Staff of the Tennessee Language Center

Eileen Bernstein

Project Manager, Interpretation & Translation

Eileen has served as a translator with TLC since 2020. She has a bachelor’s degree in Spanish from the University of New Hampshire and a master’s degree in political science from George Washington University.

Brenda Bess

Financial Assistant

Brenda has worked at TLC since 2009. She holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of South Africa, and is conversational in Afrikaans, German, and Czech.

Maya Campbell

Spanish Instructor

Maya was born and raised in Bulgaria, a country where knowing languages is a must, especially now that it is a member of the European Union. She holds a bachelor’s degree in pedagogy of the teaching of Bulgarian and English as a foreign language and a master’s degree in educational management from the University of Veliko Turnovo, Bulgaria. Maya received an academic scholarship via the European Union’s Erasmus Mundus Programme to study in Spain at the University of Granada, Spain. The years she studied and lived in Spain as a student marked her life in a way that now she loves the Spanish peoples, cultures, and language as much as she loves her own.

Aimee Dunphy

Project Manager, Interpretation & Translation Services

Most recently, Aimee was a test administrator for Pearson Professional Centers in Brentwood. She has a bachelor’s degree in Japanese from Ball State University in Indiana.

Erin Keafer

Assistant Director of English Programs

After graduating from Auburn University and working several years as a legal assistant, a recommendation that she begin volunteering at World Relief as a mentor for a newly resettled family began her love of working with refugees.

In an effort to expand her teaching experience in hopes of working professionally as a refugee English teacher, she served as an Education and Community Development Specialist for the Peace Corps in the country of Georgia. There she worked at a public school, partnering with Georgian co-teachers to develop curriculum and teach K-12 English students. She also taught an advanced level English class for professional adults and a discussion course for government employees. She also worked with fellow Peace Corps volunteers to develop and implement a summer camp in a community of internally displaced survivors of war.

After returning to Nashville, she worked as an Education and Resettlement Intern at the Nashville International Center for Empowerment while earning her Teaching English as a Second Language Certificate from the Tennessee Language Center (formerly the Tennessee Foreign Language Institute.) Upon graduating with her TESL certificate, she began working as an English as a Second Language teacher for the ESL to Go program at TLC as well as the Center for Refugees & Immigrants of Tennessee.

After developing her teaching skills, she was offered a job as the Curriculum Coordinator of ESL to Go and has since been promoted to the Assistant Director of English Programs at TLC. She is currently also serving as a workgroup co-leader for GOAL Collective, a group of adult education providers working together to improve adult education access within Nashville. Erin also enjoys traveling, trying new restaurants, and exploring nature

Genna Linton

Project Manager, Interpretation and Translation

Genna is a certified medical interpreter and most recently served as the bilingual front desk receptionist at Liberty Collegiate Academy in Nashville. She has a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and geography from the University of Georgia.https://www.uga.edu/

Mahasweta Panigrahy

Project Manager, Interpretation and Translation

Mahasweta was born and raised in India. Before joining her husband in the U.S., she worked in various professional fields. She has years of experience in derivative operations and analytical research for investment banks and in the field of localization project management for a language service provider. She most recently worked on early learning projects at First Presbyterian Preschool in Franklin. At TLC, she works as a project manager responsible for end-to-end delivery of multiple localization and translation projects to our clients across Middle Tennessee. Mahasweta holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Master’s in Industrial Relations & Personnel Management from Berhampur (India) University as well as  a Master’s degree in Project Management from University of the Cumberlands in the U.S. She is multilingual, she likes to spend her free time with family, and her favorite color is yellow.

Missy Pankake

Director of Marketing & Communications

Missy has more than 25 years of marketing and communications experience, and leads marketing and communication initiatives for the Tennessee Language Center including advertising, public relations, brand identity, and community relations to support TLC’s strategic goals at the local and state level.

Previously, she served as Communications Director at the nonprofit Bright Horizons Foundation for Children, where she supported fundraising and operations through marketing and communications for programs that served homeless children and families. She also worked for Vanderbilt University’s Public Affairs Department where she coordinated communications for the university’s multi-year greenhouse gas study as well as helping to develop the myVU intranet for employees.

She is a magna cum laude graduate of Maryville College and is pursuing a master’s in strategic communications from the University of Tennessee.

Richard Ponce de Leon

Training Specialist

Richard originally hails from Lima, Peru, where he obtained a B.A. degree in Linguistics. In 2015, he came to the United States and now calls Nashville, Tennessee home.

He boasts 5-plus years of foreign trade and project management experience, and recently became a court-registered Spanish interpreter. Richard has been working for the University of Tennessee Language Center since 2019 as an Interpretation Project Manager and is pursuing a master’s in Higher Education Administration at the University of Tennessee.

In his free time, Richard can be found taking pictures and developing film, or travelling around the state.

Jenny Rish

Director of English Programs

Jenny was raised in Tennessee and felt deeply connected to the people around her and the need to help people within our community. She went to Middle Tennessee State University and received a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in Spanish. but felt drawn toward the immigrant and refugee population. Jenny began volunteering at a local Spanish community center and Nashville International Center for Empowerment, where she then heard about a position for Youth Education Coordinator. She grew her skills and understanding working for the immigrant and refugee population. Then she took the 150-hour Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) course and moved to the coordinator position at the Tennessee Language Center. As other job positions opened, she applied for them and has become the director of English Programs overseeing the ESL and TESL programs.

Amanda Shappard

Fiscal Director

Amanda Shappard is the fiscal director for the Tennessee Language Center. She was previously an accountant for Williamson County government for 8 years. Amanda has a bachelor’s in business administration from Tennessee Tech and is currently pursuing her master’s degree in public administration from Murray State University. She’s earned the Certified County Finance Officer and the Certified Public Administrator designations from the County Technical Assistance Service, an agency of the University of Tennessee’s Institute for Public Service.

Katie Smith

IT Assistant