Linguistics Faculty

Charlene Potter

Professor Potter is from Canada and speaks English and French. She has taught English, French, and linguistics in public schools, colleges, and universities in Canada, Japan, and the US. She is the chair of the Foreign Languages and Linguistics Departments at PCC.  She is also a California Master Beekeeper and enjoys the outdoors.

Classes: Ling 10 (Introduction to Linguistics), Ling 13 (Phonetics), Ling 14 (Language and Society), Ling 20 (Independent Study)

Office: R225-A

Karen Carlisi, PhD

Dr. Carlisi holds a PhD in Applied Linguistics and has been a professor at PCC for 27 years. Before teaching at the community college, she taught international students and teachers from around the world at San Diego State University’s American Language Institute. She also taught at a university in Poland and a preparatory school in Japan. For several years, she served as program director for a Korean English education company. When she is not teaching, she continually seeks out new opportunities for travel, language, and culture. She has traveled extensively in Europe and a bit in Asia, with more extended periods of time living in Poland, Japan, and Italy. She has also trekked in the High Andes of Peru, learning from the indigenous Quechua people. Aside from that, she enjoys hanging with her family, gardening, swimming, weightlifting, and cooking.

Classes: Ling 12 (Language and Intercultural Communication), Ling 13 (Phonetics), Ling 15 (World Languages)

Mailbox: C245

Anwar El-Issa, PhD

Dr. El-Issa is a Jordanian native speaker of Arabic. He teaches English, ESL, Arabic, and linguistics at Pasadena City College and the Los Angeles Community College District. He has an MA in Applied Linguistics from Saint Michael’s College in Vermont and a PhD from the University of Liverpool in England. He has taught in many countries and enjoys reading, hiking, and writing.

Classes: Ling 12 (Language and Intercultural Communication)

Mailbox: C245

Petra Lott, PhD

Dr. Lott is from Switzerland, where languages have always come naturally to her. She majored in English and German at the University of Zürich. After earning two master’s degrees, she pursued a PhD in the gestural behavior of aphasic patients. She was able to spend two wonderful years at Boston University working with Dr. Jean Berko Gleason and the great late Harold Goodglass. Her numerous research projects on the connection between language use and psychiatric disorders resulted in several publications.

Dr. Lott teaches linguistics and German at Pasadena City College, as well as linguistics at California State University, Long Beach. She prefers to work so that she can live, rather than to live so that she can work. She makes time for her personal interests and hobbies, which range from weightlifting and cooking to baking, music, and her love of various art forms, including ceramics, photography, and painting.

Classes: Ling 16 (Psycholinguistics), Ling 17 (Language Acquisition)

Mailbox: C245

Steve Pell, PhD

Dr. Pell teaches a variety of courses in the English and Language Studies Division, where he focuses on historical linguistics and sociolinguistics with an emphasis on the English language. He specializes in synchronic and diachronic linguistics from Old English to Modern English. He is also academically interested in how American English influences cultural changes, including shifts in dialects and accents.

Dr. Pell is also a professional actor and is a member of the Screen Actors’ Guild and Actors’ Equity Association. He has a professional background in theatre and voice-overs. He holds both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Theatre Arts, as well as a master’s degree with a double emphasis in Applied Language Studies and Rhetoric and Composition. He holds a PhD with triple emphases in Linguistics and Culture, Arts Education, and Adult Literacy. He has taught at UCLA, the University of La Verne, Cal Poly, Glendale Community College, and the LAUSD. He is a native New Orleanian.

Classes: Ling 11 (History of the English Language), Ling 12 (Language and Intercultural Communication, Ling 14 (Language and Society)

Office: C252-J

Maureen Stone, MA

Professor Stone is the latest addition to our program. She is a California native and grew up in Glendale. She has an MA in Linguistics from California State University, Northridge and has taught ESL at CSUN and Los Angeles Mission College. Previously, she lived abroad and taught English in Türkiye and Japan. Her research interests lie in sociolinguistics, specifically language attitudes and ideologies, multilingualism, and sociolinguistic justice. She enjoys swing and blues dance and film photography in her spare time.

Linguistics classes: Ling 15 (Introduction to World Languages) is her first linguistics class at PCC, and we hope to add more in the future.

Mailbox: C245

Miki Sumitomo, PhD

Dr.  Sumitomo is from Japan. After obtaining a B.A. in English Literature in Japan, she moved to the US and earned another B.A. in Asian Studies. She pursued a master’s degree in Literacy, Language, and Cultural Studies at Boston University. Intrigued by the study of language, she decided to pursue her studies in linguistics and achieved a doctorate in applied linguistics. She was fascinated by the research on language, especially in the fields of sociolinguistics, anthropological linguistics, and language acquisition. She worked with the world-famous psycholinguist, Dr. Jean Berko Gleason, under whom she wrote her dissertation on a topic related to language acquisition. She loves the outdoors, water sports, and the mountains.

Dr. Sumitomo primarily teaches Japanese classes. The linguistics classes taught: Ling 10 (Introduction to Linguistics), Ling 16 (Psycholinguistics), Ling 17 (Language Acquisition)

Office: R225-E