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John Conner — BTB Co-founder, Principal Author, and Series Editor Cindy Beams — Publisher and BTB Co-founder Catherine Coursaget — Co-author, Breaking the French Barrier Cathy Folts — Co-author, Breaking the Spanish Barrier Micheline Myers — Co-author, Breaking the French Barrier Barbara Peterson — Contributing Editor Miguel Romá — Contributing Editor Francois Mathieu — Staff Writer Matt Westman — Digital Media Consultant Will Stone — Summer Associate and Staff Writer John Conner
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John is principal author and Series Editor of the Breaking the Barrier Series. In addition, John has taught Spanish in the Modern Language Department at Groton School, Groton, MA, since 1981. A graduate of Evanston Township High School and Amherst College, he earned his M.A. in Spanish Literature and Linguistics from the University of Wisconsin. John has worked as a consultant to the College Board for the Advanced Placement program and served on the Test Development Committee for the Spanish AP Language and Literature Examinations. He has worked on a pilot educational program for People in Español magazine and as a consultant to Early Advantage, distributors of Muzzy, the award-winning BBC language course for children. Currently he writes a monthly column, Hablando de Gramática, for the popular magazine Think Spanish. A devoted classroom teacher, an enthusiastic advocate for his professional colleagues, and a lively public speaker, John presents his popular workshop, “The Ideal Lesson Plan – Ten Steps to Total Fluency” to teachers from coast to coast.
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Cindy Beams
Publisher and Co-Founder of Breaking the Barrier, Inc.
E-mail
Cindy Beams is an entrepreneur with a penchant for start-ups. A former teacher, she has collaborated with author John Conner over the past decade on the development of the Breaking the Barrier series, in part because her two daughters were lucky enough to be students in his upper-level Spanish classes at Groton School. Cindy's professional activities include start-up and marketing communications projects for assorted ventures in both the for-profit and non-profit sectors. Cindy holds an undergraduate degree in Latin American Studies from the University of Colorado and a masters degree in psychology from Lesley College in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Catherine Coursaget
Co-Author of Breaking the French Barrier
Catherine is a native of Paris where she studied linguistics at the Sorbonne. Catherine taught French in Rome and at Phillips Academy, Andover, MA, where she chaired the French Department. The author of A Mon Avis, Catherine has been teaching at Groton School, Groton, MA, since 1987.
Cathy Folts
Co-Author of Breaking the Spanish Barrier - Advanced Level
Cathy learned Spanish while living in Spain, where she studied at the University of Barcelona and worked as a translator for the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de la Empresa (IESE). A graduate of Wellesley College, Cathy has taught at both Concord Academy and Groton School, where she is currently on the faculty.
Micheline Myers
Co-Author of Breaking the French Barrier
A Belgian citizen and native of the Congo, Micheline studied history and philosophy at the University of Louvain. Before coming to Groton School in 1971, where she chaired the Modern Language Department for fourteen years, Micheline taught in Belgium and Italy. Micheline currently divides her time between Charlotte, North Carolina, and Aix-en-Provence, France, when she is not engaged in her love of world travel.
Barbara Peterson
Contributing Editor
A life-long teacher, Barbara is an avid traveler and perennial student herself. Barbara has lived, worked and studied in the US, Spain, Mexico and throughout Central and South America. For 22 years, Barbara taught Spanish at Ames H.S in Iowa, where she held many elected and appointed positions, among them Coordinator of the Foreign Language Department. She was active for many years in the Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Language and the Iowa Foreign Language Association, where she was named Outstanding Educator. A graduate of Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota, Barbara earned an M.S.E. from Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa, which has honored her with two Outstanding Alumni Awards. She was also the recipient of a King Juan Carlos Fellowship.
Barbara currently combines her work with Breaking the Barrier – serving as a seasoned editor and presenting at foreign language and homeschooling conferences around the country – with supervising student teachers at Iowa State University and tutoring adults.
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Sandra Rivetts
Office Manager
Sandra has been part of the Breaking the Barrier family since 2002, running the office of our World Headquarters in Groton, Massachusetts. Sandra also works for the Groton School Admissions Office, organizing interviews and assisting with the financial aid program. She is an avid Red Sox fan.
Miguel Romá
Contributing Editor
Miguel was born in Spain, where he lived until he completed his studies in German and English philology at the Universidad de Valencia. Subsequently, he moved to Munich, Germany, where he spent the next five years deepening his knowledge of the German language and culture while teaching Spanish at the Berlitz School. Since his arrival in the United States in the summer of 1978, Miguel has been teaching Spanish in the Boston Public Schools. He recently retired from Boston Latin Academy. He is also the managing editor of Think Spanish! Magazine.
Francois Mathieu
Staff Writer
A native French speaker from Montreal, François began studying Spanish as a student at Groton School. He quickly progressed through the Breaking the Barrier series, and was awarded the Modern Language Prize at his Groton graduation in 2007. At the end of his sophomore year, François received the Monte J. and Anne H. Wallace Scholarship, which recognizes academic excellence, character, and commitment to the Groton School community. This prize has enabled François to travel extensively, deepening his exposure to and interest in the Francophone and Spanish-speaking worlds. With a strong interest in international relations and business, François is currently an undergraduate at Harvard University.
Matt Westman
Digital Media Consultant
A graduate of Newton North High School and a member of the Middlebury College class of 2009, Matt spent the fall 2007 semester in Paris at the Sorbonne Nouvelle (University de Paris III) and has used his experiences to enhance our French series. He also maintains the Breaking the Barrier website in addition to converting our content to digital formats. Matt was a member of the varsity basketball team at Middlebury where he majored in French with a minor in Arabic. His senior thesis discussed the role of hip-hop in France today, a genre dominated by artists of immigrant origins whose music offers many insights into today's rapidly evolving French culture. Matt was appointed to the Groton School faculty as a teaching intern beginning in the fall of 2009.
Will Stone
Junior Associate and Staff Writer
Will is a graduate of Groton School and a member of the class of 2012 at Dartmouth College. While at Groton, Will studied Spanish, Latin, and Greek and won the Modern Language Prize. He was also a student and advisee of John Conner. At Dartmouth, Will is studying a wide range of subjects from government to foreign languages and has plans to study abroad in Spain during his time there. In the summer, Will is a staff writer for Breaking News, the Breaking the Barrier quarterly newsletter, and helps to run the summer and winter operations at our world headquarters.