DIRECTOR - Philippa is a teacher development specialist with over 35 years’ experience in English language teaching. Her experience includes teaching and teacher training in multiple contexts including Australia, Spain, China, Chile, Hong Kong, Japan, Vietnam, Thailand, Brazil, Taiwan, Republic of South Korea and the United Arab Emirates. She has worked extensively with international teachers in the areas of English language teaching, Content and Language Integrated Learning and English as a Medium of Instruction.

DIRECTOR — Fiona is an award-winning teacher development specialist and international education leader with more than 25 years’ experience in language education, professional learning and education management. She has led initiatives across 16 countries and held senior academic management roles at RMIT University Vietnam and The University of Queensland. At QI, Fiona works with governments, universities and schools to design teacher development programs that create meaningful impact for educators and institutions.

CONSULTANT - Ceara is a language arts and literacy specialist with over 30 years’ experience in language teaching. She has taught in the UK, Italy, Serbia and Hong Kong teaching students from ages three to 88. She is the Director of The Chalk Crew, an innovative language arts program that encourages creativity and critical thinking skills through books and story-telling. Ceara also lectures in Reading at the University of Queensland’s School of Languages & Culture and has extensive experience in Content and Language Integrated Learning and EMI contexts.

CONSULTANT - Vicki is a teacher development specialist with 25 years' experience in language education. Vicki has taught in Australia, Japan, Macau, Brazil, and Chile, and has extensive experience as a language teacher and teacher trainer. She has designed and delivered a large number of customised programs in Teacher Development and Content & Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) for school teachers and university academics. She is also passionate about language assessment, action research and teaching English through music and song. During her time at the University of Queensland, Vicki conducted the award-winning student choir, The Chorus. She currently conducts the UQ Voices choir and is the Director of Teaching in Harmony.

CONSULTANT - Tim is an education technology specialist with 25 years' experience in English language teaching. Tim has taught in Australia, Japan, and South Africa, where he delivered an ESP (English for Specific Purposes) course for the Australia Awards for Africa program, funded by AusAID. During his time at the University of Queensland’s ICTE, Tim played a role in the development of the tech systems and tools for the edX MOOC, IELTSx, which has had more than 1.2million enrolments. He now works as a principal learning designer at the UQ Institute for Teaching & Learning.

CONSULTANT - Peter is an education technology specialist and joined the QI team in April, 2022. He works across a range of projects to support QI programs, marketing, and education technology in our courses. Peter began his career as an English teacher after completing his degree at the University of Otago in New Zealand, his Cambridge CELTA at the University of Queensland and DELTA at International House in Thailand. He has lived in Brisbane since 2014, and brings a breadth of experience in international education having worked at Browns English Language School, The University of Queensland, UQ College, QUT and ILSC Brisbane. Peter is also an avid podcaster and edu-influencer, having created over 500 English teaching podcasts and language-related video content pieces for TikTok.

JUNIOR CONSULTANT - Cristina joined the Queensland Institute Pty Ltd in December, 2021 after completing her Master of Applied Linguistics (TESOL) at The University of Queensland. Cristina supports QI external communication projects and community engagement events for the QI Global Educator Network (GenQI). Cristina is a qualified secondary school teacher in Chile and has studied abroad in the United States and Australia. In addition to her work with QI, Cristina works at DXC Technology, a global IT and data systems company in Brisbane. She is passionate about languages, learning about different cultures, and education technology in the language classroom.

JUNIOR CONSULTANT - Leslie joined the Queensland Institute team in April, 2023 while completing her Master of Applied Linguistics (TESOL) at The University of Queensland (UQ). Leslie supports QI Program Support administration and facilitates community events for our course participants and alumni. Leslie began her career as an English language teacher in Hubei, China, after completing a Bachelor of Education at Central China Normal University and an MBA at Deakin University. Leslie draws on her own experience in international education, having previously studied in Melbourne, Australia since 2015. Leslie also teaches part time at Albright Institute of Business and Language in Brisbane. She is passionate about TESOL education, singing, and supporting international students.

JUNIOR CONSULTANT - Yukari joined QI in January, 2022 to support QI community engagement events for our QI Global Educator Network (GenQI) and external communications. Yukari began her career as a secondary English teacher with the Tokyo Metropolitan School District, Japan, after graduating from Seikei University. She also teaches English to young learners online as a volunteer. Yukari is based in Tokyo but draws on her own experience in international education having previously studied in Australia at The University of Queensland (UQ) in 2017. Yukari is passionate about creative approaches to language teaching and intercultural communication projects.

CONSULTANT - Melika was a teacher development specialist with more than 21 years’ experience in language education, with a focus on Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). During her last 15 years at the University of Queensland (UQ), Melika trained teachers from Southeast Asia and South America, and visited institutions in Japan, Macau, Vietnam, Chile and Brazil to deliver CLIL programs. Melika also consulted on language testing and assessment in the Pacific. Sadly, Melika passed away peacefully on 16 March 2024. We honour her memory as a founding member of our team HERE.