Liz Black enjoyed a successful career as a teacher for over 30 years, 15 as head of languages in two different secondary schools teaching to A-level, and with experience also in primary, and in adult education.

Beyond the classroom Liz has also been involved in sport and trips to outdoor education centres, organised numerous exchanges, and accompanied students on the UK German Connection study programme; she believes in extending and enhancing the experiences of students, because

• if students are motivated and ‘fit’ to learn languages they will make progress
• developing resilience is a key part of education in the 21st century.

Liz was awarded Advanced Skills Teacher status and worked for 10 years as a cross phase AST; she has also completed consultant leader training at the National College of School Leadership, been a CILT trainer, and Regional Subject Adviser for Links into Languages, under ALL President Kathy Wicksteed’s national lead.

Recently her experience has been in teacher training at the University of York, and in delivering face to face seminars and online support for the worldwide Deutsch Lehren Lernen programme for the Goethe-Institut, She has supported the British Council scholarship programme, worked on Erasmus projects, and is a writer of materials for Routes into Languages, and in other publications.

Liz has been a member of ALL for many years, and her passion for teaching languages has been shared far and wide at ALL local and national events, in the pages of Languages Today, and during two periods on ALL Council.
She believes that her work in different sectors, regions and countries over many years has given her a grasp of different teaching approaches and an understanding of Language Teachers’ needs.

Supporting and encouraging teachers at all phases of their career, and across all key stages in the changing languages landscape is the main aim of her Presidency.

Jane Driver is Principal at North Cambridge Academy in Cambridge. She is a Specialist Leader for Education in EAL and MFL, member of the British Academy Language Advisory Group and founded the ALL Peterborough MFL and EAL Hubs.

Jane co-created several nationally-recognised language projects including the Foreign Languages Spelling Bee, Translation Bee and Primary Bee.

Through her work in Cambridgeshire schools and with ALL, she has supported teachers and leaders with pedagogy, departmental improvement, and partnerships to support communities. Her work was recognised in 2021 with a Gold Pearson National Teaching Award for work with Gypsy-Roma and other hard-to-reach communities.

Jane has a passion for educational equity, and a strong belief that Languages and internationalism can be a vehicle for social mobility and community cohesion.

Richard works as a partner at a law firm in London. He has wide experience of most aspects of private client work including trusts, wills and probate and associated tax planning and his work is international,and as a French speaker his work is particularly focused on France and French clients in London.
Richard holds two French medals: Officer dans l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques, and Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite.

Richard was a long serving Chair of ALL's Board of Trustees (ALL Management Board), and also serves on other language and education-based boards. From 01 September 2016, Richard became ALL's Treasurer on its Board of Trustees.

Anna Lise Gordon has been a member of ALL since its inception. For the last 20+ years, she has worked in initial teacher education as MFL PGCE tutor, Academic Director for secondary PGCE provision, and latterly as Director of the Institute of Education at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, Currently, Anna Lise is Professor of Education at the same institution. She is a National Teaching Fellow and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Anna Lise's tenure as ALL President was from 1st September 2016 - 31st August 2018. In her role as ALL Trustee, Anna Lise serves as the school liaison representative on the executive committee of The University Council For Languages (UCFL). She co-leads ALL’s Learning from the Classroom initiative for members.

Kim is Professor of Innovation in Languages Education at the Sheffield Institute of Education, a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a National Teaching Fellow. She is an experienced lecturer and researcher in the field of languages and teacher education and an expert in CLIL.

Her career as an initial teacher trainer started in 2000 at Hull University. Prior to this, Kim taught French and German for 16 years. During her time as a secondary language teacher and senior leader, she was involved in running exchanges and residential visits as well as a number of national curriculum projects. Kim led two national pilots and innovations in MFL teacher education: French Extension Courses, which became known as subject knowledge enhancement (SKE) courses and the secondary Anglo-French bilateral exchange pilot for the Teaching and Development Agency (TDA). In her current role she has established a community of academics and practitioners of CLIL in Anglophone countries and is the conference chair of the Biennial International CLIL conferences hosted in June 2017 and June 2019 at Sheffield Institute of Education.

'Languages for all - defining today, transforming tomorrow' expresses some of the passion that Bernardette continues to bring to her advocacy with Speak to the Future.

Pauline's presidential challenge was about 'Grasping the nettles that beset us'. Pauline served as an Invited Trustee for a number of years beyond her presidential tenure.

Kathy's campaigning work on behalf of CLIL is still as vibrant now as it was at 'Language World: Working Together'. She also led the Linked Up project for ALL and served on many ALL Committees and Councils.  Kathy sadly died in 2018.

Steven, now an ALL Fellow, is the only person yet to have been President twice; the first time around his theme was 'Motivation  - for all' stressing the importance of teacher motivation, reflected in the current ALL-Literature wiki which he manages.

Steven chose 'Next Steps' as his theme for his second Language World, in the European Year of Languages, exploring issues of learner progression, but also of developing the work of the Association to be more readily available locally. Steven now chairs ALLNE Branch, one of the dozens of Branches, Hubs and Primary Hubs that have taken this idea forward.

Peter's theme of 'Raising Standards' is reflected in his work with the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) and on Language Awareness.

Madeleine's first Language World in York included the introduction of the European programmes (then called Socrates) while her second celebrated European Year of Lifelong Learning.

Bob's Language World in Edinburgh brought language teachers together with teachers of EFL in the cause of promoting language learning and best practice.