Arum Perwitasari, Ph.D. works as an Institutional Relations Specialist EMEA at ETS Global Amsterdam. She is an experienced educator, linguist, and researcher. Her research interest includes speech recognition, second language acquisition and bilingualism.  She has been actively involved in ELT and Higher Education organizations. Recently, she cofounded and started off as a content creator @Teaching Online with AJ, a YouTube channel to teach and learn English.

Beata Schmid

After 30+ years at EF, Beata’s passions are still teacher training, curriculum development and pronunciation.

Beccy Wigglesworth

Beccy Wigglesworth is Director of Member Services and Client Experience with International House World Organisation, and leads the quality inspection scheme for AQUEDUTO – the Association for Quality Education and Training Online.

Emma Heyderman

Emma Heyderman has over 20 years’ experience in academic management and has collaborated with O’Clock Idiomas on several projects. Now freelance, she divides her time between writing ELT materials, designing and delivering teacher training courses, providing consultancy to language institutions and is an inspector for Eaquals.

Gillian Davidson

Gillian Davidson has worked in EFL for almost 30 years. She has taught, and managed in Slovakia, Indonesia, Russia and the UK. She has taught students from 4 years old to much older across a wide range of courses. She is currently the Group Academic Director at EC English and has extensive experience of managing multiple centres across the world. Gill is also an Eaquals inspector.

Julie Wallis

Julie is Director of The London School, AISLi President, an Eaquals Trustee and sits on the board of International House London.

She has worked as a teacher trainer for organisations including Eaquals, AISLi, LEND, NILE, Transform ELT, Pilgrims, The British Council and Bell.

She holds a degree, is DELTA and CertIBET qualified, and is a trained inspector for AISLi and Eaquals.

Justin Quinn

Eaquals Chair

Justin Quinn is the Chair of Eaquals and the CEO of Centre of English Studies.
CES has schools in the UK, Ireland, Taiwan and Canada.

Klaudia Bednarova

In 2009, Klaudia founded The Bridge – English Language Centre, an EAQUALS-accredited language school in Slovakia. She was a founding member of both the Slovak Chamber of English Teachers and the Slovak Association of Language Schools, serving as Chairwoman of the latter from 2011 to 2016, and of the Slovak Chamber of English Teachers from 2019 to 2023. Currently, Klaudia serves as Vice-President of the Association of Institutions of Adult Education.

Klaudia has also established and manages various CPD projects, including the Bridge Re-Boot Camp for teachers—a unique summer school that takes a holistic approach to learning and teacher well-being. She was named Entrepreneur of the Year in 2022, and The Bridge’s CPD programme was awarded Best In-Company Training Programme in Slovakia in 2023. Her passion and professional interests lie in effective learning strategies and the impact of language training on work performance.

Lou McLaughlin

Executive Director, Eaquals

Lou is the Executive Director of Eaquals. She was one of the founding members of ELT Ireland, and served on the IATEFL Board of Trustees as the Associates Representative until 2021. Lou holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics, Masters in ELT, DELTA, TESOL Cert. in Leadership & Management and Trinity TESOL Cert. Her special interests are Young Learner teacher training, teacher cognition and management in ELT and she was the co-editor of Children Learning English: From Research to Practice (2015).

Martyn Clarke

Martyn has been an ELT professional for over 35 years. He has trained on and managed numerous education development projects around the world, for organisations including The British Council and The World Bank. He has designed and taught on under- and postgraduate teacher development programmes and runs teacher/management development workshops and courses globally. He has been the Director of Operations for a group of language schools in the UK and Ireland, responsible for all academic, administrative, and HR functions of the organisation. Currently, Martyn is the MA Programme Leader at NILE, as well as leader for the Management in Language Education MA module and trainer on the Trainer Development MA module. He is a co-author of the EAQUALS Academic Manager Competency Framework (2021).

Nergis Uyan

Nergis Uyan graduated from the Middle East Technical University’s Foreign Language Education Department in 1995 and received her MA in Management in Education from Bilkent University in 2005. She completed her DTEFLA from the University of Cambridge in 1999 and also received her ADEM (Advanced Diploma in English Language Teaching Management) in 2001.

She worked in several positions at Bilkent University School of English Language (BUSEL) including English Language Instructor, Head of Teaching Unit, Teacher Development Coordinator, Teacher Trainer and Member of the BUSEL Directorate from September 1995 to February 2010. She has also been working as a CELTA Trainer since 2007. She has been working as the director of Ozyegin University School of Languages (ScOLa) since February 2010.  She also served on the EAQUALS Board as a trustee for two terms.

Peter Brown

Peter Brown is a teacher and the Founder Chair of Eaquals. He is the co-founder of AISLi, the Italian quality association of language schools, and co-wrote the Council of Europe’s Guide to Quality in Language Education with Frank Heyworth.

Phil Longwell

Phil currently works as an non-accredited tutor and Educational Technology trainer with Adult Learning (Norfolk County Council). He has a passion for training using learning technologies and discussing the mental health of language teachers. He is the current webmaster for the IATEFL LTSIG.

Sarah Mercer

Sarah Mercer is Professor of Foreign Language Teaching at the University of Graz, Austria, where she is Head of ELT methodology. Her research interests include all aspects of psychology surrounding the foreign language learning experience. She is the author, co-author and co-editor of several books in this area. In 2018, she was awarded the Robert C Gardner Award for excellence in second language research by the International Association of Language and Social Psychology (IALSP).

Selen Sirin Dulger

Selen Şirin Dülger works as a Team Leader in the Preparatory Program at Özyeğin University School of Languages. She received her BA and MA degrees from English Teacher Education Department at Bilkent University in 2009 and holds DELTA from Cambridge University. Before her current role as a Team Leader, she worked as an Instructor and a Level Specialist at ScOLa. She is also a CELTA Trainer.

Serkan Aras

Serkan Aras works as the Undergraduate English Program Coordinator in the School of Languages, Özyeğin University. He received his combined BA and MA degree in English Teacher Education from Bilkent University in 2008 and his PhD in Gender Studies from Kadir Has University in 2018. He holds a DELTA from Cambridge University and he is a CELTA trainer. Serkan is also the Coordinator of IATEFL Teacher Development SIG (TDSIG).

Sophia Mavridi

Sophia Mavridi is a digital learning specialist and lecturer in English Language Teaching at De Montfort University in Leicester, UK. Her research focuses on online learning and the increasingly important role of digital literacies in education. She has trained for major organisations such as the British Council and she is a regular keynote speaker at international conferences. Sophia is the joint-coordinator of the IATEFL Learning Technologies SIG; her latest co-edited volumes are ‘English for 21st Century Skills’ (Express Publishing, 2020) and ‘Digital Innovations and Research in Language Learning’ (IATEFL, 2020), both of which reflect her keen interest in innovative pedagogies in language education.

Thom Kiddle

Thom is Director of Eaquals member Norwich Institute for Language Education (NILE) and Chair of Eaquals.