Profile

Tasneem grew up in a bilingual household where her educator parents encouraged her love affair with books and deep interest for lifelong learning. Her personal experience with language learning and its challenges started her love-hate relationship with linguistics, which led to her obtaining a full ride, merit-based scholarship to study English Language Teaching (ELT) in Australia. The multitudes of her identities have served Tasneem well in her role as an ESL/ELL educator of over 15 years. She has taught in Australia, Malaysia, and in 4 different US states providing ESL/ELL services in traditional and virtual classrooms to K-12 and adult learners from all over the world. Previously, she worked as the ELL Program Director at the Literacy Council of Alaska in Interior Alaska where she managed program operations, taught English language and naturalization preparation classes, and trained volunteer tutors. She holds a Bachelor of Education Studies in Elementary TEFL from Queensland University of Technology, Australia, and obtained her Master’s in Education in Learning and Technology from Western Governors University during the pandemic in 2020. An advocate for literacy and lifelong learning, she believes that access to literacy can change one’s life. Her favorite part about her job as the adult education instructor for the API region is that she gets to learn about the local cultures and support her adult learners to achieve their educational goals. In her free time, she enjoys indulging her neurodivergent brain and dabbling in her many interests, including (but not limited to) keeping her houseplants alive, reading, and volunteering in her local community.