English Instructors
Lorie Adams
Lorie Adams has taught beginning to advanced level ESL classes at TLC since 2014. She often works with students who are interested in developing conversation skills, expanding vocabulary, improving pronunciation and understanding English slang and idioms. She also has experience training students on accent reduction, business English and American social customs. Lorie’s students are from many countries and speak a wide variety of languages, including Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean, Arabic, Russian, French, German, Turkish, Hindi and Portuguese.
Lorie has a bachelor’s degree in communications and is working toward a master’s degree in instructional technology and design. She is also an instructor in TLC’s Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) certification program, where she trains and mentors individuals who wish to become ESL teachers. Lorie was also instrumental in developing the curriculum for a new virtual TESL program, which was launched in 2021.
Helen Burr
Helen Burr is a certified English as a Second Language instructor with 10 years of ESL teaching experience. She has a bachelor’s degree in German from Lipscomb University and has been a language instructor, primarily teaching literacy and intro-level refugees with the ESL to Go program.
In 2019, she was honored as a distinguished nominee for the Nashville Public Library’s 2019 Adult Educator of the Year award for developing a much-needed literacy level curriculum used by the ESL to Go program to support teachers. In addition to teaching, she has a third dan black belt in taekwondo and she loves to travel with her son and engage with students from all over the world.
Becky Hammond
Becky Hammond received her TESL Certification in November 2017 from the Tennessee Language Center. Since that time, she has been teaching group and individual classes in Nashville, Chattanooga, Huntsville and on Zoom.
Becky has a Bachelor of Arts in international studies and a Master of Arts in diplomacy and international commerce. She has had the opportunity to work for both non-profit and for-profit international organizations.
Becky has a passion for building relationships with her students. She strives not only to help them but to challenge them to reach their full potential.
Travis Kershner
Travis currently teaches beginner-level ESL classes at TLC, having graduated from TLC’s TESL program in September of 2025.
Before that, he completed a Bachelor of Arts in applied linguistics. His interest in linguistics and language education stems from a childhood spent learning about various places and their peoples from his father, an airline pilot who traveled the world.
He enjoys traveling, SCUBA diving and motorsports.
Tatiana Logsdon
Originally from Russia, Tatiana moved to the United States in 2014. Her decision to become an ESL instructor was a natural one, as she had been an English teacher in Russia and always enjoyed the profession.
Tatiana received her TESL certificate in 2019 and has since worked with learners at all levels, from beginners to advanced students.
Sharon Murphy
Following a career in adult health care and education, Sharon met a Ukrainian family in desperate need. After working with this family for two years, medically and linguistically, she started teaching ESL classes as a volunteer for five years.
After earning her TESL certification at TLC, Sharon has continued teaching ESL classes from beginner level to intermediate for eleven years. She has a Bachelor of Science in nursing and Master of Science in nursing from Emory University, and the blend of nursing and language training has been advantageous to her students. These learners have immigrated from at least 20 different countries. Sharon’s other interests include international travel, music and biking.
Malinda Sanders
Malinda Sanders is a Middle Tennessee native who has spent over 20 years doing what she loves most—helping people learn. For the past four years, she has brought that same heart to teaching English as a Second Language at the Tennessee Language Center, where she earned her TESL certification in 2022. She also holds a bachelor’s degree from Middle Tennessee State University.
As someone who has studied nearly 10 languages herself, Malinda truly understands the courage it takes to learn a new language. She is deeply committed to creating a classroom where students feel welcome, supported and ready to grow. Her greatest joy is watching her students gain confidence in their communication and move closer to their goals.
Outside of teaching, Malinda loves expressing her creativity through fiber arts like sewing, crochet and cross-stitch. She also performs with a local, amateur belly dance troupe—because she believes a full life is the best inspiration for lifelong learning!
Diane Thomas
Learning language has been a passion of Diane’s since childhood. Her mother, a Japanese “war bride,” was never able to learn to read and write in English, so Diane became a translator at the age of nine. She observed firsthand how difficult it was to navigate life in the U.S. without English skills!
Diane has been involved in personal language learning and language course curriculum design, as well as language teaching, for over 30 years while living overseas. She ran language schools in the Philippines and in Russia, and the curricula she designed are still used today.
Diane is a certified ESL teacher and a proficiency rater and interviewer for the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) and Language Testing International (LTI), in both English and Russian. She is also certified in the AAPPL as a proficiency rater in English and Russian. She speaks Tagalog, Cebuano, Russian, and German and knows a little Spanish. She loves passing on the skills she has learned and seeing students succeed in language learning and language teaching. She is a mother of two daughters and a grandmother of four.
Bill Tiffany
A native of Washington State, Bill Tiffany settled in Nashville in 2010 after retiring from the U.S. Marine Corps, where he served as a communications electronics maintenance officer. His career took him to many countries, including Japan, South Korea, Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait and Norway. While on active duty, he attained his bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s degree in elementary education.
He taught third grade and kindergarten in Nashville public schools for seven years, and he has taught English with TLC since 2017. His main goal for his students is for them to gain confidence to use English in their everyday lives and to explore places beyond their local community. He also teaches English online to dozens of students in China. In his spare time, Bill likes to play guitar, cook and study Chinese.
Carrie Victorio
Carrie was born in Guatemala and, at age 17, was given just two months to achieve English proficiency to enter the University of Oklahoma on a scholarship to study petroleum engineering. She earned her petroleum engineering degree from the University of Louisiana and has lived and worked on four continents, learning firsthand the importance of communicating in English around the world.
Carrie moved to Tennessee in 2009, where she has worked in research and development, engineering and project management. After decades of professional experience, she fulfilled a long-held wish to help immigrants in the United States improve their present and future by learning and strengthening their English skills.
Carrie teaches learners from beginner to advanced levels and finds true joy in her students’ progress. She loves to travel, dance, cook, bird-watch and care for her plants.
Kate Watts
Kate teaches beginning through advanced ESL classes at the Tennessee Language Center. She works with adult learners to build confidence in conversation, expand vocabulary, strengthen pronunciation and develop the real-world English skills needed for working, socializing and studying in the United States.
In addition to her ESL teaching, Kate has two decades of experience in higher education, college access and non-profit program leadership, which informs her practical, goal-oriented approach in the classroom.
Kate loves to travel and work with textiles—knitting, weaving and dyeing are life-long interests. Kate earned her TESL through the Tennessee Language Center, a Bachelor of Arts from Denison University and a Master of Education from Vanderbilt University.
Erin Wyatt
Erin has been fascinated by English since childhood, but she realized her love of helping people learn English in 2020. She tutored English for some time before looking for a strong foundation in English instruction as a second language. She found that with the Tennessee Language Center’s TESL program. After earning her certification in 2024, she began teaching adult English classes at TLC.
Previously, she earned her bachelor’s degree in conservation biology at Union University and her master’s degree in education at UT Martin. She taught high school biology for two years. In her free time, she’s normally reading, most likely near her cat, with a cup of tea.