The Splash! Team

Alan Young, Splash! Founder and President, is the former CEO of the Visiting International Faculty Program (VIF), the largest teacher exchange program in the United States. Alan co-founded VIF in 1987 and either led or co-led the organization from 1987 to 1992 and 1997 to 2005. For more information about VIF, visit www.vifprogram.com.

Mary Joe Lentz, Splash! Senior Advisor, is the former principal (1995 to 2004) of Jones Elementary School, a Spanish immersion magnet school in Greensboro, NC. Jones Elementary was recognized as one of the top seven elementary schools in the U.S. by The Education Trust in Washington, D.C. in 2003. Mary Joe has also been a supervisor of student teachers at Appalachian State University and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and an instructor at UNC-Greensboro.

Linda McDougle, Splash! Senior Advisor, oversees the Splash! Teacher Training Program. She was the former associate superintendent of student support services for 13 years in Guilford County, one of the largest school districts in the state. Prior to that, she taught middle school for six years and served as a principal in Guilford County for 20 years at all levels -- elementary, middle and high school. Linda has also been a supervisor of student teachers at Appalachian State University.

Martha Giraldo, Splash! Director of Recruitment, is the former associate director of teacher selection for the VIF Program, where she worked from 1999 to 2005. Martha has extensive experience in language education in Latin America and the U.S. She has also taught ESL and Spanish and worked as an education consultant.

Peggy Lim, Splash! Operations Manager, is a former reporter for The (Raleigh) News & Observer and The Tampa Tribune. She studied East Asian Studies as an undergraduate at Harvard and lived abroad in Nanjing, China and Taipei, Taiwan. Peggy speaks Mandarin Chinese and Spanish.

Carina "Cia" Barbash, Splash! Office Manager, formerly assisted VIF recruitment and international partnerships. In previous careers, she gained extensive administrative experience working for five-star hotels in Europe and in sales/marketing roles at the Florida Language Institute in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. Cia speaks Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian and some German.

Katie Reich, Splash! Outreach Coordinator, is a recent graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she received a BA from the School of Journalism & Mass Communication (with a concentration in public relations) and a BA in Spanish. Katie spent a summer studying abroad and living with a host family in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is fluent in Spanish.

Tatiana Maza Acosta, Splash! International Representative, hails from Cartagena, Colombia. She supports all Splash! activities and recruitment in Latin America and has extensive logistical experience related to teacher recruitment.

Yanhong Ye, Splash! Chinese Initiatives, is a Mandarin instructor at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. She is a former VIF teacher who taught at Smith Academy in Charlotte, NC. In 2008 she was recognized by VIF with a North Carolina Outstanding Cultural Educator Award. Yanhong was valedictorian of her class at Wake Forest University where she got a master's in teaching in 2008. She is from Hebei, China.

Kristen Ellis, Splash! Support Specialist, regularly checks in with Splash! Teacher Assistants and host families. She is also a VIF teacher support specialist, and she has worked with VIF since 1995. Kristen received a BA in Spanish and a BA in Anthropology from the University of Virginia. She has studied abroad in Salamanca and Madrid, Spain.