Contacts

This page helps to bring together linguists who are employed in the private sector with those who would like to be. (updated 09JAN03)

The linguists listed below have kindly volunteered to answer any queries that are not addressed by either the Advice page or the discussion Forum. Look over the list for linguists whose interests match your own, and click on their e-mail addresses to send them your questions.

Some of these linguists have agreed to serve as Linguistic Enterprises mentors-- to provide a self-sustaining, year-round source of support for young linguists until they get established in their careers. Mentors are indicated below by the word Mentor after their biographical information, followed by a number indicating how many 'mentees' they are able to take on.

>> Add your name to the list of contacts
if you wish to be listed as a Mentor, please indicate number of 'mentees'

>> Mike Cahill (Mike_Cahill@sil.org)

Interests: Fieldwork outside the American classroom. I worked for several years with the Koma people (Konni language) of northern Ghana, living in the main village of Yikpabongo there with my family. The language project there involved learning the language, linguistic analysis (phonological, some syntactic and discourse), developing the first orthography and primers ever in Konni, and doing preliminary Bible translation. The whole program involved lots of adjustments to different culture and living situation too, of course. Mentor (2)

>> Suzette Haden Elgin (OCLS@madisoncounty.net)

Freelance linguist.

>> Gregor Erbach (gor@acm.org)

I have worked for enterprises (IBM and interprice.com), contract research organisations (German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, and Telecommunications Research Center Vienna) and for university. My areas are speech and multimodal dialogue, information retrieval and grammar formalisms. Mentor (several)

>> Christina Ferguson (christina.ferguson@edify.com)

I currently work as a consultant in the software industry. I have a BA in linguistics from UC Santa Cruz and a MA in linguistics from Rutgers. I also completed significant course work in computer science (five classes short of a BA in Comp Sci) after my MA. I implement text-based natural language processing software. The software uses both rules-based and statistical engines to "pre-process" email and other text-based communication for Customer Service Representatives in call centers.

>> Janet Fodor (jfodor@gc.cuny.edu)

Professor, Ph.D. Program in Linguistics, CUNY Graduate Center.

>> Edward Keer (edkeer@clinedavis.com)

Ph.D. in Linguistics. Senior Copywriter at Cline,
Davis, and Mann.

>> Charlotte Linde (charlinde@aol.com)

My area(s) of interest: discourse analysis, narrative analysis, institutional memory, knowledge management My work experience: founded and ran my own research firm for 13 years, mainly contracting to NASA doing research on airline pilot cockpit communications. 11 years at the Institute for Research on Learning, doing projects on workplace learning and communications. Currently at NASA, doing research on knowledge management. Mentor (3)

>> Scott McGinnis (Scott.McGinnis@belvoir.army.mil)

Interests: Chinese linguistics and language pedagogy (15 years experience teaching at the university level, including 10 years of program supervision experience). Edited/co-authored four books and over a dozen articles on the less commonly taught languages in general, and Chinese & Japanese in particular. Served as Executive Director, National Council of Organizations of Less Commonly Taught Languages (NCOLCTL) and Associate, National Foreign Language Center (NFLC), between 1999 and 2003 -- project areas including program design and assessment, heritage language learning and preservation, technology-enhanced language learning, and national language policy. Currently serving as academic advisor and associate professor for the Washington liaison office of the Defense Language Institute, United States Department of Defense -- advisory areas including curriculum design, testing and assessment, and teacher training and development. Mentor (3)

>> Amy Sexton (asexton@gapinternational.com)

Background: PhD in Linguistics. Interests: Sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, narrative, the intersection of language and psychology—particularly in the domains of teaching (knowledge transfer) and learning (knowledge acquisition). Work Experience: Lecturer and research faculty at various institutions. Founded and ran my own consulting business, working primarily with public schools and educational institutions. Currently, I work as a management consultant with a mid-sized firm. My primary accountabilities are in research and development, and hands-on consulting work with clients. Mentor (Several)

>> Maite Taboada (mtaboada@sfu.ca)

Maite is an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Simon Fraser University in Canada. Most recently, she was Chief Scientist at MindfulEye Systems Inc., where she helped design and develop an Natural Language Processing system to analyze and evaluate the opinions expressed in Internet content (chat, bboards, web sites). Previously, she worked as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Alberta (agent communication), as a research assistant at Carnegie Mellon University (speech-to-speech machine translation) and as research assistant for the European Union project GIST (natural language generation). More information on her web page. Mentor (2)

>> Thei Zervaki (tzervaki@hotmail.com)

I currently live in London. I am an experienced linguist and translator. I have a degree in French linguistics and literature, Masters in Linguistics and another Masters in Translation. I started my career as a translation/terminology trainee in the European Parliament in Luxembourg and get at the top of the ladder in the translation and language related business. I worked as a free lance translator in Brussels, as a linguist/language specialist in the US, project coordinator for a European Union project at the University of Sunderland and became an Account Manager for the translation and writing services for a dotcom company in London. I will soon join a large localization company as an Account Manager. Mentor (3)