La Guardia Community College, Long Island City, NY
www.lagcc.cuny.edu
Acting Director, Center for Immigrant Education & Training and Acting Director, NYC Welcome Back Center
The Center for Immigrant Education and Training (CIET), located within the Division of Adult and Continuing Education at LaGuardia Community College (CUNY), is an experienced provider of grant-funded EL Civics, Immigrant Family Literacy and Vocational English as a Second Language (VESOL) workforce programs for English Language Learners. CIET has been at the forefront in NY in adopting the Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) model into its workforce programs. Its recent offerings have included ELL National Council Licensure Examination for Practical Nurses (NCLEX-PN) and ELL Medical Office Clinical Technician (MOCT) courses. CIET has also been contracted for incumbent employee VESOL training with Sheraton Hotels, Duane Reade and McDonald’s.
In 2011 LaGuardia launched the NYC Welcome Back Center for internationally-trained health professionals to provide re-credentialing and alternate career advisement for this population. Working in conjunction with the Workforce1 Healthcare Career Center and the national Welcome Back Initiative based in San Francisco, it guides individuals through the process of becoming licensed in their specialty or another healthcare area.
The son of Irish immigrants and with deep roots in the Latino community, John has been managing EL civics, family literacy, immigrant parent engagement and vocational ESOL programs at LaGuardia for the past 8 years. He previously taught ESOL in Japan’s public school system and then in Spain and New York with International House. He holds the Cambridge DELTA teaching diploma, along with a BA from Vassar College, an MA from NYU in romance languages, and a Masters in Public Administration from Baruch College’s School of Public Affairs (CUNY). He has presented on such topics as immigrant parent engagement, integrated basic skills (ESOL) and workforce training models (I-Best), support for immigrant professionals and the Welcome Back Initiative model for foreign-trained healthcare professionals. He has also mentored novice adult literacy managers though the Literacy Assistance Center’s Emerging Leaders program.