Alissa Cohen serves on the faculty of the English Language Center at MSU, where she has taught English as a second language and teacher training courses for over 20 years. She is currently the coordinator of the International Teaching Assistant Program, which assists international teaching assistants at MSU by providing advising and support courses focused on classroom language and academic culture. Alissa has worked with Fulbright students and various groups of visiting English teachers from around the world and occasionally teaches pedagogy courses in the Language Learning and Teaching program. Alissa’s professional interests include promoting strategies for active learning, teacher training, and creating equitable and inclusive learning environments. Her ongoing passion includes creating service and outreach projects that create meaningful connections between diverse groups of people both at MSU and in the greater community. She has twice received a Creating Inclusive Excellence Grant (CIEG) for her work designing and running a mentorship program that brought international and domestic students from across the university together to share in leadership and mentoring of new international students. She has also received multiple fellowships from the Center for Language Teaching Advancement (CeLTA) for her outreach work promoting linguistic and cultural understanding and appreciation at local public schools. Alissa is also one of the founding members of the Marble Equity Committee at Marble Elementary School in East Lansing.
Alissa received her B.A. from the University of Michigan in English literature and French language and her M.A. in applied linguistics from the University of Illinois in Chicago. In addition, she completed study abroad programs at l’Université Paul Valéry in Montpellier, France and at the University of Oxford. Alissa has taught English as a second language at the University of Illinois, University of Iowa, and at a private institute and in the public school system in Tokyo, Japan.