Leadership

Founder and Executive Director: Angela Jackson

Angela Jackson founded Global Language Project after her experience working with multinational companies and traveling abroad. She was most recently head of New Channels Marketing at Nokia, responsible for managing the North American marketing and strategic-partnership development for Nokia's Nseries brand. In addition, Angela sat on a cross-divisional, global team that outlined Nokia's best practices for improving profitability and increasing market share in Asia.

Angela joined Nokia from MTV Networks, where she served as Director of Retail Development. Prior to MTV, she worked with Nickelodeon Networks in their Consumer Products Division, and for Universal Studios in various capacities including marketing and sales.

Angela is fluent in English and French. She is a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia, with Bachelor's degrees in Journalism and History.

Executive Board

Angela Jackson, Founder and CEO

Justyn Makarewycz, Board Chair

ReMale James, Board Secretary

Board of Directors

Silvia Alvarez, Bloomberg Sports

Walter Amarteifio, New York Life Insurance

Carrie S. Barnes, American Express

Krystal Kaplan, Pace University

Juan Maldonado, The Financial Clinic

Board of Advisors

Marty Abbott, American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages

Irma Evangelista, New York University

Marla Guess, Wireless Generation

Denise Joly, Coty Beauty, Inc.

Julia Pimsleur Levine, Little Pim

Michelle Tong, Asian American Federation

 

Staff

Victoria Gilbert, Curriculum Director

Victoria Gilbert, Ph.D. designed GLP's pilot Spanish program, and is a believer in GLP's mission to empower disadvantaged schoolchildren with foreign-language skills that will benefit their futures. Dr. Gilbert earned her Doctorate in Educational Leadership in the Curriculum & Teaching Department at Teachers College-Columbia University in 2005. A native speaker of Spanish and fluent speaker of French, she has taught Science and Foreign Languages for over 20 years at Saint David's School in New York City.

As an art-history undergraduate major, Dr. Gilbert has always believed in the importance of understanding culture to bring understanding of a people and their world. Learning a language involves studying modes of communication, an understanding of the target culture, and making connections and comparisons across disciplines and communities until one understands others as well as oneself.

Dr. Gilbert considers herself lucky to have lived in Europe, South America and in the U.S. Having learned foreign languages at an early age, she once told her mom, "Mommy, do you know that if you speak more languages, you can make more friends?" Dr. Gilbert's experiences throughout the years have proven that the knowledge of foreign languages is beneficial to all students, and that people can affect others positively when addressing people in their own language.

Anne Lacoste Kapstein, Program Manager

Anne Kapstein is a dual national French-American. She comes from a bilingual and multi-cultural home and has always felt strongly about bilingual and cross-cultural education. Anne comes to GLP with a dual background in international relations and education, spending three years working with the United Nations in Middle Eastern Affairs. In addition, Anne worked with international and non-government organizations including the United Nations University, the Center for Victims of Torture, and Planned Parenthood.

In 2009, Anne decided to change career paths and set off to teach English as a Second Language in South Korea. Her experience teaching made her realize that education was her true passion. Most recently, Anne spent a year in Paris teaching executives business English. Anne holds a postgraduate degree from the University of Sussex in England in Cross Cultural Research, and a B.A. from Hamline University in Social Justice. She is fluent in French, proficient in Spanish and is currently learning Arabic.

Helena Zeweri, Program Assistant

Helena Zeweri joined Global Language Project in December 2010, and was excited to be part of an effort that engages the local community and emphasis language as a means to achieve educational equality and access to a broader array of social opportunities.

Helena is currently pursuing a second MA in anthropology at the New School for Social Research. She received her first MA in Near Eastern Studies from New York University and her BA in Middle Eastern and Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia University. Currently, Helena is working on a chapter for an edited volume, which explores the ways in which online Muslim American women's groups contribute new ways of destabilizing popular ideas of gender, class, and politics. Some of Helena's research has been featured in the recently published Encyclopedia of Asian American Folklore and Folklife (ABC-CLIO, 2010). Helena is also Director of Research for Femin Ijtihad, an organization that aims to share analyses of academic scholarship on Muslim women's rights to activists working at the grassroots level.