OUR TEAM

Vivien Fröhlich

Independent Contractor

Vivien Fröhlich is a linguistics and computational linguistics student with experience in teaching German, English, French and Spanish. She did research on the endangered creole language Palenquero in different university projects.

John Strauss

Board Member

John Strauss is a business consultant with extensive experience founding and supporting early-stage organizations, both commercial and charitable. He has more than 10 years’ experience serving as an officer or director to 501(c)(3) organizations, some of which he helped establish.

William Rivers

Board President

William Rivers has 20 years of experience in culture and language for economic development and national security, with expertise in research, assessment, program evaluation, and policy development and advocacy. Dr. Rivers received his Ph.D. in Russian from Bryn Mawr College and his MA, BA, and BS from the University of Maryland. He speaks Russian and French.

Board Member

Board Member

Pila Wilson

Xʼunei Lance Twitchell

Board Member

Board Member

Professor of Hawaiian Languages, Founding Member of the 'Aha Pūnana Leo (Hawaiian Immersion Preschool).

Xʼunei Lance Twitchell (Lingít, Haida, Yupʼik, Sami) is an Associate Professor of Alaska Native Languages at the University of Alaska Southeast, and lives in Juneau with his wife and bilingual children. He speaks & studies the Lingít language, and advocates for indigenous language revitalization through teaching, program development, and legislative changes. Twitchell is an author of poems, stories, and screenplays, and is a filmmaker, musician, and Northwest Coast Artist.

Walter Winshall

Board Member

Walter A. Winshall is a private investor with substantial experience in business strategy and startup organizations.

Susan Bronson

Sheila Bong

Board Member

Executive Director, Yiddish Book Center.

Sheila is a Blackfeet Tribal member who gained an appreciation for Native language preservation transcribing oral traditions from Tribal Elders in her hometown of Browning, Montana. She serves on the Advisory Board of the Northwest Indian Language Institute at the University of Oregon and is also a Co-Founder of Avant Assessment, a language assessment company that delivers a test of Yup’ik and is developing additional indigenous language tests. 

Stephanie Witkowski

Executive Director

Stephanie Witkowski has over 10 years of experience in both language revitalization and the non-profit sector. She holds an MA in Linguistics from the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa with an emphasis in Language Documentation and Conservation, and has worked with speakers of multiple under documented languages, including native languages of California, the Pacific, and Russia.

Kelsey Riggs

Community Engagement Manager

Kelsey Riggs studied photography at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City, and has worked as a creative director, copywriter, and graphic designer for various brands and startups around the country. With a passion for making a difference and an extensive background in marketing, Kelsey is excited to utlize the positive platform 7000 Languages has created to help sustain endangered languages.

Kayleigh Jeanette

Project Coordinator

Kayleigh Jeannette has a MA in Applied Linguistics from Boston University. Her research there focused on language documentation and revitalization in endangered and dormant language contexts. She is also TEFL certified and enjoys teaching English to international students. Throughout her work her goal is to use linguistics to support the individuals and communities around her.