Technical Advisory Committee

The Technical Advisory Committee assists the ILI Board of Directors and staff on cutting edge technology issues that affect language revitalization work.

Manuela Noske is an international project manager in Windows International at Microsoft Corporation. She holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics (University of Chicago) and an MA in African Languages from University of Cologne, Germany. Previous to her current work at Microsoft, she has lectured on linguistics at JATE University in Hungary and at University of California Davis. Manuela volunteered as an assistant instructor for ILI’s National Tech-Knowledge Training Conference at University of Washington in Seattle in August 2004. She is currently serving as the chair of the Technical Advisory Committee and has instructed workshops for us from 2005 to 2008. She is a fluent speaker of German and is very involved in teaching her son the mother tongue.

Kerry Langford is a software engineer with IBM in Minnesota. At IBM he serves as president of the IBM Native Diversity Network (INDN) group. He also serves as Chair of ILI’s Technical Advisory Committee which helps steer the Language Materials Development Center. Kerry is instrumental in forging this partnership between IBM and ILI through his involvement with ILI’s Advisory Committee. Kerry joined the indigenous language revitalization work as a personal journey when he found out late in life that both of his grandmothers were Cherokee. He is teaching himself the Cherokee language to learn more about this part of his heritage.

Tonia Williams is a tribal citizen and employee of the Cherokee Nation based in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. She is the Web manager for the Information Systems department and spearheads various web based initiatives such as language revitalization efforts with the use of computer technologies. Examples of some of these project include an extensive website with various interactive games, word translator, and live, fully interactive online Cherokee language classes. As an employee, Tonia takes her work very seriously. As a Tribal citizen, she takes her work very personally. One of her goals is to reach as many people as possible to educate them about the Cherokee Nation’s history and culture and to help in the tribe’s language revitalization efforts through the use of technology.

Chris Harvey works for Indigenous Language Institute under contract as the head of Research and Development. He is responsible for the design of the Regional Tech-Knowledge Training Workshops as well as research on innovative use of technology for language revitalization. Chris has developed keyboard layouts and font systems for languages across North America and around the world; his website, languagegeek.com contains software tools for many Native languages. Chris holds an MA in Linguistics from University of Manitoba, Canada, and has worked with aboriginal nations in Canada on language revitalization. He has studied over twenty languages and above all has learned some of his Celtic ancestors’ endangered languages.

Steven Bird is Associate Professor & Deputy Head of Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering of University of Melbourne and Senior Research Associate of the Linguistic Data Consortium of University of Pennsylvania. He is investigating computational models for linguistic structures and processes, with application to language technologies and to the documentation of endangered languages with a focus on efficient query for databases of hierarchically annotated data.

Jessica Dorr, Program Officer, International Libraries Program, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, as one of the original members of the ILI Technical Advisory Committee, provided Gates Foundation seed grant to establish the Language Materials Development Center. Jessica was formerly Program Coordinator for the Gates Foundation Native American Technology Access Project, responsible for equipment and technical assistance contributions to tribal libraries in the Southwest. Jessica holds a B.A. from Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and an M.L.I.S. from the University of Washington in Seattle.