The Advisors

Here are the people who never ceased to believe that there is something that the youth has to change this world. Together with them, your student leaders are working hardly to bring you the best youth program you will ever have!

Professor Kip Cates
The Chair and Founder

Kip A. Cates has a B.A. in Modern Languages (French, German, Japanese) from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and an M.A. in Applied Linguistics from the University of Reading, England. He is the coordinator of the "Global Issues In Language Education" Special Interest Group (GILE SIG) of the Japan Association for Language Teaching (JALT) and is past president of the international TESOLers for Social Responsibility (TSR) Caucus.

He is a professor in the Faculty of Regional Sciences at Tottori University, Japan where he teaches courses on Globalization, Global Issues, International Exchange and English Communication. He also teaches graduate courses on Global Education for the MA-in-TESOL program of Teachers College Columbia University (Tokyo campus). He publishes a quarterly "Global Issues in Language Education" newsletter and has given presentations on global education in the UK, US, Canada, Australia, Hungary, Malaysia, Vietnam, Greece, Egypt, and Korea. He has worked, lived or travelled in 50 countries and speaks nine languages.

His current projects include global education teacher training for the Japanese NGO Peace Boat and organizing an annual “Asian Youth Forum” (AYF) which brings together college students from countries such as Japan, Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam, Russia and the Philippines for workshops promoting international understanding through the medium of English as an Asian language.

Please visit his website at www.kipcates.com.

Professor Peter Wanner

The Conference Chair

Peter John Wanner has a Ph.D. in Informatics (Human Informatics – Language Processing Aspects) from Nagoya University, Japan.  He also earned a Master’s of Science Degree (MS) in Linguistics from Georgetown University, Washington D.C., USA.  He is the President of Teachers Helping Teachers, an organization that brings language educators to developing countries mostly in Asia to strengthen teacher development seminars and workshops there (Laos, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Kyrgyzstan, and the Philippines).  This organization is also a Special Interest Group (SIG) of the Japan Association of Language Teachers (JALT).  

Dr. Wanner is a professor in the Language Education department of the Graduate School of International Cultural Studies, Tohoku University, Japan.  He teaches graduate courses including practical applications of linguistics in language learning, Psycholinguistics, and Neurolinguistics.  The past five years, he has been involved in Language Brain and Cognition Studies of language processing of alphabetic languages (ABC) and orthographic languages (Kanji) such as Chinese and Japanese.  He speaks some of the basics of most the languages of most of the countries he frequently visits including China, Vietnam, Japan, and the Philippines.  

Dr. Wanner’s current projects include bilingual acquisition theory of language processing in bilinguals.  He also advises the board of Language Brain and Cognition studies at Tohoku University on various projects they are working on.  Furthermore, he is an advisor to the human securities program, a new discipline that is even more important as global understanding of human resource management becomes even more intricate.  In addition, he has been involved as a co-chair for the past two Asian Youth Forum (AYF) conferences in Japan (2008) and the Philippines (2009).  Finally, he strongly encourages youth from AYF to pursue higher education in programs such as the Human Securities program or International Cultural Studies programs at Tohoku University.  

The Advisors

Prof. Craig Smith Chair, Departement of Global Affairs     Kyoto University of Foreign Studies Advisor to Student Peace Building Projects Areas of Interest: Experiential Learning craigkufs@hotmail.com	Prof. Todd Thorpe Professor, Kinki University Departement of Intercultural Communications Interests: Study Abroad, Local and World Issues, Curriculum Development toddthorpe@hotmail.com
Prof. Keunyoung Park Professor, Department of Liberal Arts Sendai National Technical University Interests: Global Leadership Training, International Cultural Studies, Environmental Issues pkylove@sendai-nct.ac.jp	Dr. Sophia Hsing-Chin Lee Assitant Professor, National Taipei College of Business Secretary General, ETA R.O.C Interests: English Children Literature, Corpus Linguistics, Computer-Assisted Learning hsingchinlee@gmail.com
Prof. Greg Goodmacher Professor, Keiwa University Interests: Global Issues and Language Teaching, Stimulating Students to Appreciate Nature ggoodmacher@hotmail.com	Professor Vicky Muehleisen Associate Professor, Waseda University Interests: Lingusitics (Smenatics and Corpus Linguistics), Second Language Education, English as an International Language vicky.muegleisen@gmail.com
Prof. Kazunori Fukuchi Professor, Departement of General Science Sendai National Technical University Interests: Lingusitics, Second Language Acquisition, English Language Education fukuchi@sendai-nct.ac.jp