PhD Faculty
Group Chair
Steven Athanases
Graduate Advisor (as of September 1, 2007)
Michal Kurlaender, Jamal Abedi, Jon Wagner
Members of the Graduate Group in Education
Faculty Contact Information & Areas of Interest
Jamal Abedi
Professor of Education
(530) 754-9150
jabedi@ucdavis.edu
Assessment; Classical theory of measurement; English Learners; Experimental design; Psychometrics; Quantitative methods
Rebecca Ambrose
Associate Professor of Education
(530) 754-4831
rcambrose@ucdavis.edu
Elementary Education; Gender and equity issues in mathematics education; In-service and preservice teacher learning; Mathematics education
Steven Athanases
Professor of Education; Chair, UCD Graduate Group in Education
(530) 752-2621
szathanases@ucdavis.edu
Educational equity; English language arts education; Gay and lesbian issues in education; Minority/Underrepresented Students; Multicultural literature and literacy; Secondary Education; Teacher education research and policy
Heidi Ballard
Assistant Professor of Environmental Science Education
(530) 754-6255
hballard@ucdavis.edu
Environmental Education; In-service and preservice teacher learning; Science Education; Secondary Education; Service-learning
Robert Bayley
Professor, Department of Linguistics
(530) 752-3209
rjbayley@ucdavis.edu
Second language acquisition and development; language socialization and variation; language brokering in classrooms
Brenda Bryant
Professor of Human Development
(530) 752-2242
bkbryant@ucdavis.edu
School psychology; social-emotional development; stress and coping; classroom environments (e.g., cooperative goal structures); family, school, and neighborhood environments; sibling and peer relations; parent-child relations.
Scott Carrell
Assistant Professor of Economics
(530) 752-6887
secarrell@ucdavis.edu
Economics of Education and Labor Economics
Cynthia Carter Ching
Associate Professor; Director of Undergraduate Programs
(530) 752-4427
ccching@ucdavis.edu
Child Development; Collaborative Learning; Gender and technology; Learning in Informal Settings; Qualitative Methodology; Technology and identity
Cecilia Colombi
Professor of Spanish
(530) 752-1244
cmcolombi@ucdavis.edu
Spanish language development, pragmatics, functional grammar and Spanish in the United States.
Adela de la Torre
Professor of Chicano and Chicana Studies
(530) 752-1979
adelatorre@ucdavis.edu
Health care access and finance issues that affect the Latino community as well as Border health issues.
Sharon Dugdale
Professor Emeritus
ssdugdale@ucdavis.edu
The impact of technology on mathematical content, teaching methods, and learning strategies, including students’ development and use of mathematical ideas. Particular interest in students’ conceptualizations of functional relationships, associations among various representations of functions, and use of graphical reasoning for problem solving and visualization of functional behavior in general.
Kerry Enright
Assistant Professor of Education
(530) 754-6374
kaenright@ucdavis.edu
Classroom discourse; English Learners; Language development and socialization; Writing instruction and assessment
Christian Faltis
Professor, Director of Teacher Education, and Dolly & David Fiddyment Chair in Teacher Education
(530) 752-4036
cjfaltis@ucdavis.edu
Bilingual Education; Critical Race Theory; English Learners in Secondary School; Immigrants in Schools
Richard Figueroa
Professor Emeritus
rafigueroa@ucdavis.edu
Assessment; Bilingual Education; Migrant education; Special education
Barbara Goldman
Associate Director of Teacher Education
(530) 752-5395
bggoldman@ucdavis.edu
Assessment; Educational Program evaluation; In-service and preservice teacher learning; School, curriculum and community change; Secondary Education; Teacher evaluation; Elementary Education
Cristina Gonzalez
Professor of Spanish, Professor of Education
(530) 754-7988
crigonzalez@ucdavis.edu
Education Policy and Governance; Educational Leadership; Graduate education issues; Hispanic culture; History of Latinos in the U.S.; History of higher education; History of the University of California; Minority leadership issues; Status of the Spanish language in the U.S.; Undergraduate education issues; Women's leadership issues
Joyce Gutstein
Acting Director, Public Service Research Program
(530) 752-7823
jjgutstein@ucdavis.edu
Science education outreach, linkage between formal and nonformal education, environmental education and museum science.
Paul Heckman
Professor of Education; Co-Director, CANDEL, UC Davis; Associate Dean
(530) 752-8309
peheckman@ucdavis.edu
Curriculum theory and change; Educational Ecology of communities; Educational Leadership; School, curriculum and community change; School restructuring: Organizational arrangements and structures; School culture: change and cognition
Suad Joseph
Professor of Anthropology, Women & Gender Studies
(530) 752-1593
sjoseph@ucdavis.edu
Gender and sexuality; women and development; family systems cross culturally; family, individual, and state in the Middle East.
