Faculty

Raieda Ishak, M.A. TESOL
Academic Director, English Language Programs Division

Raieda has more than 20 years of experience as an instructor of English and as a teacher trainer in the United States and the Middle East.  She grew up speaking three languages which fostered her appreciation of language and intercultural dynamics.  Her MATESOL is from the University of Washington.

Claire Rzegocki, M.A. TESOL

Claire has worked in Costa Rica, Mexico, the West Bank, and the US as a teacher of English.  She has studied in Spain and Cuba.  She has worked with students of all ages and has taught in our summer programs for Spanish teenagers as well as our Intensive English Program.  Her MATESOL is from the University of Washington and she is fluent in Spanish.

Hong Ying Douglas, M.A., Education, MBA

Hong's MA in Education focused on language and literacy.  She taught English for several years at the University of Arizona before returning to school to earn her MBA at the University of Colorado.  She resettled in Seattle where she returned to teaching English.  Her English teaching career spans more than 20 years.  She currently teaches in the Intensive English Program and in our graduate Teacher Education program.

Gurpreet Erickson, M.Ed.

Gurpreet completed her undergraduate work in Romance Linguistics at the University of Washington and worked for many years at Microsoft before deciding to teach.  She returned to the University of Washington where she focused on language, literacy and culture with a specialization in teaching English to non-native speakers. 

Michael Posner

Michael has twenty-five years of experience teaching ESL/EFL. He has an academic background in Chinese Language and Literature and a degree in Comparative Literature from the University of Washington. He lived in Taiwan for seven years where he taught English and perfected his Mandarin. After returning to Seattle, he completed graduate work in TESOL. He is a Senior Instructor at WAL. He has presented at TESOL, WAESOL, TRI-TESOL and the Indiana State Adult Education ESL Conference.

Hideki Aikoh

Hideki specializes in working with beginning English language learners in the Intensive English Program.  He completed his graduate work in TESOL at the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont where he also taught.  He has been teaching since 1991.

Additional adjunct faculty work at WAL throughout the year.