Staff

Maile Broccoli-Hickey, Founder & Executive Director

Maile has been involved in immigrant services in Houston and Austin for over 14 years. During that time, she has worked as an English instructor, interpreter, program manager, and advocate. Maile is a graduate of the LBJ School of Public Affairs where her research focused on adult language acquisition and immigrant rights. She also draws on the education she received as a secretary, food service, and factory employee in her work supporting Texas’ immigrant community. Maile founded ENGLISH @ WORK while waiting tables at Guero’s Taco Bar in 2005. (Read more about Maile’s journey in starting E@W here.)

Dawn Allen, Program Director

Dawn first started teaching in 1995 and has taught Pre-K through university level students. She joined ENGLISH @ WORK as Lead Teacher in 2007 and then eventually moved into the Program Director position. In 2010 she returned to graduate school to strengthen her background in the areas of curriculum design and second language acquisition. She received her Master’s degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) at Portland State University (PSU) in 2012. At PSU, her research focused on ESL professional development, teacher advocacy, and the needs of experienced teachers. During this time she also worked on the Department of Education’s English Language Learning University (ELL-U) project, designing online professional development for ESL teachers around the country. She returned to ENGLISH @ WORK in the summer of 2012 to once again serve as Program Director. In addition to her work with immigrant and refugee students, she is also a teacher trainer and professional developer for Literacy Forward.

Rebekah Schmidt, Program Manager

Rebekah began working with ENGLISH @ WORK as an Americorps VISTA volunteer in August 2009. After completing the VISTA program, she was promoted to the Program Manager position in September 2010. Moved to address the relationships between language, education, and human rights, Bekah has been teaching ESL and working with immigrant communities for over five years. She received her Associate’s Degree from Franklin College Switzerland in Lugano, Switzerland and her Bachelor of Arts Degree (with concentrations in Spanish and Sociolinguistics) from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.

Jocelyn Connell, Business Development Associate

Jocelyn started as one of ENGLISH @ WORK’s first volunteers in 2005 while she completed her studies in Political Science and Spanish at The University of Texas at Austin. Her degree included Spanish language work and research at Tec de Monterrey in Guadalajara, Mexico.  After completing her degree, she moved to Barcelona where she taught English for two years.  In 2008, Jocelyn returned to Austin and was thrilled to reconnect as a teacher for ENGLISH @ WORK. Jocelyn has since used her teaching experience, community connections and her passion for seeing immigrants succeed to take on Business Development for ENGLISH @ WORK.

 Nathaly Salas, AmeriCorps*VISTA Volunteer

Nathaly is joining ENGLISH @ WORK as our AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer. Originally from Colombia and an ESL alum herself, she is thrilled at the opportunity to support adult literacy efforts with ENGLISH @ WORK. Nathaly attended Towson University in Maryland and received a Bachelor’s degree in International Business with a concentration in Cultural and Communication Studies. Her background in human resources led to opportunities that sparked her interest in social service. As a new transplant to Central Texas she is eager to apply her background in training and development to the collective consciousness advocating for adult literacy.