Alan Gries is an Adjunct Professor in the Writing Department where he teaches Bridge to Academic Writing. In addition, he serves as the Specialized ESL Tutor for Woodbury’s international student population, providing intensive tutoring sessions tailored to each student’s specific needs. For over seven years Prof. Gries taught a wide range of courses, including Research Methods, Cultural Images and Values, and Grammar, in the Transition English Language Program (TELP) for international students. He was also an Extended Writing Tutorial Consultant for the Writing Consultant Partnership Program. Alan’s love of language and of people creates a relaxed classroom atmosphere that helps students gain confidence in and enthusiasm for their ability to speak and write English. He has spent the last nine summers working with Embassy Summer at the Woodbury and Cal State Northridge campuses, teaching conversation, colloquial English, and culture to students from around the world, and he is currently the Academic Manager of Embassy Summer at CSUN.

Prior to teaching at Woodbury, Prof. Gries taught at the ELS Language Center at College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, and he taught story structure and effective storytelling at Filmmakers Foundation in Los Angeles. His teaching career had its beginnings in the 1970s when he backpacked across Asia, living in such diverse countries as Afghanistan, India, and Nepal, where he discovered the rewards of teaching English to local students. He has also done volunteer English tutoring for Buddhist priests at the Maithree Vihara Buddhist Meditation Center in Sunland. In addition to his teaching, Prof. Gries is a screenwriter with several produced screenplays, and two more currently in development. He has taught classes in screenwriting for burgeoning filmmakers and provided story development for screenwriters and producers at a number of production companies. His interests include listening to music, reading, hiking, traveling, and rescuing animals. He is happily married with a family of four contented cats.

Education

Education: B.A., Cinema, Columbia College, Los Angeles.
For his post-graduate thesis, Prof. Gries wrote and directed a short film that won third place at the Chicago International Film Festival.