Founders
Jillian Krera is lead creator and program manager for our language-learning software as well as the co-editor of the book, Egyptian Hieroglyphs Made Easy. She studies Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Egyptian Hieroglyphs, Coptic and Greek. She has an MA in Geopolitical Studies with a Middle Eastern concentration from the University of Arizona. Jill has also studied Arabic at the American University in Cairo. Her passion is to learn, teach and contribute to the understanding of diverse cultures.
Steven Miles has worked in the computer gaming industry for over 20 years including top entertainment software companies Nintendo, Acclaim Entertainment and Sierra On-Line. At Sierra On-Line Steven managed Front Page Sport (FPS): Football Pro 95, previously listed as one of the best 100 software titles of all time by PC Gamer magazine. He has also worked at Know Wonder, a children software publisher where he produced Amiela's Notebook, a critically acclaimed Mattel product. He managed the early stages of development of the software Rugrats: Totally Angelica. At Microsoft he was manager in Xbox support. His extensive software experience in establishing software standards contributes to the high quality, professional software products that he manages.
Developer
SMiles Productions was fortunate to have Lionel Space of Micro Space Systems Applications develop all our programs. Lionel has been developing software solutions since 1978. SMP began working working with Lionel in 1997. He delivers on time and support couldn't be better.
Partners: Hebrew
Naomi Sokoloff is a co-designer of the Speak Hebrew! software package. Naomi is "professor of Hebrew and modern Jewish literature in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilization and The Department of Comparative Literature, Cinema and Media at UW. She is co-editor, with Nancy E. Berg, of 'What We Talk About When We Talk About Hebrew (And What it Means to Americans),' appearing in 2018 from UW Press" (https://jewishstudies.washington.edu/author/naomi-sokoloff/).
Monica S. Devens is a co-designer of the Speak Hebrew! software package. She has a PhD in Near Eastern languages and literatures, UCLA. She has taught Hebrew for over 20 years. She is the author of The Liturgy of the Seventh Sabbath: a Beta Israel (Falasha) Text and A Concordance to the Book of Psalms in the Ethiopic Version, plus more the 20 articles on various aspects of Hebrew and the Ethiopian languages.
Partners: Persian
Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak is co-designer of the Persian Tutor software package. "For 19 years Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak was professor of Persian language and literature and Iranian culture and civilization at the University of Washington. He has studied in Iran and the United States, receiving his Ph.D. in comparative literature from Rutgers University in 1979, and has taught English and comparative literature and translation studies, as well as classical and modern Persian literature at the University of Tehran, Rutgers University, Columbia University, and the University of Texas. Professor Karimi-Hakkak is the author of 19 books and over 100 major scholarly articles. He has contributed articles on Iran and Persian literature to many reference works, including The Encyclopedia Britannica, The Encyclopaedia Iranica, and The Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. His works have been translated into French, Dutch, Spanish, Russian, Greek, Arabic, Japanese, and Persian. He has won numerous awards and honors, and has served as president of the International Society for Iranian Studies and several other professional academic organizations. Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak is married and has two sons, Kusha Karimi and Kia Karimi" (https://sllc.umd.edu/directory/ahmad-karimi-hakkak).
Partners: Egyptian Hieroglyphs
Scott Noegel is the author of the Egyptian Hieroglyphs Made Easy book. He has a PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from Cornell University. Currently, Scott is Professor of Biblical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies and the Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (NELC) at the University of Washington, Seattle. He teaches Egyptain language, history and culture. For an anthology of his work in music, film, and the visual arts from the 1980s to the present, visit http://faculty.washington.edu/snoegel/.
Contract Artists
