Our Teachers

Jim Fyfe

Jim Fyfe holds an M.A. in Educational Leadership from Bank Street College and a B.A. in Speech and Theater from DeSales University. In the classroom, he has taught AP US history and European history since 2003. He has coached clients from business, medicine, the arts and education for TED and Ted-x talks, including author Susan Cain, whose TED talk has drawn over 25 million views. A 20-year veteran of television, film and Broadway as a writer, performer, producer and director, Jim has also appeared frequently on television and in film, and has taught on-camera technique, acting and improvisation. He has written for Oxygen, A&E and Comedy Central networks. He was Consulting Producer on the Bravo TV series, Andy Cohen’s Then and Now, and was Segment Producer on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, producing appearances by Presidential candidates, film and pop stars, leading directors and bestselling authors.

Eliza Simpson

Eliza Simpson is a dialect coach for Hollywood film/television production and private clients, as well as a certified teacher. Eliza's recent dialect coach credits include Netflix's Tall Girl, the upcoming sequel to Fantastic Beasts, and Justin Chon's new film Blue Bayou with Alicia Vikander. She coaches performers from across the globe for film, TV, stage, voiceover, spokes-modeling, and corporate events. Her website: www.dialectsnow.com. Eliza is a proud graduate of Rutgers University and a member of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association. When she's not on set or at rehearsal, she works in conjunction with acting conservatories like HB Studios, American Academy of Dramatic Arts, NYU, and the New School to assist actors in mastering accent skills. She is also the founder and executive director of the "The Mother Line Story Project”, an arts non-profit which aims to promote the development of institutions and organizations that focus on women’s stories on a global scale. @MotherLineStory. 

Dr. Ken Peterson

Dr. Petersen is the Technical Director for Online Learning and Assessment at American Councils for International Education, where he has overseen the development of Web-based language learning and assessment systems for over two decades. He is the principle architect of the ACLASS test development and administration system which has been used to assess language proficiency for tens of thousands of learners. He spent many years as an ESL teacher and a foreign language learner in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Uzbekistan. He holds a Ph.D. in Applied/Computational Linguistics from Georgetown University and an M.A. from the University of Washington in Near Eastern Languages. His areas of expertise include instructional design, language testing, natural language processing, software systems architecture and multimedia.