Faculty and Staff Directory

We're proud of our dedicated faculty and staff, who strive to advance an appreciation of languages and an understanding of diverse cultural perspectives from around the world. Our faculty specialize in a variety of areas and produce world-class research that advances the theory and practice of languages and literature.

Tenure-Track Faculty
Instructional Faculty
Teaching and Graduate Assistants
Staff
Emeritus

Tenure-Track Faculty

Name	Area	Title	Email	Phone	Office
Shannon Becker	French	Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies	sbecker@niu.edu	N/A	WH 115
Jessamine Cooke-Plagwitz	German and Applied Linguistics	Associate Professor and Assistant Department Chair	jpcooke@niu.edu	815-753-6448	WH 118
Mandy Faretta-Stutenberg	Spanish Linguistics	Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies	mfs@niu.edu askfl@niu.edu for all advising inquiries	815-753-8396	WH 117
Frances Jaeger	Spanish	Associate Professor	fjaeger@niu.edu	N/A	WH 311
Nancy Dominguez-Fret	Spanish Linguistics and Educator Licensure	Assistant Professor and Director of Educator Licensure	ndominguezfret@niu.edu	815-753-6443	WH 114
Linda Saborío	Spanish	Associate Professor and Chair	lsaborio@niu.edu	815-753-6451	WH 111
Francisco Solares-Larrave	Spanish	Associate Professor	fsolares@niu.edu	N/A	WH 311
Tharaphi Than	Burmese	Associate Professor	tthan@niu.edu	815-753-6453	WH 122
Kanjana Thepboriruk	Thai	Associate Professor	kanjana@niu.edu	815-753-6535	WH 116
Laura Vilardell	Spanish	Associate Professor	lvilardell@niu.edu	N/A	WH 119
Stephen Vilaseca	Spanish	Professor	svilaseca@niu.edu	815-753-6463	WH 315

Instructional Faculty

Name	Area	Email	Phone	Office
Rahmi Aoyama	Indonesian	rhartati1@niu.edu	815-753-6450	WH 113
Emilio Aviles-Casquet	Spanish	eaviles@niu.edu	N/A	WH 313
Karla Castellanos	ASL	kcastellanos1@niu.edu	N/A	WH 310
Lady Cohen	Spanish	lcohen2@niu.edu	N/A	WH 313
Riyuko Furukawa	Japanese	rfurukawa@niu.edu	N/A	WH 308
Rhodalyne Gallo-Crail	Tagalog	rgallocrail@niu.edu	815-753-6457	WH 309
Kheang Leang	Khmer	kleang1@niu.edu	815-753-7117	N/A
Karima Mihoubi	French	kmihoubi@niu.edu	N/A	WH 316
Frank Plagwitz	German	fplagwitz1@niu.edu	N/A	N/A
Yaniz Rodriguez	Spanish	yrodriguez7@niu.edu	N/A	WH 317
Dawn Rogodzinski-Lisa	Spanish	drogi@niu.edu	815-753-6918	WH 120
Anna Saprykina	French	asaprykina@niu.edu	N/A	WH 314
Juan Tinoco	Educator Licensure	jtinoco@niu.edu	N/A	WH 112
Dawn Westhoff	ASL	dwesthoff1@niu.edu	N/A	WH 312

Teaching and Graduate Assistants

Jessica Arzate	Learning Center	Graduate Assistant	jarzate2@niu.edu	WH 101
Alondra Gamez	Spanish	Graduate Assistant	z1903946@students.niu.edu	WH 123
Alejandra Garcia	Spanish	Graduate Assistant	agarcia34@niu.edu	WH 123
Ratrika Nugrahaeni	Indonesian	Fulbright Teaching Assistant	z2115654@students.niu.edu	WH 123
Boonyarit Sahunan	Thai	Fulbright Teaching Assistant	z2115300@students.niu.edu	WH 301
Wiramon Sangsuwan	Thai	Fulbright Teaching Assistant	z2069956@students.niu.edu	WH 301

Staff

Name	Title	Email	Phone	Office
Karen Mantz	Office Manager	kmantz@niu.edu	815-753-6441	WH 111
Concepcion Gliesman	Coordinator, Foreign Language Residence Program	cgliesma@niu.edu	815-753-6452	WH 121

Emeritus

Name	Language	Email
Katharina Barbe	German	kbarbe1@niu.edu
John Bentley	Japanese	Jbentley1@niu.edu
Dennis Brain	German	dbrain1@niu.edu
Louise Ciallella	Spanish	lciallella2@niu.edu
Mary Lee Cozad	Spanish	mcozad1@niu.edu
William Harrison	Spanish and Portuguese	wharrison@niu.edu
John Hartmann	Thai	jhartmann@niu.edu
Patricia Henry	Indonesian	phenry@niu.edu
Joanna Kot	Russian	jkot1@niu.edu
Maryline Lukacher	French	mlukache@niu.edu
Eloy Merino	Spanish	emerino1@niu.edu
Chris Nissen	Italian	cnissen4@niu.edu
Grant Olson	Language Learning Center and Thai	golson@niu.edu
Greg Ross	Foreign Language Residence Program and French	gross2@niu.edu
Jack Weiner	Spanish	amalia1@rcn.com

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World Languages and Cultures
Watson Hall 111
815-753-1501
askfl@niu.edu