School of Education | Research, Discovery, and Innovation (RDI) | Project Ignite | About Ignite

About Ignite

The TESOL faculty, Drs. Ye He, Jamie Schissel, Melody Zoch, have been awarded funding from a National Professional Development (NPD) Grant through the Office of English Language Acquisition from 2021-2026. This grant, Project Ignite, enables us to support enrollment and involvement in the TESOL program at UNCG. Specifically, Project Ignite provides tuition support and professional learning opportunities for in-service and preservice teachers teaching in North Carolina or seeking NC teaching licensure to support equitable instruction for Multilingual learners and their families.

Meet Us

  • Melody Zoch, PhD, Lead Principal Investigator
  • Jamie Schissel, PhD, Co-PI
  • Ye He, PhD, Co-PI
  • Angela Neblett, Project Manager
  • Tiffany Tovey, PhD, Project Evaluator
  • Brian Hutchins, PhD, Project Evaluator
  • Dr. Jennifer Arcila, Program Associate/Lecturer
  • Sara Abbas, Graduate Research Assistant for in-service programming
  • Ricardo Bernal De La Ossa, Graduate Research Assistant for PLC programming
  • Malitsitso Moteane, Graduate Research Assistant for evaluation
  • Natasha Monteith, Graduate Research Assistant for evaluation

In addition to the project team, the Advisory Board consists of faculty and collaborators from local school districts and in the NC Department of Public Instruction (NCDPI).

  • Dr. Leslie Baldwin, World Languages Director, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools
  • Dr. Mariche Bayonas, Department Chair of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at UNC Greensboro
  • Dr. Emily Bivins, ESL and DL educator (retired)
  • Diana Castano, Bilingual Program Instructional Coach, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools
  • Dr. Scott Howerton, Clinical Associate Professor of Elementary Education at UNC Greensboro
  • Dr. Barb Levin, Professor Emeritus at UNC Greensbor, Real World English coordinator and instructor
  • Ivanna Mann Thrower Anderson, ESL/Title III Consultant, NCDPI
  • Kimberly Pilling, Director of Global Languages, Guilford County Schools
  • David Sisk, English Learner and Title III Programs Director, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools
  • Analia Wells, DL Coordinator, Guilford County Schools