Betty Azar

Betty Azar is author of the Azar Grammar Series. She is currently working with her new co-author, Stacy Hagen, on the 4th edition of “the blue book,” Understanding and Using English Grammar.

Fun fact: Betty is the model for the Talking Head character called English Grammar in Fundamentals of English Grammar Interactive. She enjoys kayaking, gardening, travel, classical music, opera, and playing piano duets with her husband.

Stacy Hagen

Stacy Hagen is Betty’s new co-author. She's an experienced ESL teacher and administrator, as well as a published author of a number of ESL textbooks. Stacy wrote most of the new material in the third edition of Basic English Grammar, including its new Workbook, bringing a wealth of rich new content, new exercise types, an audio component and a fresh, updated feel to the revision. She is currently working with Betty on the fourth edition of Understanding and Using English Grammar.

Fun fact: Stacy loves baking bread. She finds it so relaxing, she bakes it twice a week to go with her homemade soups. Mmmm!

Rachel Spack Koch

Rachel Spack Koch is a former ESL teacher, prolific materials writer and long time member of the Azar team. She wrote the Vocabulary Worksheets for AzarGrammar.com and is one of the creative forces behind the Azar Multimedia Programs, overseeing all the material writing. She’s been the moderator of the Grammar Q&A forum on the Azar Grammar Exchange website since its inception, providing accurate and elegant responses to grammar and English usage questions for many years.

Fun fact: Well, there are so many. Rachel is the model for the Past Participle character in Fundamentals of English Grammar Interactive. She is also a tournament Scrabble player and a very snappy dresser.

Richard Firsten

Richard Firsten is one of our favorite grammar wonks and writes the Grammar Guy blog for AzarGrammar.com. Richard’s writing is clear, down to earth, and accessible. He makes grammar fun — which of course it is! He also answers grammar questions on the Grammar Q&A forum, along with Rachel Spack Koch. You may know Richard from his former “The Grammar Guy” column in ESL Magazine or current “Grammatically Speaking” column online in the TESOL publication Essential Teacher. He also teaches English to adults at Lindsey Hopkins Technical Education Center, part of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, and has authored a number of grammar texts for teachers and students.

Fun fact: Richard is a fabulous cook who prepares an amazingly crispy apricot-glazed duck.

Maria Spelleri

Maria Spelleri is our Teacher Talk forum moderator and author of the fun and imaginative Expansion Activities and many of the Song Lessons on this website. Maria also wrote much of the exercise material in Understanding and Using English Grammar Interactive and Fundamentals of English Grammar Interactive. She has been teaching and designing specialty curricula in the U.S. and abroad for over 18 years. Maria is currently a full-time instructor in the Department of Language and Literature at Manatee Community College in Florida.

Fun fact: Maria has sailed all over the world on oil tankers, once spending four weeks on the open sea sailing around Africa from the United Arab Emirates to Texas.

Patti Spinner

Patti Spinner is creator of our Song Lessons. She teaches English grammar at the University of Pittsburgh while completing her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics. She is a singer/songwriter with a deep love of music.

Fun fact: Patti leads an ESL choir at the university’s English Language Institute and has recently published an article on English-language choirs in ESL Magazine.

Kris Wiltse

Kris Wiltse (www.kriswiltse.com) created the colorful, whimsical art on our website banners. She is a versatile artist, good friend and fellow Whidbey Islander. When we built this site we thought it was looking too serious. We called in Kris to lighten it up with some warm and fun visuals to reflect our feelings about teachers, teaching grammar and community. Her art was the crowning touch. Kris also created the new swallow logo for the third edition of the Azar Grammar Series.

Fun fact: Kris manages to incorporate art and color into every aspect of her life — including her animals. She started raising chickens after moving to the island. Her girls are beautiful, colorful chickens who lay the most beautiful, colorful eggs you've ever seen.

Pearson Longman

Pearson Longman publishes the Azar Grammar Series and has enthusiastically supported the development of this website. They sponsored the development of our Vocabulary Worksheets, Expansion Activities and Song Lessons. They gave us permission to publish the Azar Interactives Talking Head animations and the full text of Fun with Grammar on AzarGrammar.com. They also sponsor the Grammar Guy blog and Teacher Talk moderator positions. Pearson Longman arranged for the videos of Betty's TESOL presentations that appear on the Author's Corner. They also provide the Azar Interactive programs, Teacher Resource Disks and Test Generators that we offer as incentives for teachers’ website contributions. We couldn’t do it without them.