John S. Montanaro, Senior Lector in Chinese at Yale University, a position from which he retired at the end of 2008, has taught Chinese language at Yale University for more than 30 years. During his tenure there, he was also the Managing Editor of Far Eastern Publications, a publishing unit of Yale that specialized in the publication of textbooks and other materials on East Asian languages.

Mr. Montanaro has himself published several books on Chinese language ranging from those aimed at the popular market and the casual learner of Chinese to more advanced texts. In his role as editor at Yale he has designed and edited scores of Chinese and Japanese language texts. In 2004 the Chinese Language Teachers Association, in recognition of his contributions to the field of Chinese language pedagogy, conferred the A. Ronald Walton Award on Mr. Montanaro, an award he prizes above all others.