Francesca is Co-Founder, Consultant and Director at the Centre. Originally from Scotland, she was also raised in Belgium and experienced first-hand what it was like to be educated in a new language in secondary school. Francesca speaks 6 languages, including Mandarin. She has been an EAL Coordinator in several international and local schools across the globe.

Francesca previously co-founded the educational company, IngeniousEd, in Dubai. She has led high-stakes school improvement projects and created the Literacy Intervention Programme (LIP), a specialised intervention approach for accelerating students’ reading and writing skills.

Francesca now works closely with educators, teachers and parents and enjoys sharing new insights about bilingualism, multilingualism and literacy. In her spare time, she is an avid collector of modern art, Chinese costumes and enjoys traveling.

Alison is Co-Founder and Consultant at the Centre. She started her career as a disability and behavioural therapist before training as a special education teacher. She has worked for Community Living in Ontario and with youth in psychiatric  treatment settings in Alberta.

Alison gained rich experiences working with indigenous children in Canada. She later became a Learning Support coordinator and Literacy Specialist in local and international schools in the UAE. She has worked extensively with Emirati children. Together with Francesca, Alison co-founded IngeniousEd and ran school consulting projects, teacher-training initiatives and developed the Literacy Intervention Programme (LIP) for struggling readers and writers.

Alison grew up in Northern Ontario, Canada. She speaks conversational Arabic and loves traveling and learning about other cultures. She also enjoys sketchnoting about educational topics, has a passion for learning and loves to write.