Meet Your ISSI Instructors
Lake Tahoe Community College takes pride in the caliber of the educators who bring their passion and expertise to the ISSI program. Meet the talented individuals who will guide you through an immersive and enriching journey into the Spanish language and culture.
Now, let the introductions begin!
Alana Cayabyab
Alana started her time with ISSI in 2023. Her own journey of learning Spanish as a second language included a month-long study abroad in Costa Rica as part of her undergraduate degree, as well as taking many Spanish courses in college. As a part of the bi-national teaching credential Mexico BCLAD program, Alana had the opportunity to live in Oaxaca, Mexico. Alana has had the pleasure of being a Spanish Immersion elementary educator at Bijou Community School for 8 years. She is inspired to create experiences for ISSI students to engage in high-interest content and to develop their Spanish together as a community of learners.
Alana encourages anyone learning Spanish to have immersive experiences—spend time with native speakers and travel, if possible, to Spanish-speaking countries. Mexico is her favorite Spanish-speaking country to visit, and just this past spring, she enjoyed exploring the impressive waterfalls in Chiapas! Alana looks forward to meeting you.
Cecy Gutiérrez
Cecilia was born in Bogota, Colombia. She has been with ISSI since July 2018. She received her B.A. in Foreign Language Education (Spanish and English) from the University of La Gran Colombia in Bogota, where she taught English after graduating. She also taught Spanish language and literature in private and public schools before coming to the United States. She received her first M.A. in Education Administration and Supervision from the Externado University of Colombia in Bogota in 2000, and her second M.A. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from University of Nevada, Reno in 2008. She is currently finishing her doctorate program in education, and she has taught Spanish for over 24 years. She loves her career because she can share not only her culture, but also other Hispanic cultures and of course, learn more about the culture of this wonderful country. She contributed cultural information to the 9th edition of the textbook "Puntos de Partida" for McGraw-Hill. In her spare time, she likes to dance, listen to music, travel, and hang out with friends and family.
Some tips and tricks she recommends to new students is to participate in class using the target language regardless of whether the sentences are well organized or not, and it is also important to take 30 minutes each day to listen to music in Spanish, especially soft ballads to get more vocabulary, watch soap operas and watch/listen to the news to improve the acquisition of this new and interesting language.
Dana Ix
Dana started at ISSI in 2023. As a Spanish as a second language learner herself, Dana is passionate about helping others to achieve their goals of mastering a foreign language and experiencing the excitement of learning about other cultures in the process. She studied in Mexico City during her undergraduate program at UC Irvine, and it was one of the most important times in her life! After graduating with her degree in Spanish Literature, she got her BCLAD teaching credential and Master’s degree from UCLA and went on to pursue her career in education. She has been a teacher for over 20 years and has taught in bilingual and dual immersion programs in every grade from 1st through college level at one time or another! She is excited to be coming to ISSI this year and hopes you will enjoy the classes she has prepared!
Esther Gormley
Esther has been teaching at LTCC and ISSI since 2008 and has yet to miss a year! Born in Brazil, she fell in love with languages at an early age, and has taught Spanish, French, Portuguese, and English throughout her academic career. She has a Master’s of Arts in Spanish Linguistics from Sacramento State and has lived in many Spanish speaking countries, such as Spain, Mexico, Peru, and Guatemala.
After enjoying the Tahoe life for many years, Esther moved to Reno to raise her two young daughters with her husband David, but she calls the world her home and still travels as much as she can. She has been to over 50 countries and all 7 continents. Her biggest advice to students who want to become fluent is to live in a Spanish speaking country, but if that’s not possible, ISSI is the next best thing! Practice makes perfect, and she hopes to see you at ISSI for many years to come.
Sandra Carter
Sandra Carter has been an ISSI instructor for over 15+ years, teaching the core grammar courses, the subjunctive and many breakouts! She has an MA in Spanish and an MA in English from CSUS. She has taught Spanish and English at Cosumnes River College since the 1990’s, as well as conducted small Spanish tutor groups in Sacramento. She has studied, lived and traveled in most of the Latin American countries and has taught English in Mexico and Argentina. Her teaching philosophy centers around the idea that learning Spanish or any second language is more than learning words; it is learning to see the world through a different lens- to see the world as a native Spanish speaker sees the world.
Skip Crosby
As one of ISSI's newest instructors, Skip joined the program in 2022 and is eager to return. Skip's passion is continuous learning and striving to develop the most effective language acquisition strategies. Feedback from a recent student epitomizes this goal: "This class was interesting because I did not think I was understanding the language, and then we would be given a reading assignment or test and I realized I fully understood what he had been teaching us! I was learning without realizing I was learning!" How neat is that? One of Skip's top secrets for Spanish learners is to listen to and read highly repetitive and comprehensible language.
Susanna Janssen
Susanna first joined ISSI in 2018. She is passionate about helping students at all levels crack the “hard nuts” of Spanish language learning, such as learning how to master preterite/imperfect, ser and estar, por and para, and subjunctive; how to become an enthusiastic reader in Spanish; and how to identify and eliminate the common “blind spot” errors that English speakers tend to overlay onto their Spanish.
Susanna suggests that students make every effort to speak Spanish outside the classroom and, the ultimate secret, commit to doing something in Spanish every day for the rest of your life, even if it’s just three minutes of reading aloud or listening to a song in Spanish. Capitalize on the intensive experience to keep making progress on the bilingual path. Engage every day!