Todd M. Beard, Director
| Todd M. Beard, M.Ed. has been in education for over 20 years, teaching and leading programs in the USA, Germany and the UK. Before coming to UT Knoxville, he was the director for an intensive English program at a private higher education institution in Nashville, Tennessee. His strengths are with ideation, innovation and being a catalyst for strategic change. He enjoys taking action in areas to stimulate growth and learning that elevate the student experience. He has led presentations, program development and student recruitment in Europe, Central America and South America. Actively involved in international education, he has served on the NAFSA Region VII Leadership Team as the International Enrollment Management Liaison, the board of Study Tennessee as co-chair and as a member-at-large on the TNTESOL board. Todd is excited to welcome students at the English Language Institute! |
Email: tbeard9@utk.edu |
Contact Information: Doug Terry, Teaching Associate
| Doug Terry, MA TESOL Education, is a teaching associate at ELI. Deeply interested in helping UT become a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive campus, he also coordinates the Academy for Global Scholars in addition to his teaching work at ELI. The Academy helps first-generation college students—students who are the first in their families to attend college—travel abroad and see the world. Before joining ELI, he worked with Knox County Schools and Pellissippi State Community College’s Adult Education program. |
Email: dterry1@utk.edu |
Contact Information: Anna McDaniel, Admissions Specialist & Program Coordinator
| Anna McDaniel is the Admissions Specialist and Program Coordinator for the English Language Institute. She was born in Frankfurt, Germany, and moved to the U.S. in 2022 to complete a Master of Arts in German at the University of Tennessee. She additionally holds an undergraduate degree in German and Teaching German as a Foreign Language from the University of Bielefeld. As an international student herself, she understands the significance of education abroad. Anna has a passion for languages and has a background in teaching German as a foreign language. She has also lived in Québec, Italy, and the Netherlands. In her spare time, you can find Anna knitting or going out for a row on the Tennessee River. |
Contact Information: Email: aklokau@utk.edu |
Maria Elena Arredondo, Instructor
| Maria Elena Arredondo is a 15-year teaching professional with experience at the elementary, high school, and university level. Her undergraduate and master’s degrees are in TESOL. She has a passion for languages and loves to help students succeed in their journey to learn and improve their skills in English. She comes to us most recently from the University of Guanajuato in central Mexico. She was also a member of the exam design committee which included the University’s English language placement exams. She was born and raised in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico and relocated to Knoxville in 2022. In her spare time, she enjoys reading novels, traveling, meeting new people, trying food from different countries, soccer and Vols football. She is excited to join the ELI team and looks forward to positively impacting the lives of its students through teaching |
Contact Information: Email: marredo2@utk.edu |
Amanda Dascomb, Instructor
| Amanda Dascomb, Ph.D., an educator with fifteen years of experience, has taught high school, university, and adult ed courses in subjects ranging from education to English and French. Prior to establishing roots in Knoxville, she worked in Guadeloupe, Ecuador, and Senegal. Dr. Dascomb takes joy in witnessing students build confidence and sharpen their academic skills. During the summer, you’ll often find her open water swimming in the Tennessee River. |
Contact Information: Email: adascomb@utk.edu |
Yesenia Ensminger, Instructor
| For over 15 years, Yesenia has taught English to adults of diverse backgrounds. Some of her professional experience includes curriculum and material development, as well as training other instructors on how to develop materials of their own. She has lived abroad, traveled extensively, and studied 12 languages. Her work is concerned with the intersection of culture, learning, and psychology, and she brings a passionate microscope to language and identity. |
Contact Information: Email: yensming@utk.edu |
Joseph Edward Garlington, Instructor
| Mr. Garlington grew up and went to high school in Knoxville, then attended UTK for BS in Communications/Advertising. Later he earned a Masters in Teaching from Carson Newman. He has four grown children. “Ned” has lived abroad much of his life living and teaching for many years in Spain, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia. He enjoys languages and speak Spanish, French and Moroccan Arabic. He and his wife enjoy being back in East Tennessee, where they can enjoy being with family and the beautiful mountains and lakes of the area. |
Contact Information: Email: jgarlin1@utk.edu |
Rosario Grass, Instructor
| Rosario holds a bachelor’s degree in English Studies with a concentration in American Literature from the University of Seville as well as a master’s degree in Teaching Spanish as a Second Language from the Miguel de Cervantes European University. Her teaching trajectory includes several years of experience, both in private language academies in Spain and at the ELI. Her professional focus is to provide her students with a quality education, respect and admire their cultural diversity, as well as offer English as a tool to help them succeed in and beyond the classroom. She speaks fluent Spanish and English and a bit of Italian and Polish. She believes that anybody who wants to learn English can do it and that is why her motto is ‘you belong’. In her free time, she likes traveling, spending time with her family outdoors, and exercising. |
Contact Information: Email: rgrassga@utk.edu |
Cara Hurley, Instructor
| Mrs. Hurley was born in the United States but spent most of her childhood living in the beautiful nation of Indonesia, constantly interacting with both Indonesians and expats from many other countries. Cara holds an M.A. in TESOL & Intercultural Studies and have been teaching English to adults, mostly in the Chicago area, for over twenty years. Much of her career has involved teaching immigrants and refugees from a wide range of nationalities, ages (17-81), and educational backgrounds (preliterate to Ph.D.). Interacting with these students has deeply impacted her teaching style, and she strives for an engaging, collaborative classroom atmosphere that makes the subject matter accessible and interesting to my students. She speaks Bahasa Indonesia and understands several dialects of Malay. |
Contact Information: Email: churle14@utk.edu |
Laurence Marrion-Ferrell, Instructor
| Laurence Marion-Ferrell is a native of France where she spent the first twenty years of her life studying in the French public education system. She excelled in the study of English and got her English degree at the University of Caen before leaving to spend a year in England where she taught French. After that, she decided she wanted to spend some time in the United States and got a teaching position at West Virginia University and then at the Ohio State University where she taught French and completed her Master’s degree. After completing her education, she has spent her career teaching, French and English, at all levels of the American education system: elementary immersion, secondary foreign language and adult classes in both French and English. She loves passing on her enthusiasm for perfecting grammar and pronunciation with students at UT and in her spare time, loves to travel, both in the United States and Europe. |
Contact Information: Email: lmarionf@utk.edu |