Asia
CHINA
Beijing
Vivien Chu is a Beijing independent educational consultant for School Choice International. Vivien has worked for HSBC in Hong Kong for over 10 years in client services and business development. Now in Beijing, she has knowledge of the international schools and the different Beijing school systems through her professional network and as a mother. Vivien has lived and studied in Hong Kong, England, and the United States. She has a BA from the University of California, Irvine and has a Human Resources Certification from the University of California, Los Angeles. She speaks fluent English and Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese).
Isabelle Krishana is an experienced educator, having worked in both regular and special education in New York and Massachusetts. She has worked with both gifted and special needs students as well as in a variety of settings. She also has worked in the real estate business doing both management and leasing. She most recently started a parenting consulting business in New York City and now operates that business, The Kitchen Cabinet, in both New York and Beijing, where she currently resides. Isabelle holds a BA from Princeton University and an M.Ed from Harvard University.
Theresa Zhang is the Director of the International Department for Beijing Yu Xuelin Education Technology Company. She was also the director for the Beijing TCP Center for Science and Education Development. Theresa also worked as an English teacher at the Beijing New Oriental School. She has traveled to the U.S., France and Germany and speaks fluent Mandarin. Theresa received her B.A. in English as well as her teaching diploma from Northwest Normal University in Lanzhou.
Hong Kong
Valerie Cheung Koo is a Los Angeles native with a professional background in public relations and marketing. She currently teaches conversational English, business writing, SAT/ACT prep, interview skills and IB/IGCSE coursework to locals and expats in Hong Kong. Valerie has thoroughly researched and personally navigated the complex Hong Kong international school system for her own children. She also speaks Cantonese, and is currently learning Mandarin. Valerie holds a B.A. in sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Liesbeth Briers (Liz) is an experienced teacher and art therapist, with her BA and MA in Art History from Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, and a post graduate in Arts and & Health Project Management from the University of Central Lancashire (United Kingdom). Currently she volunteers as a Project Consultant at a center for adults with learning disabilities in Hong Kong. In addition she is a freelance NET teacher of all ages for different schools throughout Hong Kong, setting up lesson plans as well as delivering them. She is fluent in English and Dutch, with good working knowledge of French and German.
Shanghai
Leslie Behnfeldt moved to Shanghai in 2004 where she volunteers at her children’s schools, leads the Girl Scout organization, and helps new families adjust to expat life in Shanghai. She is very familiar with Shanghai international school options due to her experience with her own children as well as her vast social network. Additionally, she is conversant in Mandarin and continues to take language lessons. Leslie holds a BS in Business Administration from the University of Nebraska and has 13 years of professional experience in various sales, marketing, and training positions.
Scott Foerster has taught in a variety of disciplines and traveled extensively around the world. Scott was premed in the United States, and attended Medical School in Eastern Europe before obtaining a master’s degree in Public Health. He is fluent in Hungarian and French, and has a working knowledge of German, Latin, Farsi and Sanskrit. He is currently learning Mandarin. He is very familiar with the international school pedagogical paradigm and has taught in schools in America, Europe and China. He was the Director of Shanghai International Studies University’s Summer Camp Program and has been involved in both hiring and training personnel. He is currently giving Public Health presentations on nutrition, smoking cessation and healthy choices in lifestyles.
Adrienne Harris is a Shanghai educational consultant for School Choice International. She is an educator as well as a business owner. Her 15 year career includes leadership roles in education and marketing. Adrienne’s teaching experience includes schools in the US and Asia – public, private and international. Adrienne is currently a substitute teacher and is actively involved in her children’s international school in Shanghai. She holds an Ed.S from Middle Tennessee State University, a BA in Marketing from Johnson C. Smith University and her M.Ed from Converse College. Adrienne has lived in Shanghai with her husband and children since 2005.
TAIWAN
Taipei
Jennifer Coye worked in publishing at Simon and Schuster and at Macmillan for ten years and is the co-author of “Once Upon a Heroine: 450 Books for Girls to Love.” She was an editorial consultant on children’s books for the catalog “A Common Reader” and currently is a docent at the National Palace Museum in Taipei. She has a Bachelor’s in English from Occidental College.
INDIA
Bangalore
Palli Mavani moved from Mumbai to Bangalore in 2000. She has a Bachelor’s degree from Bombay University and two years of Law School. She has assisted many expatriates with settling in Bangalore and had the opportunity to conduct an extensive personal school search.
