Elissa McLean
Founder, Director, and Spanish Instructor
Elissa founded Express Fluency in 2012 to bring Comprehensible-Input based language classes to adults. Tired of hearing (almost) everyone say “I studied (fill in the blank) language in school for 4 years and I can’t speak a word now” – she decided to be part of a movement to change that. She holds a Masters degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and has taught Spanish to students from preschool to college and adults. Prior to teaching Spanish full-time she co-founded two innovative expedition-based high schools. She loves to travel, meet new people, spend time with her friends and family, and help bring more joy and multilingualism into the world. Learn more about Elissa here.
Rebecca Rice
Spanish Instructor
Rebecca has been teaching middle and high school Spanish since 2009. She studied Spanish Language and Literature with a concentration in Education at Guilford College in North Carolina. During this time Rebecca lived and studied in Guadalajara, Mexico and worked with a local grassroots organization, teaching and surveying in small, urban communities outside of Guadalajara. Rebecca has traveled and studied in Mexico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Puerto Rico. She employs a variety of teaching techniques and strategies. Her classes are playful and are sure to get you thinking in Spanish. In her free time Rebecca and her husband Chris raise their two young boys, Jeremiah and Louis (in Spanish of course!) She also loves to rock climb, grow delicious food, practice yoga, and spin.
Rocío Jacoby
Spanish Instructor
Rocío Jacoby was born and raised in Trujillo, Peru and moved to the USA in 2000. Rocio holds National Board Certification in World Language Spanish and has taught elementary and middle school Spanish for 20 years. She holds Spanish and ESL endorsements and previously taught ESL at the college level. Rocio received her M.Ed. in Instructional Leadership from the University of Illinois -Chicago and her BS in Education – Foreign Language from Universidad Nacional de Trujillo, Peru. She has presented at ACTFL, ICTFL, NNELL, Conference in the Cloud and worked as an Apprentice Coach at iFLT. She is raising her 3 children to be bicultural, bilingual, global citizens. She shares her passion for language acquisition and teaching through her daily classes, professional conferences, mentoring of colleagues, and school and district level committee work. She continues improving her Acquisition Driven Instruction skills and looks forward to helping and supporting other educators in their ADI journey as well.
Victoria Maximova
Italian Instructor
Victoria Maximova Oliva lives in Turin, Italy. Victoria taught Italian in an IBSTorino Language Center. In addition, she was a freelance interpreter and translator. After fifteen years in the classroom, she retired and now teaches Italian on Zoom.
Sophie Forker
French Instructor
Sophie Forker is a French and Spanish teacher at Eleanor Roosevelt High School in New York City. She grew up in Brooklyn and acquired French in a variety of contexts over the last two decades, including schooling from middle grades through her graduate program, studying abroad in France, and teaching in immersion environments such as summer camps and dual language education programs. Sophie is finishing their 5th year teaching French, following completion of their Master’s in language education from New York University. Sophie lives in Brooklyn with her partner, three very stoic reptiles and two very spirited dogs.
Alice Ayel
French Instructor
Alice Ayel is originally from Paris and has been a teacher of French and Spanish for more than 15 years. She is the founder of Le Français Naturellement. Currently, Alice is well known for her videos based on the Story Listening approach, and she teaches languages online to people from all over the world. She is on a mission: French acquisition for all with optimal input.
