The Chapel Hill Institute of Cultural and Language Education header

101 East Weaver Street, Suite G1
Carrboro, NC 27510
(3rd floor above Weaver Street Market)
Telephone: (919) 933-0398
Fax: (919) 933-1142
Email: chicle@chi-cle.com

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Office staffABOUT OUR STAFF

Miriam Palacio is CHICLE’s Program Director. She is the person you are most likely to communicate with in the office. Miriam is married to Enrique Palacio and ran a Mexican handicrafts import business for 18 years. She loves Mexican arts and crafts. She has an MA in English, has taught ESL in New York, Chicago, Mobile, and Mexico City. She volunteers at the animal shelter and for hospice.

Jane Stein is CHICLE’s Business Director and computer guru. She has a doctorate in Public Health from UNC where she has taught research methods and seminars in international health. Jane has worked as a research consultant in Africa, Asia, Mexico, and Central America. She is on the board of Orange Networking and Piedmont Health Services.

Sharon Mújica is Outreach Director of Latin American Studies at UNC-CH and grew up in Chapel Hill. She lived in Mexico for 20 years where she taught English and translated for the Office of the President. Sharon also has a passion for Mexican art and Latin American literature and cinema. She organizes a Latin American film festival each November at local universities.

Perla Saitz is CHICLE’s Program Coordinator. Perla is from Mexico City where she taught both English and Spanish. She has taught at CHICLE since we opened in 1999 and, with Craig Snyder, developed our new curriculum. She hires and coordinates our teachers, which is, as they say, a little like herding cats. Perla also translates, manages translations, and develops our intensive and profession-specific materials. She is also a perfectionist.

Pilar Lotero Peters comes from Bogotá, Colombia where she worked for Berlitz teaching Spanish and English for 14 years. She is CHICLE’s most experienced teacher and a strict taskmaster whose students always request that she continue to be their teacher. Pilar has worked at CHICLE since 2000. Pilar is our resident artist and her art is on display in our offices.

Alejandra Russell is also from Mexico City and has lived in Chapel Hill for many years. She has worked at CHICLE since 2000. Alejandra organizes and teaches our children’s classes, summer camps, teaches adults, translates, and helps in the office. Thanks to Alejandra, we have an outstanding children's Spanish program which is now expanding into other language classes for children. She is endlessly creative in developing learning materials for children of all ages.

Bernard Luscans teaches and coordinates our French classes. He is a native of Toulouse. Bernard is a doctoral student in UNC’s Romance Languages department, focusing on 21st century French novels. He has coordinated our French program since its inception and developed courses in history, film, and current events. He has a group of very loyal students.

Grazia Sala teaches our Italian language and cooking classes. She is originally from Milan and has been with us since 2003. She much prefers cold weather to our climate.

Marcela Waters is our indispensable office worker/teacher/interpreter. If you come to the office in the evening, you will most likely see her. She is from Cali, Colombia, has a degree in biology, and previously taught high school.

We have about fifteen to twenty additional teachers at any given time. All of our teachers have teaching experience and are trained to use our materials. Most of our teachers are native speakers. Those who are not have lived in a country where the language they teach is spoken and are completely bilingual.

About CHICLE

Directions to CHICLE

How we teach

Meet some of our students and teachers

Please call us at (919) 933-0398 or e-mail us if you want more information.

Copyright 2006. All rights reserved.