Fellows | Teachers College Columbia University

Dr. Arshad I. Ali is currently an Assistant Professor of Educational Research at the Graduate School of Education & Human Development at The George Washington University. Dr. Ali is an interdisciplinary scholar who studies youth culture, race, identity and democratic engagement in the lives of young people. His research examines the construction of racial identities through exploring the tropes of democracy, liberalism and modernity in the lives of youth. The fundamental question he is concerned with is how young people from historically marginalized communities come to make sense of urban life in the U.S. and how they find meaning in their lives through understanding the manifestations of political and cultural ideologies in daily action. Dr. Ali is completing a book manuscript examining the cultural geography of Muslim student surveillance. This book examines how economies of surveillance are scaled, both legally and ideologically, and how these scales of surveillance become manifest in the lives of Muslim undergraduates in the United States. Dr. Ali is co-editing At War: Challenging Racism, Militarism, and Materialism in Education, a collection of essays commemorating the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence.” Prior to pursuing a Ph.D., he served as the founding director of MAPS, a university-based outreach and political education program working with students in South Los Angeles. He currently serves as an executive board member for the People’s Community Organization for Reform and Empowerment. He has actively been a part of youth, community and student organizing for over fifteen years.

Dr. Gregory Anderson serves as Dean of Temple University’s College of Education since his appointment in July, 2013. Beginning in 2009, Dr. Anderson was the Dean of University of Denver’s Morgridge College of Education, where in less than four years, he led the College to national recognition through the completion of a $21.4 million facility, introduced new department structures and degree offerings, and devised a comprehensive faculty governing system. Before joining the University of Denver in 2009, Dr. Anderson was an associate professor at the Program in Higher and Postsecondary Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. In 2006, he was granted an extended leave from Teachers College to become the Higher Education Policy Officer in Educational Opportunity and Scholarship programs at the Ford Foundation in New York. Dr. Anderson also sat on the Foundation's executive committees of multi-foundation partnerships and foundation-wide initiatives involving the United States, Africa, Central and Latin America and Asia. In 2008, he was appointed by the vice president of the Foundation's Knowledge, Creativity and Freedom Program Division to lead a strategic planning team responsible for developing a new vision guiding U.S. and international higher education programming. Dr. Anderson has served on the Colorado Governor's Early Childhood Leadership Commission, the board of directors for the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management Education and on the board of trustees of the Colorado Legacy Foundation. He also served on the Expanded Learning Opportunities Commission for the Colorado Department of Education and the Global Cities Education Network representing Denver alongside the Superintendent of Denver Public Schools.

Dr. Thurman L. Bridges III is currently an associate professor of teacher education at Morgan State University in Baltimore, MD. His career started in education as a middle school social studies teacher in Richmond, VA. Prior to classroom teaching, Thurman earned a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Master of Teaching degree from the University of Virginia. He later completed his doctoral studies at the University of Maryland, College Park in Curriculum and Instruction within the Minority and Urban Education graduate program. His research explores the social context of urban education, African American male teacher identity, and hip-hop pedagogy. His recent work analyzes the social, educational and cultural experiences of African American male K–12 teachers who have been effective in addressing the academic and social needs of African American boys, and how the practices and pedagogy translate to all teachers meeting the needs of this group of students. He also conducts participatory action research (PAR) with marginalized youth and seeks to contextualize the school experiences of students who have trouble in K–12 schools to inform curriculum, instruction and school policy. Dr. Bridges’s research has helped conceptualize and create teaching and learning environments that increase the capacity of all teachers to effectively teach diverse student populations, particularly in urban schools.

Dr. Delores Jones-Brown J.D., Ph.D., is currently a Professor in the Department of Law, Police Science and Criminal Justice Administration and the founding Director of the Center on Race, Crime and Justice (CRCJ) at John Jay College. She has taught graduate courses in the John Jay Police Studies Certificate Program aimed at developing police leaders who can work effectively with multicultural populations. She is also a member of the doctoral faculty at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Her recent work has focused on the legal, practical and ethical implications of police practices in New York City, particularly with regard to its racial impact. She is the lead author of “Stop, Question and Frisk Policing Practices in New York City: A Primer,” a highly cited report describing the contours of stop and frisk policing in New York from 2002 to 2013. Dr. Jones-Brown’s publications include an award-winning book, three co-edited volumes and numerous book chapters, journal articles and legal commentaries related to race and policing. She is an executive board member of the Center for Policing Equity, a research consortium that promotes police transparency and accountability by facilitating innovative research collaborations between law enforcement agencies and empirical social scientists. Her testimony on community policing research is included in the final report of President Barack Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing. She is the recipient of several honors and awards from organizations including the National Science Foundation, the New York Public Library, the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, the American Society of Criminology, the National Organization for Black Law Enforcement Executives and the Western Society of Criminology.

