Tony Albano
Associate Professor
Dr. Tony Albano is an Associate Professor in the School of Education where he teaches courses in testing, assessment, and data science. His research aims broadly to improve teaching and learning via effective educational and psychological measurement, including through improvements in psychometric methods for scaling and modeling assessment results, and through enhanced accessibility in test design and implementation. Dr.
Cynthia Carter Ching
Professor
Cynthia Carter Ching (she/her/hers) is Professor of Education and a former Interim Dean (2023-24) and Associate Dean for Academic Programs (2016-2020; 2022-23) in the UC Davis School of Education. During the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020-2022, she served as the UC Davis Interim Vice Provost and Dean of Undergraduate Education. In her research, funded by the National Science Foundation and others, she studies the intersection of technology, learning, collaboration, identity, and embodiment.
Marcela G. Cuellar
Professor and Chancellor’s Fellow
Marcela Cuellar joined the School of Education in July 2014. She received her doctorate in Higher Education and Organizational Change at the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. Her research examines access and equity in higher education, Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) and emerging HSIs, and Latinx student success. More specifically, Dr. Cuellar employs quantitative and qualitative methods to explore Latinx students’ experiences at HSIs and emerging HSIs and how they are empowered as a result of their educational experiences during college and beyond.
Darnel Degand
Associate Professor
Darnel Degand has a multimodal interdisciplinary research agenda that investigates how varying notions and manifestations of progress and academic achievement can exist in a wide range of milieus (e.g., collaborative, competitive, unjust, virtual). Dr. Degand studies the various ways media and society influence the development of social success skills by exploring the social processes that exist within media production environments and media consumption experiences.
Kevin Gee
Professor and Chancellor's Fellow
Cassandra M.D. Hart
Professor and Chair of CANDEL
Cassandra Hart is an associate professor of education policy. She evaluates the effects of school, state and national education programs, policies, and practices on overall student achievement, and on the equity of student outcomes. Hart’s work has focused on online education in both K-12 schools and community colleges, school choice programs, school accountability policies, and effects on students of exposure to demographically similar teachers.
Margarita Jimenez-Silva
Professor
Prof. Margarita Jimenez-Silva’s research focuses on preparing and supporting teachers to work with culturally and linguistically diverse learners, especially in addressing emergent bilinguals’ linguistic and academic content development. More specifically, her research strands include teacher education pedagogy and curriculum, educational policy, and family/community engagement. Her research has been published by journals such as Harvard Educational Review, Childhood Education, and the Journal of Research on Childhood Education.
Michal Kurlaender
Chancellor’s Leadership Professor
Michal Kurlaender investigates students’ educational pathways, in particular K-12 and postsecondary alignment, and access to and success in higher education. She has expertise on alternative pathways to college and college readiness at both community colleges and four-year colleges and universities. In addition to working with national data, Kurlaender works closely with administrative data from all three of California’s public higher education sectors—the University of California, the California State University and the California Community College systems.
Lauren E. Lindstrom
Professor
Dr. Lauren Lindstrom is a professor and former dean of the School of Education at the University of California, Davis. Prior to her current role, she was the associate dean of research and director of the Center for Research in Education at the University of Oregon.
Danny C. Martinez
Professor and Chancellor’s Fellow
Danny C. Martinez is Professor in the Language, Literacy, and Culture program area in the School of Education. His research explores the cultural, racial, and linguistic experiences of Black and Latinx youth in literacy learning contexts, and teacher learning as it relates to leveraging youths’ rich communicative resources. His research is inspired by his experience as a literacy teacher in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Paco Martorell
Professor and Chair of the Graduate Group in Education
Francisco (Paco) Martorell joined the School as an assistant professor in July 2014. Martorell completed his PhD in economics at UC Berkeley. Prior to joining the School, he was an Economist at the RAND Corporation and was a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School since 2006. He has broad research interests in both higher education and K-12 policy. Current projects cover areas including developmental education in colleges, the effects of grade retention, the returns to for-profit colleges, the impacts of school facility investments, and community college tuition subsidies.
Elizabeth Montaño
Associate Professor of Teaching in Education
Education
Doctorate in Education: Educational Leadership for Social
Justice
Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles
California Single Subject Credential in English with CLAD
Certification
University of California, Berkeley (current)
M.A. in Education: Language, Literacy and Culture
University of California, Berkeley
B.A. in Political Science & Chicana and Chicano Studies
University of California, Los Angeles
One Shields Ave., Davis, CA 95616
Faheemah N. Mustafaa
Assistant Professor
Dr. Faheemah N. Mustafaa joined the School of Education in 2019 as an Assistant Professor in Learning and Mind Sciences and is a member of the Human Development Graduate Group. Trained as a psychologist, her scholarly work centers on improving student experiences across the lifespan (K-20), with particular emphasis on middle childhood and adolescent development across diverse contexts, including schools, out-of-school programs, and family settings.
Patricia D. Quijada
Associate Professor
Education
Ph.D., Educational Psychology, University of Wisconsin –
Madison
Emphasis: Human Development Minor: Youth Studies and
Multicultural Education
Ed.M., Youth Development: Prevention Science and Practice
Harvard University, Graduate School of Education
Ed.M., Counseling Processes
Harvard University, Graduate School of Education
Multiple Subject, Elementary Credential
University of San Diego
B.A. and B.S. Political Science and Sociology
University of California at Riverside
Gloria M. Rodriguez
Professor and Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs
Office hours: Winter and Spring Quarters 2020 — By Appointment Only
Gloria M. Rodriguez’s current research explores notions of educational investment that reflect efforts to build upon community strengths in order to address community needs within and beyond educational settings. Dr. Rodriguez also engages in research that focuses on the political economic conditions and educational trajectories of Chicana/o-Latina/o communities, other communities of color, and low-income populations in the U.S.
Claudia Rodriguez-Mojica
Associate Professor of Teaching in Education and Bilingual Coordinator–Spanish
Dr. Claudia Rodriguez-Mojica is an Associate Professor of Teaching in Education and the Spanish Bilingual Authorization Coordinator. A UC Davis alumnus, she earned her bachelor’s degree in human development and minor in Chicana/o Studies from UC Davis. While at UCD, she participated in the California Mini-Corps program where she served as a teaching-assistant in schools with large numbers of migrant students. She received her multiple subject teaching credential with a bilingual authorization (formerly known as BCLAD) from CSU Sacramento.
Heather Rose
Professor
Office hours: By appointment. Room 125 SOEB.
Research Interests
Economics of education; Education Policy and Governance; Quantitative methods; School finance
Alicia Rusoja
Assistant Professor
Dr. Alicia Rusoja’s interdisciplinary research lies at the intersection of Latinx/Chicanx studies, critical education/critical literacy studies, and university-community/research-practice partnerships. As a Latina immigrant and activist-scholar, she employs participatory and critical community-based qualitative research methodologies to understand the immigrant rights organizing of Latinx immigrant youth, adults and families.
Tom Smith
Professor and Dean
Tom Smith is a highly accomplished researcher, educator, and leader with more than 30 years of experience in education, and has held several leadership roles at UC Riverside, including interim provost and executive vice chancellor, dean of the Graduate School of Education, and interim vice chancellor for Student Affairs. Prior to joining UC Davis in 2024, he was a professor of public policy and education in Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College.
Megan Welsh
Associate Professor and Chancellor’s Fellow
Megan Welsh joined the School in July 2014 as an assistant professor in educational assessment and measurement. Since 2008, she was an assistant professor at the University of Connecticut. Her primary areas of research include test validity analysis, the use of assessment as an educational reform lever, grading, and evaluation of educational programs.
