Ciao a tutti –
Following the recent announcement that Governor Inslee has extended the mandatory stay-at-home order through May 4, we will POSTPONE the upcoming Annual General Meeting (AGM) scheduled for April 15 to May 13 and CANCEL the Italian Meeting scheduled for April 29.
We will continue to monitor the situation and will make a decision about the May 13 AGM closer to that date. We are investigating the feasibility of having the AGM on May 13 using ZOOM (an online meeting software), including the election of new officers for our Program Year 2020-2021.
We understand that this is a developing situation and, as such, our policy will be responsive and in-line with the recommendations of Washington State and King County Public Health departments.
Please take care of yourself during these stressful days. Statemi bene!
“Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.” – John Lennon
Dan DeMatteis,
President, Dante Alighieri Society of Washington
Gabriella Vagnoli was born in Pisa, Tuscany, home of the famous Leaning Tower. She grew up in a multicultural family thanks to her Brazilian mom and remembers teaching Italian for the first time as a child to her Brazilian cousins. She obtained a Laurea in English and Spanish Language and Literature at the Università degli Studi di Pisa and during her college years spent a year in the University of Reading, UK, studying mainly the works of Shakespeare. After obtaining a Certificate as a Teacher of Italian (DITALS II) at the Università per Stranieri di Siena, she has taught in a full immersion school in Florence, a children's full immersion program in Chicago and a Community College in Illinois.
Tiziana was born and raised in Sardinia, a beautiful Italian island in the Mediterranean Sea. She has always been passionate about foreign languages and cultures, and studied French and German at the Scuola Superiore Interpreti e Traduttori in Milan, where she obtained her first Foreign Languages and Interpreter BA degree. She then pursued her MA in English and German Language and Literature at IULM, one of the most prestigious universities in Milan, Italy for Language and Communication studies.
Nicla is a native of Napoli, Italy. She has a Laurea in Materie Letterarie (degree in humanities) and a Laurea in Pedagogia (degree in Education) from the Università degli Studi di Cassino. She earned her M.A in Italian and her PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Washington. She has published articles and book chapters on gender and theater as well as politics and religion in Counter-Reformation Italy and in the last years, has been teaching Italian literature, language, and culture in different institutions. In addition to teaching in our program, Nicla is authorized to cover the role of esaminatrice and intervistatrice in our PLIDA Examination Board.