Dr. Joya Carter-Hicks is currently an Associate Professor in Special Education, in the Department of Inclusive Education at Kennesaw State University (KSU), Atlanta, GA. Dr. Carter-Hicks earned her Ph.D. in Special Education from Syracuse University and post-doctoral fellowship from Teachers College, Columbia University in Curriculum & Teaching. She has extensive training and experience in preparing pre-service and in-service personnel in providing fully-inclusive, evidenced-based practices for working with children and their families. Dr. Carter-Hicks coordinates the preschool special education endorsement program at KSU, where she is engaged in teaching, field supervision, program administration/development and field-based research in early childhood special education ages three to five years old. Dr. Carter-Hicks frequently provides professional development to schools and centers interested in facilitating inclusive schooling through evaluation, assessment and programming, co-teaching and collaboration, and/or multicultural education. Her other scholarly focus is international inclusive preschools and the cultural and racial implications for practice in U.S. schools and centers. For the past five years, she has been investigating educational program issues and social-cultural understandings affecting young children of marginalized populations in five countries — South Africa, Italy, New Zealand, Thailand and China. She took interest in this 20 years ago as a preschool (interrelated) special education teacher within Georgia’s most ethnically diverse school district, at the time. Dr. Carter-Hicks continues to be actively involved in the education of young children in Georgia. She was selected to serve on The State Leadership Team for the Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning as well as the Georgia Quest for Quality Inclusion team. Both teams are charged with efforts to develop collaborative professional development approaches that support high quality inclusive early childhood opportunities for all children, especially those with disabilities.

Dr. Benji Chang’s scholarship focuses on issues of educational equity and sustainability, cultural studies, Asian diaspora and comparative education. More specifically, he studies these issues at the intersections of pedagogy, literacy, teacher education, popular culture and community engagement, especially with marginalized communities. Prior to his doctoral studies, Dr. Chang was a public school teacher in inner-city Los Angeles, where he was also involved in social change work with grassroots community organizations, and as a hip-hop artist. Dr. Chang earned his Ph.D. in Education at the University of California, Los Angeles, where his research methods built upon critical and sociocultural approaches to action research. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the Hong Kong Education University, where he teaches courses on curriculum, assessment, educational reform and qualitative methods. He has been a Visiting Scholar to universities around the Pacific Rim and Asia, including in mainland China, the Philippines, Singapore and Australia. His work has been recognized with awards in ethnic studies and education, and published in venues like Linguistics & Education, Asian American Pacific Islander Nexus, Rethinking Schools, and Theory Into Practice.

In 2013, Dr. Altovise Gipson-Colon was a Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Arts & Humanities. Dr. Gipson-Colon earned her Ph.D. in Urban Education with a certificate in Africana Studies from The Graduate Center, City University of New York. She received a Master of Music degree from Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Florida State University. Prior to completing her Ph.D., Dr. Gipson-Colon was a middle and high school music teacher in New Jersey and also served as an adjunct instructor in the education department at The College of Staten Island, CUNY. Her research focuses on the ways in which African American music educators’ perceptions about being a teacher are informed through sustained engagement within racially inclusive music learning and teaching spaces. Currently, Dr. Gipson-Colon’s research analyzes how educators construct, negotiate and navigate their understandings of what it means to be a teacher.

Dr. Paul Green is currently a member of the faculty in the Department of Ethnic Studies in the College of Humanities, Art and Social Sciences at the University of California, Riverside. As a former principal and teacher, Dr. Green holds a doctorate in educational politics and social policy from the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. His research and teaching focuses upon the education and schooling of dispossessed and marginalized youth in pre- through post-secondary education with an emphasis on the internal factors and decision-making inside and outside the institutional and organizational frames called schools that serve to impede or advance equality of educational access and opportunity for poor youth and children of color in urban education and schools. His current research focuses on the politics of reform in urban schools, historically Black colleges and universities and Black Catholic schools.

