Leadership

Founder and Executive Director: Angela Jackson

Angela Jackson founded Global Language Project after her experience working with multinational companies and traveling abroad. She was most recently head of New Channels Marketing at Nokia, responsible for managing the North American marketing and strategic-partnership development for Nokia's Nseries brand. In addition, Angela sat on a cross-divisional, global team that outlined Nokia's best practices for improving profitability and increasing market share in Asia.

Angela joined Nokia from MTV Networks, where she served as Director of Retail Development. Prior to MTV, she worked with Nickelodeon Networks in their Consumer Products Division, and for Universal Studios in various capacities including marketing and sales.

Angela is fluent in English and French. She is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia, with Bachelor's degrees in Journalism and History.

Executive Board

Justyn Makarewycz, Baruch College, Board Chair

Walter Amarteifio, Treasurer, TIAA-CREF

Sharon Chin, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Board Secretary

Board of Directors

Carrie S. Silver, American Express

Angela Jackson, Global Language Project

RèMale James, Air Mail Productions

Grace Clarke, Morgan Stanley Smith Barney

Lauren Washington, Omnicom Group

Jessica Whitt, Moon Capital

Julia Yue, Credit Suisse

Board of Advisors

Krystal Kaplan, Pace University

Marty Abbott, American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages

Irma Evangelista, New York University

Tina Feldman, Philanthropist

Marla Guess, Wireless Generation

Denise Joly, Coty Beauty, Inc.

Julia Pimsleur Levine, Little Pim

Michelle Tong, Asian American Federation

 

Staff

Victoria Gilbert, Curriculum Director

Victoria Gilbert, Ph.D. designed GLP's pilot Spanish program, and is a believer in GLP's mission to empower disadvantaged schoolchildren with foreign-language skills that will benefit their futures. Dr. Gilbert earned her Doctorate in Educational Leadership in the Curriculum & Teaching Department at Teachers College-Columbia University in 2005. A native speaker of Spanish and fluent speaker of French, she has taught Science and Foreign Languages for over 20 years at Saint David's School in New York City.

As an art-history undergraduate major, Dr. Gilbert has always believed in the importance of understanding culture to bring understanding of a people and their world. Learning a language involves studying modes of communication, an understanding of the target culture, and making connections and comparisons across disciplines and communities until one understands others as well as oneself.

Dr. Gilbert considers herself lucky to have lived in Europe, South America and in the U.S. Having learned foreign languages at an early age, she once told her mom, "Mommy, do you know that if you speak more languages, you can make more friends?" Dr. Gilbert's experiences throughout the years have proven that the knowledge of foreign languages is beneficial to all students, and that people can affect others positively when addressing people in their own language.

Helena Zeweri, Communications & Research Associate

Helena Zeweri joined Global Language Project in December 2010, and was excited to be part of an effort that engages the local community and emphasis language as a means to achieve educational equality and access to a broader array of social opportunities.

Helena is currently pursuing a second MA in anthropology at the New School for Social Research. She received her first MA in Near Eastern Studies from New York University and her BA in Middle Eastern and Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia University. Currently, Helena is working on a chapter for an edited volume, which explores the ways in which online Muslim American women's groups contribute new ways of destabilizing popular ideas of gender, class, and politics. Some of Helena's research has been featured in the recently published Encyclopedia of Asian American Folklore and Folklife (ABC-CLIO, 2010). Helena is also Director of Research for Femin Ijtihad, an organization that aims to share analyses of academic scholarship on Muslim women's rights to activists working at the grassroots level.

Sasha Roper, Program Fellow

Sasha designs all of the promotional marketing collateral and maintains the website for GLP. Sasha is a graduate from Johnson & Wales University with a major in Web Management & Internet Commerce and a minor in Computer Graphics & New Media.

Growing up in a Spanish-speaking single parent home, Sasha learned to speak Spanish first. She was in English as a Second Language (ESL) Program from Kindergarten through Fifth Grade and experienced first-hand the importance of learning a second or even third, fourth language. Sasha joined Global Language Project in October 2011, and was excited to be a part of an organization that offers free comprehensive foreign language learning to disadvantaged students. Being a disadvantaged student herself, Sasha is fortunate to have been given the opportunities to learn a second language, and is planning to take French classes soon.

Elisabeth Shovers, Program Coordinator

Elisabeth Shovers is proud to be part of a team working towards such an important mission: to make students world and work ready through the study of high impact foreign languages and cultures.

Elisabeth recently moved to New York, after teaching kindergarten and first grade as a Teach For America Corps member in Chicago where she also earned her M.Ed. Prior to that, she received a B.A. in International Affairs from the George Washington University where she wrote her thesis on the Importance of Integrating Multicultural Education Programs into DC public schools, and then spent a year teaching English in France.

As a lover of languages, Elisabeth has studied French, Spanish, German, Hebrew, Mandarin, Hindi, and Wolof. Whenever she has the chance, she spends long periods of time immersed in different countries soaking up culture, language, and traditions. To date, she has lived in Germany, France, Senegal, and India and traveled to many other places. She realizes how influential these experiences have been, and wants to create the same opportunities for all GLP students.

Anna Santos, Executive Assistant

Anna Santos joined us from Berlitz Languages where served in the both the teaching and accounting departments. As a teacher she specialized in business English and special government programs in New York and Europe; teaching the assembly and senate of Madrid, the Spanish Minister of Justice, and at several embassies in New York. She also taught for Rosetta Stone, and free-lanced as an English as a Second Language (ESL) curriculum writer and teacher for various adult literacy programs and non-profits in New York. Anna has lived and traveled throughout Europe, South East Asia, and the Americas, and has a deep love for culture and language. She has a BFA in theatre and Latin American Studies from Elon University. She speaks Spanish, English and tries to remember her Indonesian. Anna will be responsible for GLP's administrative functions and will additionally work on special projects including coordinating GLP Alumnae and Volunteer programs.

Erin Dooley, Director of Development

As Global Language Project’s Director of Development, Erin is responsible for the organization’s overall fundraising program, which includes Board development and fundraising, as well as approaches to individual, foundation, corporate, and government sources of funding. In the years prior to her work at Global Language Project, Erin held positions at a number of non-profit organizations, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, where she focused on corporate fundraising for the museum. Erin also served as the Finance Director of the New York State Democratic Committee during the 2006 election season, and worked as a political fundraiser for Democratic politicians in New York City and New York State between 2004 and 2006. Erin, a firm believer in Global Language Project’s mission, is committed to foreign language learning and has advanced proficiency in Persian (Farsi). Erin holds a B.A. in Political Science and Asian and Middle Eastern Studies from Barnard College, Columbia University and a M.A. in Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies from Columbia University, which she earned in May of 2012.