JALT Board of Directors

After spending a year in Japan as an exchange student, Clare Kaneko decided she wanted to come back to Japan to teach English. She has been teaching English for over 20 years at various institutions to all ages and levels of students. She currently works as an Assistant Professor at Niigata University. Her recent research interests include reading skills, and digital literacy.

Clare has been active in JALT since joining in 2016. Starting as a chapter officer she has held different positions before taking on the role of JALT president from January, 2023. The various experiences she has had within JALT not only help her understand the organization’s, but will also guide her in her role of JALT president.

JALT Experience

• JALT Elected officer Chapter Representative Liaison/ 支部代表者リエゾン : January 2020 – December 2022
• JALT Niigata Chapter President / 新潟支部会長 : November 2019 – December 2022
• JALT Niigata NEAR Language conference, conference chair / 新潟支部、NEAR大会委員長: January 2017 – December 2018, 2021
• Niigata JALT Public Relations / 新潟支部, 広報委員長 : 2016

After working as a counselor in Southern California for several years, Kenn decided it was time to move on and see the world. He packed up and headed to Central and South America, where he spent a number of years teaching and traveling. In 2009, he received an offer to work for the Thai ministry of education, where he helped open many schools in their EP department. Consulting and opening schools through Southeast Asia for several years finally led him to Japan. After arriving in Japan in 2012 to manage a successful International school on a two year contract, he immediately fell in love with the country, its culture and his coworkers. Since arriving, he has opened 6 new schools in central Japan with expansion ongoing. With a staff of over 150 teachers and administrators, he specializes in administration, logistics and HR. Kenn is passionate about JALT and what it offers its members. He hopes his experience will help lead the company into the future.

JALT Experience

• Active Member since 2014
• Member Nagoya chapter and School Owners SIG
• Coordinator for Teaching Younger Learners SIG
• Director of Records 2019-2022

Julie Kimura is originally from Toronto and came to Japan in 1995 to teach English for one year. She is still here. Since first arriving in Japan, she has taught English as a foreign language in various contexts, including at private conversation schools, corporate classes, and universities. She earned her MSEd in Curriculum, Instruction and Technology in Education from Temple University in 2010 and returned to Temple in order to earn her PhD in Education in 2021. She now teaches at Mukogawa Women’s University in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

In addition to being involved with her local chapter, she has enjoyed meeting and working with JALT members on The Language Teacher as well as JALT Post-Conference Proceedings. In her spare time, she enjoys running, cooking, and baking.

JALT Experience

• Osaka JALT: Membership Chair, Member at Large/大阪支部：メンバーシップ委員、無任所役員
• The Language Teacher: Recently Received Column Co-editor/コラム編集者
• JALT Post-Conference Proceedings: Content Editor/コンテンツエディター

In 2002 Wayne Malcolm came to Japan with a timeline of three years. He is still here soaking up Japanese culture and expanding his horizons through travel, education, and family life. Starting as an eikaiwa (English conversation) teacher, he has taught in all different areas of the language education landscape. Wayne is currently teaching at Fukui University of Technology. With a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Syracuse University, Master of Management - International from University of Phoenix Online, and Doctorate of Education focused on educational leadership with a specialization in curriculum and instruction (University of Phoenix Online), Wayne has an interdisciplinary academic background that combines with his practical teaching experience informing his teaching methods and beliefs. When discussing academic and research interests, Wayne has been focused on topics involving global competence, project-based learning, best practices to activate student oral communication, as well as critical thinking and expression. Constantly involved in professional development, Wayne also routinely presents his research and ideas at conferences, symposia, seminars, etc. throughout the world. Thanks to his involvement in JALT he has been able to extend his professional network while obtaining valuable capacities such as organizing conferences and leading diverse teams. Professional activities aside, Wayne is married and he and his wife have one daughter. They currently live in Fukui City, Japan. Wayne also likes to get out on the roads and trails, as his main hobby is running. He enters a few races a year running distances from 5km to full marathons and beyond. Contact him if you want a running partner. Oh, and for all things related to JALT programs and the international conference.

JALT Experience

• Active member since March 2008.
• President Akita JALT Chapter
• Program Chair Fukui JALT Chapter
• Business Manager NPO JALT
• Director of Program NPO JALT
• Copy Editor for Post Conference Publication
• Assisted Critical Thinking SIG with article copy editing
• Assisted Records and Procedures Committee with Chapter and SIG constitution updates
• Lead team that wrote JALT Mission Statement

Bill’s first experience teaching English was as an occasional substitute teacher at a language school in London while he was there on a six-month working holiday visa the year he graduated from college. Upon his return to the US, he started teaching English at an intensive English school for foreign students who were doing one-month language courses.

