Instructors & Staff

All instructors are experienced in culturally and linguistically diverse issues in education. Each demonstrates strengths in different areas of need for CLD students ranging throughout elementary, middle school and senior high school levels. Their experience includes both positions as ELL or ELD specialists and /or regular-education teachers in a variety of districts and situations statewide.

Anne Wilcox, Director of Cultural & Linguistic Diversity Studies

Anne is Whitworth University’s Teacher in Residence. She is also the director of the university’s on-campus and online English Language Learner programs. Her 18 years in K-12 classrooms have focused on English as a New Language Methodology in addition to Academic Language Instruction and Assessment. She has taught academic writing skills to CLD learners at the university level. Anne enjoys consulting for school districts concerning English Proficiency and Special Education plus CLD issues. Anne is also a curriculum writer whose work has been nominated for the Gold Medallion Book Awards.

Amy Ayers

Currently Amy serves as an English Language Development specialist for Spokane Public Schools where she is the lead teacher for four elementary schools. Prior to this assignment, Amy taught in regular- education classrooms in California where the majority of her students were ELL students, and she had the opportunity to incorporate many ELL strategies in her classroom. Amy also teaches as an adjunct instructor with the undergraduate program at Whitworth University, teaching ELL strategies to pre-service education students. Amy has her B.A. and M.Ed. from Whitworth University where, as a graduate student, she helped incorporate ELL strategies into the School of Education.

Victorya Rouse

Victorya began her teaching career in the Kingdom of Swaziland in southern Africa. Since returning to the USA, she has taught English Language Development from post-graduate international students to children of recent immigrants. Since 1992, she has served as the English Language Development instructor at Ferris High School with Spokane Public Schools, providing in-service training to faculty, and serving as liaison among the mainstream teachers, administrators and English Language Development program. In fall 2007, she became the instructor for the district’s Newcomer Center. Her current title is Coordinator of Spokane Public Schools English Language Development Program. She holds a Bachelor’s from Utah State University and Master’s from Walden University.

Natasha Gerasimchuk

A native of Ukraine, Natasha began her teaching career as an elementary bilingual teacher in Agawam, Massachusetts, where she participated in designing and implementing of Transitional Bilingual Program and Sheltered English Immersion Program for English Language Learners. Since 2005 Natasha serves as K-5 English Language Development specialist for Central Valley School District where she facilitates successful inclusion of ELLs into mainstream classrooms in fourteen elementary schools by providing professional development opportunities to staff on issues of second language acquisition, culture adaptation, and research- based strategies for educating ELLs. Natasha earned her Bachelor of Education Degree from Kiev State Pedagogical University in Ukraine and Master of Arts in Elementary Education from Elms College.

Erica Uyehara

A teacher for Spokane Public Schools for 8 years, Erica’s main focus has been kindergarten through 3rd grade in the general education classroom. Most recently, Erica has been working as an interventionist for both literacy and math at the elementary school level. In addition, Erica teaches an after-school English Language Learner Homework Club where emphasis is placed on language development in correlation with what is occurring in the classroom. During the summer, Erica teaches for the Summer Language Academy at Gonzaga University to students who are culturally and linguistically diverse ranging in ages from kindergarten through adult. Erica has her B.A. and M.Ed. from Whitworth University.