Dr. Angela Grice, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, is currently the owner of The Dialogue Group, a multi-faceted company based in Washington, D.C., that provides innovative solutions to various communication dilemmas in diverse settings. Dr. Grice is a native Washingtonian. She received her Bachelor’s degree from George Washington University and both her Master’s and Doctoral degrees from Howard University, where she is an adjunct professor. During her minority postdoctoral fellowship, Dr. Grice worked in the Neurocognition of Language Lab where she examined the language of individuals with neurological disorders using functional neuroimaging. Her current research interests include traumatic brain injury, executive functions and delivery of services among culturally and linguistically diverse populations. Working primarily with individuals in urban populations led to research on the impact of socioeconomic factors on service delivery. Currently, Dr. Grice is working on developing a curriculum that focuses on teaching executive function skills to adolescents. In addition, she will focus on research that demonstrates the efficacy of mindfulness-based principles on the management of cognitive communication difficulties. Dr. Grice resides in the nation’s capital where she enjoys spending time with her family and two dogs.

Dr. Detris Honora Adelabu, currently serves as Interim Dean of Arts and Sciences and Co-Dean of Academic Affairs at Wheelock College, Boston. As founder and director of the Emerging Scholars Program at Wheelock, Dr. Adelabu works to create a deliberate pathway to undergraduate research and graduate study for underrepresented students. She has made numerous presentations to educators on topics related to African American student achievement. Dr. Adelabu’s most recent publications appear in the Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship and the African American Learner. Her recent book chapter “Homes without Walls, Families without Boundaries,” published in Real Sister: Stereotypes, Respectability, and Black Women in Reality TV (Rutgers University Press, 2015), discusses the impact of reality television on the image of the African American mother and family and explores the impact of these images on children’s development.

Dr. Fanon J. Howell currently directs The Carmel Hill Fund Education Program and is on the sociology faculty at Sarah Lawrence College. Dr. Howell was awarded his Ph.D. from the Department of Sociology at the New School for Social Research, where he was also a University Teaching Fellow and managing editor of the International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society. His research investigates reorganizations of urban school districts and impacts on local communities, public and private networks, policymaking and practices of central employees, and mechanisms of school oversight. Representative publications include Entropic Management: Restructuring District Office Culture in the New York City Department of Education and Networked Bureaucracy: Education Governance in the Technocratic Era (forthcoming). Dr. Howell’s professional experience includes managerial positions with the New York City Department of Education, the YMCA of Greater New York, and the Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services.

Dr. Eric Hurley is currently an Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychology and Africana Studies at Pomona College. Dr. Hurley received both his Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy in Developmental Psychology from Howard University. His dissertation research earned the 2001 American Psychological Association's Jeffrey S. Tanaka Memorial Dissertation Award for Excellence in Graduate Research. One central line of his work is focused on the question of whether peoples’ culture-based orientations can be relied upon to predict their attitudes and behavior. His work builds on sociocultural theory with a focus on aspects of African American culture as distinguishable from the mainstream of U.S. culture. In particular he examines cultural factors that mediate African American children’s perceptions of, behavior in, and experiences interacting with schooling. He has recently expanded the scope of this interest to include other groups of the African Diaspora as well. He has given presentations at institutions across the nation including George Mason Cornell and Claremont Graduate Universities. Prior to his post at Pomona College, Dr. Hurley spent time as a visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and at Smith College. His research has been featured in notable media outlets such as America.gov, the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education and Education Weekly.

Dr. Trica Keaton is currently an Associate Professor of African Diaspora Studies at Vanderbilt University. Her research interests and courses focus on race and racialization, social exclusion and inclusion, identity politics, and B/black migration in France, the U.S. and more broadly in Europe and the African diaspora. She is currently writing a book on anti-blackness and anti-racism in contemporary France and a co-authored book on the historical and social contours of intergroup tensions in the African diaspora. Her other book publications are Black France/France Noire: The History and Politics of Blackness (co-edited); Black Europe and the African Diaspora (co-edited); and Muslim Girls and the Other France: Race, Identity Politics, and Social Exclusion. Her awards include the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Residency Fellowship, Columbia University’s Institute for Scholars Fellowship in Paris at Reid Hall, Teachers College Postdoctoral Fellowship, the Chateaubriand Fellowship and she is currently a finalist for the Paris Institute for Advanced Studies (L’Institut d’études avancées de Paris) fellowship competition. Dr. Keaton was a visiting scholar at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, France and a long-term Associate of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute at Harvard University. She has co-organized and convened a number of inter/national conferences and lecture series, and is currently co-organizing two conferences on the politics of B/black migration and the question of “race” in Europe. She has also co-organized and directed the “France Noire – Black France” Film Festival in Paris and teaches an award-winning global studies course entitled: “Black Paris – Paris Noir: The African Diaspora in the City of Light.” She has been quoted in the media, including The New York Times: “A Concert Hall in Paris Aims to Bridge Divides” (January 13, 2015).

