Meet the Team Meet the Team

Eleni Pappamihiel wanted to work with SupportEd to help English learners be successful in all their classrooms, ESL and content area alike. She specializes in helping both ESL and non-ESL teachers develop expertise in helping English learners be as successful as they can be. Her goal is to help all teachers learn how to help English learners become a true, integrated part of the classroom and school communities. To this end, she helps teachers develop effective classroom strategies and understand how affective factors, like motivation and anxiety can influence how English learners interact in the classroom.

Eleni has spent over 20 years in teacher preparation and professional development and has published over 35 articles and book chapters that focus on helping English learners maximize their academic and social achievement in the mainstream classroom. She has expertise in assessment and evaluation, consulting on the development of both the Florida ESL teacher certification assessment and the Praxis II ESOL. Most recently, her assessment work focuses on the identification of English learners with special needs. She has directed several grants related to professional development and headed a multi-million dollar federal grant that, in part, developed a self-directed module-based, online professional development program designed to reach rural areas that are geographically isolated.

As the program coordinator for the Teaching English as a Second Language program at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, she designed and implemented their first ESL teacher preparation program in both face-to-face and online formats. She currently lives in Wilmington, NC and takes the occasional trip to Greece to enjoy a bit of R and R (Rocks and Relatives). When at home, she can be found at the barn following her daughter (an avid rider), at the gym, or onher laptop while her son throws around weights that are probably too heavy for him.