faculty
meet our Team
Jan Kirkham
Interim Director of Center for Teaching & Learning
Phone:
(217) 206-6645
E-mail: jkirk1@uis.edu
Dana Atwell
ESL/IEP Coordinator
Brookens 457
Phone: (217) 206-8356
E-mail: ddersh1@uis.edu
Read about Dana on the CTL Staff page.
Jonathan "JB" Barnett 
IEP Peer Mentor
Brookens 448
Phone: (217) 206-8577
E-mail: esl@uis.edu
JB is a senior majoring in Psychology and minoring in visual arts. Before coming to UIS JB attended the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He previously spent a year in South Africa and Swaziland doing missionary work with orphanages and homeless shelters. He enjoys doing pottery, playing broomball, reading (fiction) novels, and watching documentaries. He got married last May.
Driss El-Akrich 
ESL Adjunct Instructor
Brookens 412
Phone: (217) 206-9050
E-mail: delak2@uis.edu
Driss El-Akrich is an international student from Morocco currently working on his doctorate in UIS' Public Administration Program. He received his B.A. in Art in English (with a concentration in Applied Linguistics) from University Moulay Ismail in Meknes, Morocco, and his M.A. in Political Science and Public Administration from Arkansas State University. He is fluent in English, Arabic, and French. He has earned a plethora of accolades for his academic excellence and expertise in teaching foreign languages. He is adept at adapting to institutional, geographic, and hierarchical changes.
Catelin Murphy 
ESL Adjunct Instructor
Brookens 410
Phone: (217) 206-8573
E-mail: cmurp3@uis.edu
Catelin received her B.A. in Communications and Spanish at Saint Louis University, and her M.A. in Teaching English as a Second Language from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. She has experience working with a variety of ESL learners at the university and adult education levels, and has been a private tutor for students ranging in age from 4 to 64. She also works as a writer and feels that the only thing better than getting to tell other people's stories is having the opportunity to help her students tell their own stories in a new language. In her spare time, she enjoys pilates, reading library books and riding her bike.
Nikki Overcash 
ESL Adjunct Instructor
Brookens 410
Phone: (217) 206-8573
E-mail: nover01s@uis.edu
Nikki received her M.A. in English from the University of Illinois Springfield. She loves to travel and has completed study abroad programs in Japan, Eastern Europe, and Scotland. In addition, she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Chongqing, China from 2007-2009. She has been teaching English as a Second Language courses since 2005. In her free time she enjoys sewing, reading, and cooking.
Jackie Tanner 
ESL Adjunct Instructor
Brookens 412
Phone: (217) 206-9050
E-mail: jtann2@uis.edu
Jackie received her M.A. from the University of Pittsburgh. While at U of Pittsburgh she spent a year studying abroad at the University of Siegen in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. She has over twenty-five years of experience teaching ESL at schools across the U.S. to speakers from around the world. She specializes in the areas of teaching reading and writing and has presented at TESOL conferences on the subject of "Achieving Fluency Through Literature." She continues to research recent topics to improve second-language learning skills in the classroom. In her spare time she enjoys walking, biking and singing.
Elizabeth Thai
ESL Program Assistant
Brookens 448
Phone: (217) 206-8577
E-mail: esl@uis.edu
Elizabeth received her B.A. in Classical Civilization (and minor in English) from the University of California, Irvine. She is working on her M.A. in English. When she's not studying, working, or watching TV, she likes to geek out with Vergil and Aeneas. She is trying to learn Attic Greek.