Dr. Soo Ah Kwon is currently Interim Head of the Department of Asian American Studies and Associate Professor of Human and Community Development at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is the author of Uncivil Youth: Race, Activism, and Affirmative Governmentality (Duke University Press, 2013) and coeditor of South Korea’s Educational Exodus: The Life and Times of Early Study Abroad (University of Washington Press, 2015). Her article publications appear in the Journal of Asian American Studies, Anthropology & Education Quarterly, and Position. Her current book project, Youth Participation and Global Governance, examines global youth empowerment initiatives. She is also a co-Principal Investigator of the American University Meets the Pacific Century project that examines the rapid Asian internalization of the undergraduate student population and its implications for higher education. She received her Ph.D. in Social and Cultural Studies from the Graduate School of Education at the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. Lane earned her B.A. in Psychology from UCLA, as well as a Ph.D. and M.Ed. in Urban Education from UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. Dr. Lane’s collective ten years of experience as an educator in Los Angeles public high schools is the motivating force behind her work in urban schools. Her research specializations are pre- and in-service teacher development through alternative pedagogical interventions, with additional expertise in Black feminist educational praxis, secondary English instruction, and qualitative methods. Dr. Lane’s dissertation study explored the potential of Black feminist pedagogy as an empowering, alternative method of engaging African American female students. Her related interests include investigating how New York City educators — who do not identify as Black and female — employ Black feminist pedagogical practices in ethnoracially diverse educational contexts. Dr. Lane's research has resulted in numerous invited lectures and presentations, and several emerging publications. A recent book chapter, entitled “Black Girl Interrupted: A Reflection on the Challenges, Contradictions, and Possibilities in Transitioning from the Community to the Academy” is featured in the anthology, Black Feminism in Education: Black Women Speak Back, Up, & Out, edited by Drs. Venus Evans-Winters and Bettina Love.

Dr. Elvira Bitsoi is currently the Executive Director and Principal of Wide Ruins Community School, Inc. Dr. Bitsoi is Diné, American Indian (Navajo) from Tseyat'i, Navajo Nation, New Mexico. Dr. Bitsoi graduated in 1989 from the University of New Mexico with a Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education. She was the first Navajo student to obtain a Navajo Linguistic minor from the Linguistic Department at the University of New Mexico. In 1993, she earned her Master of Education degree from the University of New Mexico, continuing to earn her Doctor of Education degree from Arizona State University in May 2003. Dr. Bitsoi began her career in education by teaching in the tribal and public school education system for 17 years. She has taught at Headstart, elementary, middle school and university levels. In 1997, she was honored with the National Milken Educators Award, and in 1998 she was distinguished as the Bilingual Teacher of the Year for New Mexico. Her career changed in 1998 as she began working as a school administrator. Her experience in education spans over thirty years as teacher, faculty and administrator, namely Superintendent of Schools at Northern Cheyenne Tribal Schools and Executive Director of Rough Rock Community Schools, Associate Superintendent of Schools and Diné College Vice President of Academic and Student Affairs (VPASA). She has served on numerous professional, tribal and governmental committees and boards. She is a fluent speaker and writer of the Navajo-Diné language. Her current scholarly interests involve American Indian bilingual/bicultural education, technology education, and legal history. Her research focus is on cost-effectiveness analysis, history and regulation of the education profession. She has presented papers on these topics at numerous conferences and tribal communities.

Dr. Desiree Baolian Qin is currently an Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Michigan State University. She completed her doctorate degree at Harvard Graduate School of Education in 2004 and held postdoc positions at New York University and Teachers College at Columbia University. Dr. Qin’s research focuses on globalization, immigration, education, family, mental health, and adolescent and emerging adult development. The main question underlying her work is: How do globalization, immigration, culture, gender and important ecological contexts like family, peers, school and local community impact adolescent and emerging adult development? Dr. Qin is the recipient of the 2013 Early Career Award from the Asian Caucus of the Society for Research on Child Development. She is currently involved in three lines of research, focused on the “achievement-adjustment paradox” ever present in Asian student experiences within schools.