Bill joined JALT when he came to Japan in 1990 as an eikaiwa school teacher. After a few years, he started teaching at a senmon-gakko (two year institute for post-high school students). Bill received his MA in TEFL from the University of Birmingham (UK) in 1998. He started working at Kindai University’s campus in Fukuoka Prefecture in 2000, eventually receiving tenure and a promotion to Associate Professor.

JALT Experience:

• Joined JALT in 1990
• Fukuoka JALT program chair 1995 - 1997
• Fukuoka JALT chapter president 1998 - 2002; again 2010 - 2019
• Created and maintained JALT.org's first online event calendar (2001 - 2008, see https://hosted.jalt.org/calendar/archive.php)
• TEVAL SIG website 2015 - 2021
• PanSIG Conference website 2016 - present
• Acting Director of Public Relations Feb. 2019 - June 2019
• Director of Public Relations June 2019 - present

Samantha Kawakami is originally from Michigan, USA. She first came to Japan in 1996 to study Japanese for a year at the Japan Center for Michigan Universities in Hikone, Shiga. In 2000 Sam returned to Japan to teach English at AEON in Izumo, Shimane. After 3 years in Izumo, Sam moved to Tokyo and worked for Macmillan LanguageHouse where she had fantastic opportunities to meet and learn from many teachers and trainers. After 6 years in Tokyo, Sam temporarily moved back to the US for 2 years to give her oldest children a chance to live close to their American family. In 2011, Sam returned to Izumo, Shimane. For the next 11 years, Sam taught at her own English school and part-time at Shimane University, while also doing publishing work. From April, 2022, Sam is an assistant professor at Matsue Kosen. She lives in Izumo with her husband, in-laws, 4 kids, 4 cats, and dog. Sam has always been a bit of a tech geek. She is particularly interested in using technology to make tasks easier and more accessible. She is interested not only in individual tasks, but in how all the parts of a system fit together to improve workflow for all users. Her research interests include pronunciation, LMS usage, and universal design.

JALT Experience:

• Associate Member with Macmillan LanguageHouse: 2003 ~ 2008
• Member: 2013 ~
• Online Conference Team: 2020 ~ 2022

Michael first came to Japan in 1991 to work for the eikaiwa school GEOS in Akita City. In 1993 he moved to Sapporo and from 1995 worked as teacher trainer and head office staff for GEOS until 1997. From 1999 Michael joined Little Tree English School which was started by former colleagues, and is now in its 3rd decade of business. After leaving GEOS, opportunities for teacher development were limited so Michael became a member of JALT Hokkaido. Being a member of JALT has been an important part in developing his teaching skills by sharing what he knows and learning from other teachers. Since 2018, Michael has been working full time at Sapporo University.

JALT Experience

• JALT Director of Treasury: January 2021-December, 2022
• JALT National Officer: FSC Chair January, 2019- December, 2020
• JALT National Officer: Chapter Treasurer Liaison January, 2017- December, 2019
• JALT Hokkaido Chapter Treasurer 2008 - December 2020
• JALT Hokkaido Conference Coordinator and/or Conference Program Chair 2006 - December, 2022.

Chelanna is originally from Vancouver, Canada. She received her BA from Kwantlen Polytechnic University, in General Studies with a minor in Japanese Language and Culture, in 2016. She came to Japan in 2017 and participated in the JET Programme for 5 years in Kyoto before moving to Tokyo in 2022 to teach at Reitaku University full-time. Chelanna is currently working toward a Master’s of Education in TESOL from the University of British Columbia. She is interested in researching the intersections between queer identity and language teaching in Japan. She has been an active member of JALT since she joined in 2019.

JALT Experience:

• Student Peer Interaction Network Committee member, 2023 – present
• Program Liaison, 2022-2023
• Conference Volounteer Coordinator, 2022
• Online conference room host, 2020-2021
• JALT Kyoto Co-chair of Program, 2019-2022

Robert is originally from Montreal, Canada. He has been living in Japan since 1983. He has taught English and French at language schools, companies, junior and senior high schools, junior colleges, and universities. He has enjoyed taking students on English study tours to Canada, Australia and New Zealand. He received an MAT in ESOL from SIT in Vermont, and a PhD from the Kyushu Institute of Technology. He has also completed a one-year sabbatical at the University of Birmingham, UK, where he published a book on corpus linguistics. He has been an active member in JALT for many years. He is interested in doing research in second language education and technology for language learning. He is a Professor at the Institute of Foreign Language Education, Kurume University, in Fukuoka Prefecture.

JALT Experience:

• JALT Vice President: 2021 - 2022
• JALT Director of Treasury: 2017 - 2020
• CALL SIG: Various officer positions including: Coordinator, Proceedings Editor, Treasurer, Conference Chair, 2000 - 2016
• PanSIG - 2010 - 2014 Various conference positions including: Conference administrator and Proceedings Editor
• Active member of Fukuoka Chapter since 1995