Susan Kaiser
Professor of Textiles & Clothing, Women & Gender Studies,
(530) 752-9277
sbkaiser@ucdavis.edu
Cultural studies of style and fashion; intersections among various facets of identity-related development and pedagogy (e.g., gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, social class, age).
Michal Kurlaender
Assistant Professor of Education
(530) 752-3748
mkurlaender@ucdavis.edu
Desegregation; Economics of education; Education Policy and Governance; Educational equity; Educational Program evaluation; Minority/Underrepresented Students; Quantitative methods; Sociology of education; Urban education
Harold Levine
Dean, School of Education
(530) 752-4663
hlevine@ucdavis.edu
Entrepreneurship in Education; Organizational structure/effectiveness; Qualitative Methodology
Lee Martin
Assistant Professor
(530) 752-2854
leemartin@ucdavis.edu
Adaptive Expertise; Learning and Cognition; Learning in Informal Settings; Mathematics education
Ann Mastergeorge
Assistant Developmental Psychology and Education Researcher, M.I.N.D. Institute
(916) 703-0256
ammastergeorge@ucdavis.edu
Typical and atypical development birth to five, early intervention, collaborative learning environments, school reform, parent-child interaction.
Katherine Masyn
Assistant Professor of Human and Community Development
(530) 752-7069
kmasyn@ucdavis.edu
Social-emotional, family, school, health & mental health, prevention research, and research methodology. Survival analysis and growth modeling in a latent variable framework; finite mixture models for cross-sectional data, e.g., latent class analysis; and longitudinal data, e.g., latent transition analysis.
Jay Mechling
Professor of American Studies
(530) 752-9043
jemechling@ucdavis.edu
American culture studies, science and culture, interdisciplinary theory and method, folklore and folklife, comparative culture studies, popular culture studies, childhood and society, rhetorical criticism.
Julie Menard-Warwick
Assistant Professor in Linguistics
(530) 752-0715
jemwarwick@ucdavis.edu
Relationships between second language instruction and the linguistic/cultural identities of teachers and learners; second language literacy development in specific social contexts, especially as it relates to first language literacies, and to bilingual and bicultural family literacies; ethnographic and case study methodologies, including interviewing and classroom observation, and life-history narratives.
Barbara Merino
Professor of Education
(530) 752-3353
bjmerino@ucdavis.edu
Assessment; Bilingual Education; Classroom discourse; Elementary Education; English Learners; In-service and preservice teacher learning; Language Acquisition; Language assessment; Latina/o educational issues; Literacy development; Science Literacy; Secondary Education; Science Education; Sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics; Teacher education research and policy; Teaching of Spanish to native Spanish speakers
Marco Molinaro
Chief Education Officer, Center for Biophotonics
(530) 754-5305
mmolinaro@ucdavis.edu
Developing evaluation techniques for technology use in formal and informal educational settings, research on learning in free-choice environments especially as related to understanding of research, how students engage with and use technology in a free-choice setting with a focus on social interactions, using technology to assess student understanding.
Peter Mundy
Professor of Education
(530) 752-0921
pcmundy@ucdavis.edu
Child Development; Counseling; Early Childhood Education; Mental health consultation; Mental health promotion in schools; Special education
Sandra Murphy
Professor Emeritus
(530) 752-8307
smmurphy@ucdavis.edu
Assessment; Language development and socialization; Literacy and Language policy; Literacy development; Reading curriculum and instruction; Writing instruction and assessment; Oral and written language differences.
Adrienne Nishina
Assistant Professor of Human and Community Development
(530) 752-7003
anishina@ucdavis.edu
Adolescent mental health, peer relations, ethnicity/contextual moderators, school-based preventions and interventions, mental health and physical symptoms, and methodological issues.
Marianne Page
Associate Professor of Economics
(530) 752-1551
mepage@ucdavis.edu
Economic returns to education; Human capital; School choice and neighborhood effects; Class size reduction
Cindy Passmore
Associate Professor of Education
(530) 752-7883
cpassmore@ucdavis.edu
Science Education; Secondary Education
Rick Pomeroy
Lecturer/Supervisor of Teacher Education
(530) 752-0622
jrpomeroy@ucdavis.edu
In-service and preservice teacher learning; Interdisciplinary Instruction; Science Education; Secondary Education; Technology in Science; Technology in teaching and learning
Wendell Potter
Senior Lecturer, Department of Physics
(530) 752-3305
whpotter@ucdavis.edu
Physics/physical science learning at all levels, constructivist approaches to curriculum design and classroom practice; teacher preparation and professional development.