Dr. Rosalie Rolón-Dow is currently an Associate Professor in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Delaware. She is also Associate Director for the Center for the Study of Diversity at the University of Delaware. Her research focuses on the intersections of sociocultural identities and educational equity and opportunity, on Latino/a critical race theory (Lat/Crit). She began her education career as a bilingual elementary school teacher and received her Ph.D. from Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, in Urban Education. In 2008, she received a Ford Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship to support a research project at the University of Puerto Rico. Her most recent publication, Diaspora Studies in Education: Toward a Framework for Understanding the Experiences of Transnational Communities, is an edited book focused on the educational experiences of Puerto Rican students. Current research projects include a study on the educational experiences of Latino/a students in higher education, a study on promoting racial literacy among pre-service teachers and a cultural mapping initiative with the Ese’eja Indigenous Nation in Peru. She also serves as Co-Chair of the Latino/Hispanic Faculty and Staff Caucus at the University of Delaware.

Dr. Alia Tyner-Mullings’ research focuses on the sociology of education, communities, sports and cultural studies. She is the coauthor of a sociological textbook, coeditor of a book of essays on small schools in New York City and the author of a book about her research on Central Park East Secondary School. She earned her M.A. in Sociology in 2004 from Queens College, City University of New York and went on to complete her Ph.D. in Sociology in 2008 from the Graduate Center, City University of New York. She has taught graduate and undergraduate courses on sociology, deviance, statistics and education. After finishing her Minority Postdoctoral Fellowship, Dr. Tyner-Mullings became an assistant professor at Morgan State University. Since then, Dr. Tyner-Mullings has been an Assistant Professor of Sociology and founding faculty member at Stella and Charles Guttman Community College, CUNY. As a former high school math teacher, Dr. Tyner-Mullings is on assessment committees for two small high schools and has worked as a statistical and academic consultant for several colleges and universities.

Dr. Lalitha Vasudevan is currently an Associate Professor of Technology & Education as well as the Coordinator of the Communication, Media & Learning Technologies Design Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her area of study is focused on how youth craft stories, represent themselves and enact ways of knowing through their engagement with literacies, technologies and media. Dr. Vasudevan has worked as a researcher, educator and collaborator with adolescents in a variety of settings. She has conducted a variety of studies regarding juvenile justice including: a longitudinal, ethnographic study with youth in an alternative to incarceration program; an oral history based qualitative research project with young men at Rikers Island; and an ongoing multi-sited study of participatory, arts-based, multimedia storytelling with adolescents at an after-school program located in an alternative to detention program. Her work also explores the pedagogical practices of inclusive and special education teachers, the literacy and identity practices of middle school adolescents inside classroom settings, and the multimodal literacy and media engagements of adolescent boys. Dr, Vasudevan is the co-author of two edited volumes, “Media, Learning, and Sites of Possibility” and “Arts, Media, and Justice: Multimodal Explorations with Youth.” Her recent publications have appeared in Digital Culture & Education, Written Communication, Teachers College Record, and Review of Research in Education.

Dr. Cally L. Waite is currently an Associate Professor of History & Education in that very same department, where she coordinates the History & Education Program. Dr. Waite is an authority on the transformation of higher education in the late 19th century and has written extensively about the history of African Americans in U.S. higher education. In her book Permission to Remain Among Us: Education for Blacks in Oberlin, Ohio, 1880-1914, she details the history of a community that demonstrated a rare commitment to the education of blacks during the antebellum period, only to turn toward segregation as Reconstruction drew to a close — a progression, she argues, that prefigured events nationwide. Dr. Waite also serves as program director of the SSRC-Mellon Mays Fellowship Program — a branch of the Social Science Research Council, an independent, international nonprofit that nurtures new generations of social scientists, fosters innovative research and mobilizes necessary knowledge on important public issues. Dr. Waite’s most recent book project, The Journey Thus Far: Black Southern Scholars and Northern Institutions, 1896-1954, considers the experiences and challenges of southern black scholars who earned their doctoral degrees at northern research universities during legalized segregation in the United States.

