Brenda Hales
Instructor
Brenda Hales joined the UM IEP staff in 2004 after returning from a year of teaching EFL at Hanbat National University in Daejeon, South Korea. Originally from Mississippi, Brenda received her B.A. of Education in 1970 and her M.A. in TESL in 2002 from The University of Mississippi. After twenty years working for the state and national government in social services and claims, she retired to raise her two sons. She became interested in ESL when she sponsored a French exchange student. She returned to the University of Mississippi to study French in 1999 and later ESL. Brenda loves to travel and has visited ten foreign countries. Her home is always open to international visitors.

M. Lance Herrington
Coordinator and Instructor
Originally from Texas, Lance Herrington joined the UM IEP staff in 2007.  He earned a B.A. in Art History from the University of Texas, and M.A. in Art History from the University of Mississippi, before returning to UM to study and work in TESL.  Lance previously lived in Osaka, Japan, where he taught English, and traveled extensively throughout Japan.  Since returning to Oxford, he has led groups of Ole Miss students to Japan for academic classes.  Lance enjoys learning languages.  At the college-level, he has studied French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish.  In addition, he enjoys reading, dancing, coin-collecting, foreign-language films, roller-skating, volleyball, and traveling around the U.S.

Daniela Munca
Graduate Assistant and Instructor
Prior to coming to the University of Mississippi, Daniela taught EFL in her native country, Moldova for five years. She was an ESL Instructor at ACCELS (American Councils for International Education)and worked as a FLEX (Future Leaders Exchange) program coordinator for two years, teaching students from all over Eurasia. She was interested in learning how ESL is being taught in the United States so she applied for and received a Muskie Scholarship to attend Ole Miss. She is currently a graduate assistant for the IEP in conjunction and is also getting her Masters in TESL from the Department of Modern Languages. Daniela is fluent in Romanian, Russian, French and English. She is enjoying a great learning experience at Ole Miss surrounding herself with American teachers and benefiting from the vast exchange of teaching methods.

Velsie Pate
Staff Assistant
Velsie Pate has been working at the University for 15 years in such areas as Admissions, the Registrar's Office, the School of Liberal Arts, Study Abroad, and the Office of Summer School. She has a B.A. in Music, a B.A. in English, and is currently enrolled in the M.A. program in Southern Studies. Velsie also studied Spanish abroad in Costa Rica during the summer of 2003.

Esim-Erdim Payne
Professor of Applied Linguistics and Director of the M.A. in TESL
Esim-Erdim Payne was born in Izmir, Turkey, and received her first Ph.D. in American Literature from the Faculty of Letters in Ankara University. She taught Literature and Language at Ege University, Izmir, Turkey, for a number of years before she came to the United States to work on her second Ph.D. in Translation Studies with emphasis in TESOL at Kent State University, Kent, Ohio. She is currently the director of the M.A. in TESL program in the Department of Modern Languages. She loves to read and write and enjoys meeting people from different cultures. Her main areas of interest are socio-cultural theory and second language/learning acquisition.

Tamara Warhol
Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics and Director of the Intensive English Program