Refugio Rochin
Professor Emeritus Chicana(o) Studies and Agricultural & Resource Economics
(530) 752-3904
rirochin@ucdavis.edu
Representation of minorities in science; Agricultural economics; Community development & education; Leadership development
Gloria Rodriguez
Assistant Professor of Education
(530) 754-6256
gmrodriguez@ucdavis.edu
Education Policy and Governance; Educational equity; Educational Leadership; Language minority status issues in schooling; Latina/o educational issues; Minority/Underrepresented Students; School finance; School, curriculum and community change; Socioeconomic status issues in schooling
Heather Rose
Assistant Professor
(530) 752-1407
hmrose@ucdavis.edu
Economics of education; Education Policy and Governance; Quantitative methods; School finance
Tom Sallee
Professor of Mathematics
(530) 752-2212
gtsallee@ucdavis.edu
Mathematical problem solving; secondary mathematics curriculum; assessment.
Julie Schweitzer
Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Director of the ADHD Program, M.I.N.D. Institute
(916) 703-0450
Julie.schweitzer@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu
The identification and treatment of attention-deficit/ hyperactivity (ADHD) and related disorders in children and adults using behavioral/neuropsychological and functional neuroimaging methods; Self-control in ADHD; Alterations in reward and learning in psychopathology; Applied behavior analysis
Kimberlee Shauman
Associate Professor in Sociology
(530) 754-8072
kashauman@ucdavis.edu
Gender inequalities in careers & earnings; Women in science fields from high school through occupations
Lisa Soederberg Miller
Associate Professor of Human and Community Development
(530) 752-3955
lmsmiller@ucdavis.edu
Cognition and learning in adulthood; Changes in cognitive abilities in later life; Language comprehension and memory; Self-efficacy and control beliefs related to cognitive processes; Lifelong learning
Christopher Thaiss
Clark Kerr Presidential Chair and Director of the University Writing Program
(530) 754-9197
cjthaiss@ucdavis.edu
Composition; writing-across-the-curriculum
Thomas Timar
Professor of Education, Director of CAP-Ed
(530) 754-6654
tbtimar@ucdavis.edu
Education Policy and Governance; International education policy and governance; School finance
Cary Trexler
Associate Professor of Agricultural Education
(530) 752-2623
cjtrexler@ucdavis.edu
Agricultural Education; Agri-food system literacy; Service-learning; Secondary Education; Science Education; Technology in Science; Technology in teaching and learning
Yuuko Uchikoshi Tonkovich
Assistant Professor of Education
(530) 754-6271
yuchikoshi@ucdavis.edu
Bilingual Education; Educational Television; English Learners; Language Acquisition; Language development and socialization; Literacy development; Quantitative methods; Sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics
Stefano Varese
Professor and Chair, Department of Native American Studies
(530) 752-0357
svarese@ucdavis.edu
Social, political and cultural anthropology especially native American indigenous populations, Indian community development, agroecological and sustainable development, cultural, economic, political self-determination, territorial management, rural-urban migration, transnational migration, cultural resource management, poverty alleviation strategies, human rights.
Kenneth Verosub
Professor in Geology
(540) 752-6911
verosub@geology.ucdavis.edu
Science Education; Improvement of science teaching at the K-12 and undergraduate levels.
Jon Wagner
Professor Emeritus
jcwagner@ucdavis.edu
Children's material culture in and out of school; Computer analysis of qualitative data; Practitioner research and documentary studies; Qualitative Methodology; School, curriculum and community change; Social contexts of teaching, learning and educational research; Technology in teaching and learning; Visual studies of education and schooling
Richard Walters
Professor Emeritus, Department of Computer Science
(530) 752-3241
walters@cs.ucdavis.edu
Technology and learning, instructional design, teaching foreign languages, new strategies to enhance distance learning.
Karen Watson-Gegeo
Professor of Education
(510) 527-5076
kawatsongegeo@ucdavis.edu
Anthropology of consciousness; Bilingual Education; Child Development; Classroom discourse; Classroom research; Community and rural development; Critical discourse analysis; Cultural studies; Education in Developing Countries; Ethnography and Ethnographic research; Feminist theory; Geographical areas of Hawai'i and Solomon Islands; Indigenous epistemology; Language Acquisition; Language development and socialization; Language socialization theory; Linguistic anthropology; Literacy and Language policy; Organizational structure/effectiveness; Pidgin/creole languages; Social disability studies; Sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics
Tobin White
Assistant Professor of Education
(530) 752-9348
tfwhite@ucdavis.edu
Collaborative Learning; Learning and Cognition; Mathematics education; Technology in mathematics; Technology in Science; Technology in teaching and learning
Carl Whithaus
Associate Professor, University Writing Program
(530) 754-6903
cwwhithaus@ucdavis.edu
The impact of information technologies on literacy; Writing in the disciplines and professions (science writing), and writing assessment.
Phil Young
Professor of Education, Co-Director of JDPEL, UC Davis
(530) 752-5957
ipyoung@ucdavis.edu
Educational Leadership; Human resource issues and collective bargaining