Center Staff
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Grace Valenzuela, Program Director, oversees the Center’s programs to meet the needs of Portland Public Schools’ English Language Learners. Grace has a B.S. in Education with a major in English and a minor in Drama from the Philippine Normal College in Manila, a Master’s degree in Teaching ESL from the School for International Training in Brattleboro, Vermont, and a C.A.S. (Certificate of Advanced Study) in Educational Leadership, from the University of Southern Maine. Her quarter-century of professional experience in the United States, Philippines, and Mexico includes teaching English K- adult, curriculum development, staff development, program development and administration, and grant-writing. She has extensive experience in training high school teachers all over the country and international experience with non-governmental agencies specializing in refugee work.
Marguerite MacDonald, Program Coordinator, acts as the Center’s Assistant Director coordinating the district’s translation efforts and multilingual parent activities, overseeing the district’s multilingual preschool and the Intensive English Language Program for Newcomers. She was a former principal of Reiche School and assistant principal at Longfellow School. She brings a knowledge of the changing Portland community and an understanding of equity issues statewide from her work at the MaineDepartment of Education where she was an Affirmative Action Officer and Assistant to the Commissioner of Education. Margie has a B.S. in Elementary Education from Boston State College and an M.S. in Educational Administration from the University of Southern Maine.
Catherine Siegel, Intake Coordinator, is a graduate of Brooklyn College (BA) and Adelphi University (MS). She has worked in Brooklyn, New York, and Portland, Maine as a Teacher of English to Speakers of Other Languages for the past ten years. Catherine currently coordinates our Family Welcome Center, which helps new families register their children for school and connect with community resources. Catherine lives in Portland with her husband and their greyhound.
Margot Downs, Professional Development Specialist
Multilingual Parent/Community Specialists:
Minh Canfield (Vietnamese Community Specialist)
Nyapeni Choul Doul speaks Arabic and Nuer and serves the Sudanese African Community. Nyapeni attended college in Cairo, Egypt, and is now working towards a degree in social work at USM. She has studied about family and children and has helped many Sudanese families in Porltand, and is a member of a Nuer Women ’s Group.
Mahmoud Hassan (Somali Community Specialist)
Biljana Nedeljkovic is a graduate of Teacher’s University Jagodina, Serbia. She worked for two years as an elementary teacher in Serbia. Due to civil war in her country, she moved to Maine with her familiy in 1998 and began working for Portland Public Schools the following year. She is working towards her bachelor’s degree in Social Work at the University of Southern Maine and is actively working with children at her church. Biljana also works as an interpreter on call for Maine Medical Center.
Wilfreid Plalum has a B.A in International Relations from the UMaine, Orono and a Masters degree in International Community Economic Development from Southern New Hampshire University. He worked with the Ministry of Youth and Sports Government of South Sudan and the Southern Sudan Human Rights Commision. Most recently, he was Case Manager at Community Counseling Center in Portland. A community leader in the Sudanese community, he speaks Acholi, Arabic, and Swahili.
Louise Rocha-McCarthy serves the Latino community. Louise has lived and studied in Mexico and Spain. She has traveled to Guatemala, Paraguay, and Brazil and has worked as a nurse aide at MMC, as an ethnic program director on WMPG, and as an adult education Spanish teacher. Louise also organizes the Multicultural Library and writes a Community Voices column in the Portland Press Herald.
Pirun Sen has worked with Portland parents through the Multilingual Program for 20 years. Bilingual in Khmer and English, Pirun has developed a very successful Cambodian Parent Advisory Council. He has presented at regional, state, and national conferences on parent involvement and literacy. He runs a radio program in Khmer and and is a talented musician. Drawing on his background in teaching and nursing, Pirun teaches citizenship classes and works on community and schoool issues impacting Cambodian families.
Administrative Support Staff:
Jeanna Best, Secretary, serves as an administrative support staff for the Center’s translation and interpretation services to meet the district’s policy on language access. She organizes and disseminates the district’s translation efforts and is a key contact in accommodating requests for interpreters for parent/teacher conferences, parent, PTO and PET meetings, and other events requiring interpreter services.
Lila Conley, Lead Secretary/Office Manager, has worked for Portland Public Schools for seventeen years as the Lead Secretary/Office Manager for the Multilingual Program. She graduated from Westbrook College as a C.M.A. and worked in the medical field for several years in the Portland area before taking employment with the school department. She also attended the University of Southern Maine and took several business courses. Lila has worked for Portland Public Schools’ Multilingual and Multicultural Center since 1988.
Rick Dixon, Head Custodian
Jenifer Turkewitz, Secretary, worked for American Airlines and took advantage of flight benefits by traveling all over the US, Europe, the Caribbean, and Canada. She moved to Maine 7 years ago to work at Anthem before taking employment with the Multilingual and Multicultural Center as the administrative support staff at the Center registering multilingual children and maintaining the district’s data of its English Language Learners.