Millie Mitra taught Geography and Social Studies at a leading girls’ school in Mumbai. She also helped design the curriculum for an NGO program that involves the education of street children in Mumbai. In addition, she provided the content for a CD-ROM that schools used to prepare students in Geography for the Indian Certificate and Secondary Examination. She has also lived in Sri Lanka where she taught for two years at the international school. Millie graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics followed by a Bachelor’s in Education from Bombay University.
Chandigarh
Manveen Kaur is an educational consultant for School Choice International in Chandigarh, India. For the last five years, Manveen has been on the board of directors forVivekHigh School in Mohali. She is well versed in the educational system in India (including boarding schools). Manveen has a B.A. from Punjab University, Chandigarh and is an active part of the old Sanawarian Society. She speaks fluent Hindi and Punjabi.
Chennai
Sanjeevi Arul Joseph, born and educated in the southern state of Tamilnadu, India, was an English lecturer at the Madras Presidency College until 1981. Later, he was hired by the Government of Brunei as a secondary and tertiary teacher of English. There, Sanjeevi gathered diverse experiences including relocating Brunei Shell expatriate staff. In 2004 he moved to the United States where he did graduate studies in Education at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. His academic qualifications and rich multicultural experience gained him a teaching position at the prestigious Heritage Christian School at Hillsboro in Oregon.
Mumbai
Viral Doshi has been involved in the field of education and career guidance for over twenty four years. Having lived between New York, London and Mumbai for half his life, he relocated to Mumbai in 1997. Viral is an educational advisor to various schools and colleges in India and regularly organizes career fairs and career talks for students. Viral holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Cornell University in Operations Research in Industrial Engineering.
Lisa Scadron, a native of Tucson, Arizona, attended boarding school in Southern India at the age of ten. The experience proved to be a pivotal one, leading, ultimately, to her recent relocation from the United States to India. Lisa graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from Stanford University and works as an artist and consultant on a variety of education related projects.
Ipshita Sharma is a Mumbai educational consultant for School Choice International. She has worked as an education consultant/curriculum designer for an educational enterprise, where she was involved in designing curriculum for primary school children. This position included researching and structuring classroom learning sessions for students. She graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in English from Gargi College, Delhi University. Her volunteer activities in India include being a part of adult literacy programs and conducting storytelling workshops for children.
New Delhi
Rajika Anand has close to 15 years of experience as an educator – both as a teacher and an administrator. She spent 3 years in Thailand where she gained valuable international experience at the British School in Bangkok. As someone who has been through a relocation, she understands the importance of finding the right school for one’s children – an important component in the settling-down process. She graduated from Calcutta University with a B.A. (English – Honours) and obtained her Bachelor of Education from Annamalai University. She speaks English, Hindi, Bengali and a smattering of Thai.
JAPAN
Nagoya
Jeff Singal has been actively involved in the fields of international education and special education in the US and Japan for over fifteen years. He is currently teaching English at a private junior and senior high school in Nagoya, as well as business English classes at a local company. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Social Science from Hofstra University, and both a Master’s in Intercultural Management with a focus in International Education and TESOL certification from the School for International Training.
Tokyo
Ellen Yaegashi is an educational consultant in Tokyo for School Choice International. Ellen has spent thirteen of the last twenty years in Japan. She has taught in the Japanese private and public education systems and is currently teaching literacy at an international school kindergarten. Ellen has experience with international and local schools in Japan, Switzerland and Russia. She has a Master’s degree in Comparative Culture with an emphasis on Japanese History and is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science with an emphasis on the information literacy needs of children in the digital era. Ellen volunteers at TELL (Tokyo English Life Line) and speaks Japanese, German, Russian and some French.
Marion Yanase is a long-term resident of Japan who, until recently, taught at the International School of the Sacred Heart as the Computer Coordinator/HOD. She was also the Faculty representative/liaison for the Friends of ISSH-Tennis Circle at the school. While at Sacred Heart, she served on various committees including the Steering Board Committee for the school’s accreditation with ECIS and WASC. Marion is still an active board member of the Japanese affiliate of ASCD (Association of Supervisory and Curriculum Development) based in Alexandria, VA. In addition to her work with School Choice International, she holds a part time position of Events, Fund-raising and Communications Coordinator for TELL Japan, Telephone English Life Line, an NPO providing mental health care for the English-speaking community in Japan.
