ETAS Org Chart
Executive Committee
The Executive Committee is comprised of officers and chairs elected by the membership to review the progress of ETAS’ strategy and planned events, as well as to conduct the ongoing business of the association.
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Interim President
Carol Waites
Secretary
Sylvia Goetze Wake
Sylvia’s experience in language teaching and training in Switzerland has been intertwined with two decades of involvement with ETAS. A regular conference participant and presenter, her current role as Secretary to the executive committee involves planning meeting agendas with the president, taking minutes and supporting short-term projects of interest to the association. She joined the Committee in January 2022.
National Coordinator
Sharon Acton
Sharon hails from Los Angeles. After completing a BA in French and a Masters in International Management, she switched gears from business to teaching. She taught high school French and Life Sciences in California before moving to Switzerland in 2001. Once here, teaching EFL was a logical transition. Beginning with a stint in various Yverdon-les-Bains secondary schools, Sharon moved in 2006 to her current position at the University of Lausanne’s Language Centre. She completed a distance MA TESOL from University of London in 2013. All in all, she’s been teaching for nearly 25 years, with 20 in the EFL domain. Her teaching focuses are English for Academic Purposes, Business English, and TOEFL exam prep. Her particular strength is classroom dynamics, which comes in handy when running events to help ETAS members connect! For the ETAS Vaud/Fribourg region, Sharon typically hosts quasi-monthly social-professional (“So-Pro”) apéros in Tibits at Lausanne station.
National Events Chair
Sonja Vigneswaren
Sonja Vigneswaren worked as a cytogeneticist for 9 years in the UK after completing her university degree. She was then an at-home mum for 17 years, during which time the family moved to Switzerland, where the easiest option for balancing home and work life was teaching English part-time. She obtained her Trinity TESOL qualification and has been teaching for 10 years. Although she briefly opened a family café in Sierre, she realized that it wasn’t the life for her, so she went back to teaching English! Sonja is a very organized person and very good at event planning which she has dabbled in over the years, mainly for family and friends. She feels that she would be a good fit for the role of National Events Chair and looks forward to joining the ETAS team.
Public Relations Chair
Rumana Yasin
Rumana Yasin has been living in Basel, Switzerland since 2014. She has diverse experience in Banking, Telecommunications, and Project Management and is passionate about learning and self-development. After completing CELTA, she has been working as a freelance Business English trainer. She is currently the online events organizer for ETAS and successfully organized many workshops in 2022. Having lived in Pakistan, Singapore, and now Switzerland, she has developed the ability to interact with people from various backgrounds and cultures. In her spare time, she enjoys swimming, cooking and traveling. She is looking forward to joining the ETAS team as the Public Relations Chair.
Publications Chair and Vice President
Carol Waites
Carol Waites’s career has mainly been in Geneva and Sydney, Australia. She is now recently retired with a busy consultancy business training people in writing skills. Carol has always been passionate about all types of reading materials, has written a PhD, edited others’ PhDs, and delivered writing courses with self-designed materials for United Nations civil servants in Geneva for over 20 years. Last year, she was accredited as a proofreader and editor by the College of Media and Publications, UK. For the last few years, she has been volunteering in various capacities for the ETAS publications team, and has found them a dedicated, professional team producing a high quality Journal. She was honoured and proud to accept the position of Publications Chair, and is enjoying finding contributors to the Journals and working with the team.
Web Chair
Maria Terec
Maria comes from Cluj-Napoca, Romania, and moved to Zürich in 2022. Since finishing her studies, she has worked as a language teacher (first teaching Romanian and then later, English) with a few interruptions to her teaching career to explore roles as a call centre agent and a project coordinator. However, since the pandemic, she has focused exclusively on teaching online English. While she loves the flexibility and independence of freelancing, she values her social network of like-minded groups and organizations. In the last six years, she has shared her passion for nature and teaching by volunteering in various nature and teaching-related organizations, such as ETAS.
Treasurer
David Riley
David Riley was born in 1959 in the UK and lived and studied there (BSc. In Mathematics and Statistical Mathematics, Exeter) until 1982 when he moved to live in Geneva. Whilst with PWC (1982 to 1987), he qualified as a certified accountant. He is now semi-retired, but during his career he worked in financial services for many international companies. He also has much experience with not-for-profit associations and has held the position of treasurer for several cultural (Orchestre des Nations) and sporting associations (Centre Sportif de Cologny). He is very keen on sport (squash, trekking, cycling, windsurfing, skiing etc.). David looks forward to being accepted as Treasurer of ETAS, an association that he knows well since he has held the position of external bookkeeper for a number of years.
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The English Teachers Association, Switzerland (ETAS) is an association as defined by articles 60ff of the Swiss Civil Code. As such, ETAS is governed by an elected Executive Committee of at least seven members. The positions include the President, the Treasurer, the Secretary, plus at least four other members. Executive Committee position terms are for three years, with the possibility of one additional year. All ETAS members in good standing are eligible to stand for election, which takes place each year during the AGM.
The Executive Committee meets whenever business so requires, but at least three times a year. No decisions can be taken unless a majority of the members are present. All matters which do not fall expressly within the competence of a GM shall be dealt with by the Executive Committee. Further information and details about the roles and governance can be found in the Statutes.
A number of the ETAS Executive Committee positions come open each year. An announcement of those openings is posted with a Nomination Form in the Summer Journal. Please feel free to contact the current Officer or Chair should you have any questions. We look forward to seeing you on the Executive Committee!
ETAS National Council
The ETAS National Council consists of several teams of volunteers dedicated to providing members with the best possible service.
The ETAS Administrator supports the association by maintaining membership renewals, conference visibility, bookkeeping and internal communication.
Originally from WI, USA, Katie Hayoz has been in Switzerland since 1997. Early on, she taught English to young children, but then decided to focus on her writing career. Until 2018, Katie was extremely involved with the Geneva Writers’ Group, organizing conferences, events, and workshops while also helping with administration. In 2022, she joined ETAS as office administrator. She immediately connected with the people and mission of ETAS and loves working for this vibrant organization.
Send an email to Katie.