Faculty
Jeanine Alesch
Associate Professor of French
Dr. Alesch received her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College and her M.A. and Ph.D. in French Literature from the University of Pennsylvania. She arrived at SLCC in 2010 and has over 20 years’ experience teaching all levels of the French language and literature, international literature, and writing. Her book, Marguerite Yourcenar: The Other/Reader was published in 2007; her articles have appeared in French Forum, Dalhousie French Studies, Australian Journal of French Studies, Symposium and The French Review. She has presented at numerous conferences throughout the U.S. and abroad on literature topics and language pedagogy.
- PhD in French Literature, University of Pennsylvania
- MA in French Literature, University of Pennsylvania
- AB in French Literature, Bryn Mawr College
Campus:
Taylorsville
Building:
Academic & Administration Building (AAB)
Room:
237A
Phone:
Email:
Carolina Bloem
Associate Professor of Spanish
Credentials:
- PhD in Spanish Literature, University of Utah
- MA in Spanish Literature, University of Utah
- BA in Spanish Literature, University of Utah
Campus:
Taylorsville
Building:
Academic & Administration Building (AAB)
Room:
162
Phone:
Email:
Diogo Cosme
Assistant Professor of Spanish
Diogo Cosme is an Assistant Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies in the Humanities and Languages Division at Salt Lake Community College. He received his Ph.D. in Romance Languages/Linguistics from the University of Georgia, where he also led curriculum development for the Portuguese program and assessed language proficiency for the Latin American and Caribbean Languages Institute (LACSI). His research interests comprise experimental approaches to Syntax, Second and Third Language Acquisition. In particular, tense, aspect and perfectivity. Additional scholarly work includes educational technology and heritage language in Spanish and Portuguese. He has experience developing open educational resources (OER), active learning, task-based, and proficiency-based curricula concerned with inclusivity and diversity. He is skilled in proficiency assessments with ACTFL and CEFR standards.
- Ph.D. in Romance Languages, The University of Georgia
- M.A. in Romance Languages, The University of Georgia
- B.A. in English, Portuguese and Applied Linguistics, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, Brazil
Campus:
Taylorsville
Building:
Academic & Administration Building (AAB)
Room:
164
Phone:
Email:
Takashi Ebira
Associate Professor of Japanese
Takashi Ebira is currently an Associate Professor of Japanese in the Humanities and Languages Division within the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Salt Lake Community College (SLCC). He was a temporary full-time Japanese instructor at SLCC from 2004 to 2005 and joined SLCC again as a tenure-track assistant professor in August 2011. He earned his tenure in January 2016. Takashi was Assistant Professor of Japanese at the Defense Language Institute (DLI) in Monterey, California, from 2006 to 2008. While he was at DLI, he also served as an ILR OPI tester and conducted Japanese speaking tests for U.S. and Canadian military personnel. Takashi also teaches Japanese as a Language Training Center (LTC) Program instructor at the University of Utah's Second Language Teaching and Research Center (L2TReC) in the summer. The LTC Program provides language and culture training for Department of Defense (DoD) personnel by leveraging existing university programs to meet the needs of DoD organizations and units.
Education
- M.A. in Linguistics – Applied Linguistics track University of Utah
- TESOL Certificate University of Utah
- B.A. in Linguistics – General/Theoretical Linguistics emphasis University of Utah
Academic Interests
- Pedagogical Grammar of English and Japanese
- Present-day Usage of English and Japanese
- Translation Studies - Translation in Language Learning
- Lexicography - Dictionaries and Language Learning
- Language Assessment - Oral Proficiency Testing
- Language Planning and Policy
Courses Taught at SLCC
- JPN 1010: First Semester Japanese
- JPN 1020: Second Semester Japanese
- JPN 1300: Beginning Japanese Conversation
- JPN 2010: Third Semester Japanese
- JPN 2020: Fourth Semester Japanese
- JPN 2300: Japanese Conversation
- JPN 2900: Special Topics in Japanese – Intensive Japanese Conversation and Culture in Practice (Japan Study Abroad Program)
Campus:
Taylorsville
Building:
Academic & Administration Building (AAB)
Room:
168
Phone:
Email:
Adjunct Faculty
Paul Cushing
Instructor
Credentials:
- MA World Languages 2017 - Russian, Arabic, and ESL endorsements, University of Utah
- BA Cum Laude 2015, Middle East Studies - Arabic Major with Hebrew Minor plus Coptic for fun, University of Utah
- BA Cum Laude 2015, Russian, University of Utah
I was born in Tooele, spent 3 years in Indiana, then seven in Anchorage, Alaska, and finally ended up back in Utah. I lived around 3 years (not consecutively) in Ukraine. During my master's program I lived with a host family in Meknes, Morocco for six weeks. My hobbies include studying languages, history, economics, politics, philosophy, and religion. I also enjoy travel, photography, cars, tinkering with computers, and video games.
Laura Marone
Instructor
Credentials:
- MA in World Languages and Cultures in Spanish, University of Utah
- BA in Spanish, University of Utah
- AAS in Culinary Arts, Jefferson College
Laura is from Napoli, Italy, where she worked as a pastry chef and cake designer in her small catering company. When she moved to the States, she completed her M.A. in Spanish Literature at the University of Utah. She is trilingual and taught Culinary Arts at college level for 9 years and first, second year and upper-level Spanish classes at the at the University of Utah, Salt Lake Community College, Utah Valley University and Westminster College. Currently, she is a full-time Adult Services librarian at the Salt Lake City Library and is an adjunct teaching Spanish courses at SLCC. She loves traveling, reading, cooking and photographing landscapes.
Andrea Ordonez
Instructor
Originally from Colombia, Andrea has taught ESL and French in Colombia, and Spanish in France. For over two decades, she has taught Spanish at the college level, previously at the University of Utah and now here at the Salt Lake Community College. She has extensive experience teaching face-to-face, hybrid, and fully online courses.
Education
- M.A. in Instructional Design and Learning Technologies, Utah State University
- M.A. in Language Pedagogy, Emphasis in Spanish, University of Utah
- B.A. Foreign Languages, English and French, University of Cauca, Colombia
Dr. Lissette Ruiz Valentin
Instructor
I hold a Ph.D. in Spanish Literature from the Department of Languages and Literatures at the University of Utah. I have taught first-year Spanish I and II at SLCC in person and via broadcast synchronous modality since 2014. During my years at SLCC, I have honed my teaching skills and stayed updated with the latest practices and methodologies in teaching Spanish as a foreign language. As an enthusiastic educator, my primary objective is to create an engaging and supportive learning environment that fosters language acquisition and inspires students to explore the Spanish language and culture.