Dr. Erica N. Walker is currently a professor of mathematics education at Teachers College, Columbia University. A former public high school mathematics teacher from Atlanta, Georgia, she earned her Ed.D. from Harvard University. Her research focuses on social and cultural factors as well as educational policies and practices that facilitate mathematics engagement, learning and performance, especially for underserved students. She collaborates with teachers, schools, districts and organizations to promote mathematics excellence and equity for young people. Her work has been published in journals such as the American Educational Research Journal, Educational Leadership and the Urban Review. Dr. Walker is also the author of two books: Building Mathematics Learning Communities: Improving Outcomes in Urban High Schools (Teachers College Press, 2012) and Beyond Banneker: Black Mathematicians and the Paths to Excellence (SUNY Press, 2014).

Dr. Wilson is currently an Assistant Professor of Inclusive Education at Teachers College, as well as the Director for the Teachers College School to Prison Pipeline Project. Dr. Wilson received his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland at College Park. His research focuses on the ways schools can achieve equity for students labeled with disabilities. Specifically, he focuses on the effectiveness of schools in providing these students the capacity to choose to participate in the social, political and economic life of their community. His academic passion is geared towards using research to dismantle systemic notions of ability that allow societies to deny opportunities to individuals based on disability, race, gender, sexual orientation, and other such criteria. The outcome, hopefully, would be that a more diverse swath of peoples could choose to take advantage of the kinds of opportunities that individuals in institutions take for granted daily. His publications include Disrupting the Pipeline: The Role of School Leadership in Mitigating Exclusion and Criminalization of Students, Reading Performance of Incarcerated Youth: Understanding and Responding to a Unique Population of Readers and Making It Count: Strategies for Improving Mathematics Instruction for Students in Short-Term Facilities.

Dr. Maisha T. Winn is currently the Susan J. Cellmer Endowed Chair in English Education and Professor in Language and Literacy in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education. Prior to joining the C&I faculty, Professor Winn was an associate professor in the Division of Educational Studies at Emory University for 8 years. Dr. Winn was the 2012 recipient of the AERA Early Career Award and a 2014 recipient of the William T. Grant Distinguished Fellowship. She is the author of numerous articles in journals such as the Harvard Educational Review; Race, Ethnicity, and Education; Review of Research in Education; International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education and Research in the Teaching of English. Some of her books include Girl Time: Literacy, Justice, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline (Teachers College Press) and Humanizing Research: Decolonizing Qualitative Inquiry with Youth and Communities (co-edited with Django Paris with Sage) as well as other books published under her maiden name (Maisha T. Fisher).

Dr. Rigoberto Marquez is a current Minority Postdoctoral Fellow at Teachers College. He earned his Ph.D. in Education from the University of California, Los Angeles and was a Gerardo Marin Dissertation Fellow at the University of San Francisco, School of Education. He received his M.A. from the University of Maryland, College Park and B.A. from the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Marquez has over seventeen years of experience in building community support for policies affecting queer youth of color in schools and communities. In his dissertation, he examined the pedagogical practices and identity development of a group of Latina women known as Promotoras (or community health educators) who teach a LGBT workshop series in primarily Latina/o immigrant communities in Los Angeles. For the dissertation he explored how parents came to understand queer communities and how they learned to become allies to queer youth in their families, schools and communities. His related interests include developing critical theories of race, gender and sexuality in education, schooling experiences of queer youth of color, community engagement and advocacy, law and education and critical pedagogy.

Martinque “Marti” Jones, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology, earned her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Houston. She earned her M.Ed. in Counseling from the University of Houston and B.A. in Psychology from the University of Texas. Her research focuses on Black racial identity development, identity intersectionality, and culturally-responsive counseling with racial/ethnic minority college students. Currently, Dr. Jones’ research examines the intersection of race and gender among Black women. Her related interests include exploration of mental health concerns and help-seeking behavior among Black college women, as well as the development of culturally-informed interventions targeted at this population.

Michael Hines, Teachers College Minority Postdoctoral Fellow, earned his B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Loyola University Chicago, where he was a part of the Cultural and Educational Policy Studies program. Prior to pursuing graduate studies he worked as an ELA and World History teacher in Washington D.C. and Prince George's County Maryland. Dr. Hines' research focuses on the history of American education and the intersections of race and class with this history. Currently his research examines efforts by African American teachers and activists to create alternative curricula in history and social studies during the early twentieth century. His related interests include African American history, curriculum history, the history of childhood, and the history of children's play.