MALAYSIA
Kuala Lumpur
Melanie Brodie is an experienced educator, special educator and teacher librarian who has worked in national schools in Australia; and in International Schools in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, and Malaysia. A mother of three, Melanie knows the trials and tribulations of relocating to new countries and helping children and families settle into their new environments. Melanie is currently completing her Master of Teacher Librarianship from Charles Sturt University and is fluent to conversational level in Bahasa Indonesian.
SINGAPORE
Singapore
Maryam Farzaneh has had a broad range of international experience living and working in New York, London, Dubai and currently Singapore. Having relocated several times with children, she has become active in International School governance. Her professional life began with managing a radiology practice in New York City. She then held a position as Public Relations Manager for a Dubai-based communications company. Prior to her move to Singapore, Maryam was a Project Manager supporting Cisco System’s marketing initiatives in the Middle East. She completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Biology at Fordham University.
Ardythe Huber-Fenwick began her international experience in Switzerland where she obtained her RSA Certificate for ESL and taught at a popular language school. The past fifteen years have been spent in the Asia Pacific Region: Melbourne, Jakarta, Hong Kong and currently Singapore. Ardythe is presently active in education, teaching English conversation at a Japanese high school and substituting at one of the international schools. She has a background in educational advising, and assisting Indonesian students planning to study at universities in the United States. Ardythe holds a Bachelor’s degree and teaching credential from California State University Chico.
Purni Rao Ferrin is an expatriate currently living in Singapore. She has relocated many times and has knowledge of the educational systems in numerous countries including those in India, Hong Kong, and the United States. Purni’s educational experience includes teaching conversational English at a Japanese school, volunteering in schools, and working as a docent at the Asian Civilizations Museum in Singapore. Purni holds an MBA in Finance from Indiana University, a BA in Biology from California State University Dominguez Hills, and a B.Sc from the University of Mysore. She is bilingual in English and Kannada, and is also conversant in French, Hindi, and Cantonese.
Devina Kinze-Sudjito is a Singapore Educational Consultant. Devina has extensive international relocation experience, having lived in Jakarta, Australia, the US, the UK, and Germany. As an expatriate living in Singapore, she has done an in-depth research of Singapore’s International and Local School Systems for her own children. In Frankfurt, she was an Industrial Engineer with FedEx Europe. Now in Singapore, she founded DS&K Consulting and works with the Asia Professional Speakers Singapore. Devina holds a BSc in Architecture and a BFA in Graphic Design from The University of Michigan, and a MSc in Management of Information Systems from The University of Manchester. She is a Parent Volunteer in her children’s school, and is an active Member of the American Association in Singapore. Devina is bilingual in Indonesian, fluent in German and Malay and currently studying Mandarin.
Lynne Toh is an Educational Consultant for Singapore. Lynne was born in Singapore and began her career in education when she started creating illustrations for an interactive education program. Her path crossed over to international education when she moved to Portland, Oregon, where she began as an International Student Specialist (Admission & Recruitment) at Maryhurst University. Before returning to Singapore in 2007, Lynne Toh was Director of International Recruitment for Clark College, Washington, USA. Lynne has more than 11 years of experience in counseling students on academic planning. She also worked with US universities and colleges in building programs and developing strategies for international student recruitment. Lynne is a graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute and is fluent in Mandarin.
Denise Vander Vorst is an independent educational consultant for the School Choice Group in Singapore. Denise understands the challenges of international relocation and learned how to maneuver through the Singapore school system to find the right place for her own child. Prior to Singapore, she worked in marketing at various consumer goods companies in the US and Europe. Denise holds an MBA in strategic brand management and a BS in Business Administration. Denise volunteers at her son’s school and for Caring for Cambodia, which delivers high-quality education for children in Siem Reap. Before Singapore, Denise has lived in the US, UK, Belgium and Hong Kong.
THAILAND
Bangkok
Theresa Turner has lived in Canada, the United States, Japan, Thailand, and Burma/Myanmar. She has taught social sciences, literature and ESL at the secondary and tertiary levels and has worked for governmental and non-governmental organizations. Proficient in Japanese, Thai, and some French, she holds a Masters degree in Political Science and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Western Ontario. Her Bachelor of Education with qualifications in Special Needs is from the University of Toronto.
