Margi Japel
Founder & Executive Director
With over 15 years teaching experience and training in the field of second language acquisition, Margi carries a vision to connect people and thought through language learning and interactive play. She received a Masters of Education, curriculum and instruction, literacy, a Bachelor of Education, modern languages and Bachelor of Arts and Sciences, French. She has teaching certificates in English as a Second Language for K-12 students and French 6-12. Margi is passionate about teaching and learning and is inspired by the creative process, which is what she finds gratifying and most enjoyable about program design.
Aaron Japel
Chief Financial Officer & Project Manager
With more than 15 years of experience as a civil engineer, Aaron is a professionally certified engineer, P.E., by training. His attention to detail and executive skills have greatly supported Babble Tree’s early-stage development. Aaron’s ability to coordinate tasks, collaborate with multiple parties and record and manage project development is just a partial set of his exemplary skill set, which he has applied and as a result, has greatly impacted Babble Tree’s multi-stage research and development success.
Betsy Carlin
Program Evaluator & Early Childhood Specialist
http://www.ecconsultingwy.com
Betsy received a Master of Science in early childhood studies with a specialty in advocacy and public policy. She has more than 30 years of experience as a teacher of children from birth to age 8, as an administrator of early childhood program and as an early childhood consultant. She is a dedicated volunteer leader with experience on multiple boards of directors, including The Children’s Learning Center in Teton and Sublette Counties, Wyoming; the Wyoming Early Childhood Association in the roles of President and VP of public policy; and chair of the NAEYC Affiliate Council. Betsy strongly believes in positive relationships and building bridges between organizations and individuals. For Babble Tree, Betsy's contributions include serving as a reviewer, developer and curriculum evaluator of family engagement and classroom instructional components.
Jennifer Rosner
Associated Editor & Reviewer
Jennifer holds a double Bachelor of Arts in marketing and international relations from Rochester Institute of Technology and Masters of Arts in English as a Second Language, ESL, from the School for International Training. She has years of teaching experience with K-12 students in a variety of settings including an international arena. For Babble Tree, Jennifer's contributions highlight reviewing, editing and evaluating instructional components. Her linguistic knowledge of English, Swedish and Spanish along with her teaching experiences and pedagogical knowledge make for a well-versed advisor who is highly specialized and extremely talented in teaching beginning-level language learners from ages birth to adult.
Dr. Timothy Rush
Key Researcher & Program Evaluator
Dr. Tim Rush, emeritus professor of education, at the University of Wyoming; Doctor of Philosophy, reading and educational psychology statistics and measurement, Purdue University; Mater of Arts in reading and educational psychology and Bachelor of Science in elementary education, University of Minnesota. For Babble Tree, Dr. Rush has been absolutely instrumental to the company’s research and development efforts. He has served as chief advisor, key researcher and program evaluator. His dedication and passion for cultural awareness, understanding and tolerance infiltrate into all that he does. His scholarly contributions and area of expertise surround the area of indigenous languages stabilization and native nations cultural preservation.
Dr. Samara Madrid
Key Researcher & Program Evaluator
Dr. Madrid is an Associate Professor in the Department of Elementary and Early Childhood Education at the University of Wyoming. She received her doctorate in Early Childhood Education from The Ohio State University, a Master of Arts in Psychology from San Jose State University and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from University of Hawai’i at Hilo. She has taught courses on child development in educational setting, developmental psychology, oral and written language development, social learning in early childhood, culture and early childhood education, engaging families in early childhood settings, play development in early childhood, instructional strategies in early childhood, trends and issues in early childhood, and qualitative research methodology. For Babble Tree, Dr. Madrid supported program implementation including qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis focused on program evaluation among multiple classrooms in Wyoming and Illinois. Furthermore, she coordinated program evaluation and research efforts with collaborating professors in Wyoming and Washington. Her contributions extend into a variety of realms and are acknowledged as pivotal in the development of the Bridges curriculum.
Leigh Reagan Smith
Cinematographer & Editor
http://www.mountainfiremedia.com
Leigh received an MFA in Film and Photography from the School of Visual Arts in New York, NY. She is an award-winning cinematographer for the film Bag It (www.bagitmovie.com) and has shot and edited films including network programming for National Geographic, Showtime TV, PBS, and Fuel TV in addition to film festivals across the United States and world. Leigh’s talent and goal to inspire, enlighten and teach others by way of her documentary film background and educational programming is recognized as an instrumental and essential piece of Babble Tree’s multimedia development and creation of visual support tools. Leigh is an exceptional artist who believes Babble Tree’s character-driven videos are not only fun and entertaining for children, but teach language at the same time.
Dr. Marilyn Chu
Primary Research Consultant
Dr. Chu is an Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education, Woodring College of Education, Western Washington University (WWU); Doctorate of Education, Early Childhood Curriculum Development, Nova Southeastern University, Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Early Childhood Post-Graduate Certificate, Pacific Oaks College, Pasadena, CA; Masters in Adult Education, WWU, Bellingham, WA; Bachelors in Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. Dr. Chu has taught courses and is a frequent presenter at national early childhood conferences on early childhood development, family and community engagement with schools, mentoring and coaching and early childhood creativity and play. For Babble Tree, Dr. Chu has served as program advisor, primary research consultant and reviewer of the Bridges curriculum. Her knowledge of family engagement, early childhood development and culturally relevant early childhood program partnerships has been applied to the study of influencing early childhood program change through the mentoring and coaching of early childhood teachers.
Barbara Martinez-Griego
Researcher & Program Evaluator
Barbara is an Early Childhood Education faculty and department chair at Skagit Valley College, who holds a Master of Arts, dual-language teaching and learning education and mentoring and coaching, Goddard College, and a Bachelor of Science, elementary education and early childhood, New Mexico State University. Barbara's faculty experience includes teaching child development associate courses in Spanish and English and revising the college Early Childhood Education degree curriculum to infuse strategies for working effectively with bilingual children and families. She has experience as an elementary school teacher, preschool teacher, Head Start, ECE program administrator, and child care licensor. For Babble Tree, Barbara has assisted as researcher and program evaluator of the Bridges curriculum, where she worked to effectively implement and oversee program implementation among multiple Head Start programs.
Pati Rocha
Spanish Translator, Storyteller & Program Reviewer
Liliana Patricia is simply an amazing storyteller, coordinator and interpreter. By training Pati is a counselor and communications specialist whose bilingual skills and cultural awareness bestow upon her a wide variety of unique competencies including diplomacy and tolerance. For Babble Tree, her dynamic skill set has led her to contribute to a wide variety of roles including voice talent, presenter, reviewer and actress. As an advocate of bilingual learning and cultural tolerance, Pati promotes reading, advocacy and literacy development to young children and families in enjoyable, authentic and natural ways. Pati’s contributions to Babble Tree are instrumental and highly esteemed.
