December 2022 Newsletter
FEATURED NEWS
Anne Jones Appointed to New Assistant Dean Role
The School of Education warmly
welcomes Dr. Anne Jones, our new assistant dean of student
affairs and community partnerships. She will support our student
affairs office, communications and marketing, K-12 programs such
as the federally funded College Opportunity Programs, and other
campus and community partnerships. The School established this
position with support from the Offices of the Chancellor and
Provost.
Jones has served in numerous leadership positions across the University of California and has a deep background in K-12 education. She holds a multiple subjects teaching credential and a master’s degree in teacher education from UCLA, and began her career as an elementary school teacher for six years in Los Angeles, Ventura and Orange counties. She earned her EdD in educational leadership from UCLA/UC Irvine in 2006, and was the assistant dean and director of teacher education at UC Riverside and multiple subjects program coordinator at UC Irvine. She has also served with the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing and the Board of Directors for the California Council on Teacher Education. Read more about Anne Jones.
Marcela G. Cuellar Awarded College Futures Grant
Prof. Marcela G. Cuellar is the
co-PI on a $275,000 College Futures Foundation grant to fund
research to create a racial equity framework for select
California community college baccalaureate degree programs
(CCBPs), with a focus on racial equity in academic and labor
market outcomes. Cuellar will work with colleagues at University
of Southern California and UCLA on the study, which builds on
recent research focused on narrowing the racial equity gaps in
CCBPs. Read
about the grant.
Alicia Rusoja Research Recognized by NCTE
Prof. Alicia Rusoja has received an
Honorable Mention for the 2022 Alan C. Purves Award, which
recognizes articles published in the Research in the Teaching of
English journal of NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English)
in the past year that are deemed most likely to have an impact on
educational practice. Rusoja was recognized for her article,
“‘Our Community is Filled with Experts:’ The Critical
Intergenerational Literacies of Latinx Immigrants that Facilitate
a Communal Pedagogy of Resistance.”
Rusoja was recently inducted into CAMPSSAH at a ceremony at the Manetti Shrem Museum. Watch a video introduction of the faculty scholars.
The Impact of Your Support
Gifts to the School of Education
strengthen and support our mission of creating a brighter
future for the next generation of educational leaders and
enhancing learning opportunities for all students. Here are just
a few ways your gifts are making an impact:
- Thanks to the donor-supported Annual Fund Scholarship, Laila Alhussani’s pursuit of her education isn’t a financial burden on her family, allowing her to pursue her dream of becoming an elementary school teacher and educational leader who celebrates diversity. To help support future educators like Laila, pictured, visit our Annual Fund Giving page.
- Laurel Towers is one of four students who received much-needed PhD scholarships this year. A former elementary school teacher and school administrator, Laurel is now a doctoral candidate conducting research in the School of Education’s CARE Lab, which focuses on improving the educational experiences of learners with autism. Support PhD student scholarships.
- Thanks to generous donations, we have established the Dean’s Faculty Research Excellence Award in recognition of Dean Lauren Lindstrom’s leadership and service. The award provides vital research seed funding for early-career faculty members whose work focuses on equitable educational opportunities for all learners. Support the Dean’s Faculty Research Excellence Fund.
FACULTY NEWS
Family Rocketry Nights Build Latina Interest in STEM
Prof. Margarita Jimenez-Silva and
local school children and their families are exploring informal
STEM learning via a rocket launching program in Woodland. The
program, Comunidad de Ciencia, is funded by
the National Science Foundation and is a collaboration with
Arizona State and University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh. Comunidad de
Ciencia aims to empower Latino/a families to
support 5th and 6th grade girls in science
activities. As part of the program, families gathered in
October and November 2022 to assemble and launch their
rockets.
“Empowering parents to support their daughters in pursuing science gives Latina students a pathway to success in a field in which they have been historically underrepresented,” said Jimenez-Silva. “Launching rockets ignited a passion for science for both our Latina students and their families!” View a photo album from the events.
Community, Technology and Sustainability Study Abroad in Nepal
UC Davis students who take Profs.
Nancy Erbstein and Jonathan London’s
Fall 2023 Quarter Abroad class “Community, Technology, and
Sustainability in Nepal” will be working in
interdisciplinary groups with Nepalese peers on projects such as
local and regional development, sustainable agriculture, water
resources, food and nutrition, education, public health,
democratic governance, youth participation and social
entrepreneurship.
The class includes three weeks in Nepal, and is open to undergraduate and graduate students. Read Erbstein and London’s research paper about the project in Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad.
ALUMNI NEWS
Lizette Navarette Promoted at CA Community Colleges
Lizette Navarette, EdD ’21, was
recently named interim deputy chancellor of California Community
Colleges (CCC) by Interim Chancellor Daisy Gonzalez. Prior to
this promotion, Navarette served as executive vice chancellor for
CCC, and oversaw the divisions of college finance and facilities
planning and governmental relations, as well as the Institutional
Effectiveness Partnership Initiative. Read
the full story from CCC.
Zachary Frieders Named Chair of NAFSA Community
Zachary Frieders, MA ’16, executive
director of the UC Davis Global Learning Hub within Global
Affairs, has been named chair of the Teaching, Learning and
Scholarship Knowledge Community of NAFSA: Association of
International Educators. NAFSA is the world’s largest nonprofit
association dedicated to international education and exchange,
with more than 10,000 members worldwide at more than 3,500
institutions. Read
more about NAFSA.
Mary Vixie Sandy Receives National Award
Mary Vixie Sandy, MA ’05, was
recently awarded the National Board for Professional Teaching
Standards James A. Kelly Award. Prior to her current role as
executive director of the California Commission on Teacher
Credentialing, Vixie Sandy served as executive director of the
Cooperative Research and Extension Services for Schools Center,
now known as the REEd Center. Read
about the award.
EVENTS
Marcela G. Cuellar Presents on HSIs
Prof. Marcela G. Cuellar presented
her work exploring and investigating emergent themes within
Hispanic-Serving Institutions, as well as recommendations for
progress toward equity within HSIs, at two recent events.
- At UCLA, she spoke to a multicampus forum on “Creating Hispanic-Serving Institutions: Insights from Research and Practice”
- At UC Davis School of Law, she presented “Interrogating the Intersection of Organizational Identities within Hispanic-Serving Research Institutions” as part of the Aoki Center HSI Speakers Series
Youth Participatory Action Research Webinar
Join us Thursday, December 8, 4–5
pm for a free webinar introducing Youth Participatory
Action Research (YPAR)—a strategy to support youth learning and
development and strengthen institutions and communities. The
webinar will be hosted by the California Institute for School
Improvement in partnership with the Center for Regional
Change and the REEd Center.
Attendees will learn about YPAR’s potential benefits and explore considerations for launching a YPAR effort in their own school and/or district through examples of previous projects in primary and secondary education settings, and an orientation to Community Futures, Community Lore—a free online resource to support YPAR developed by the School of Education and Center for Regional Change. Register for the webinar and learn more about YPAR.
Center for Community and Citizen Science Collabinars
If you missed the Center for
Community and Citizen Science’s October collabinar, the recording
is now available. Watch Robin
Kodner from the Living Snow Project discuss the Pacific
Northwest snow microbiome. Keep up to date with all upcoming
collabinars.
Show Off with School of Education Gear
Looking for a way to show off your
School of Education pride? You’ll find
shirts of all styles, as well as mugs, hats and more with the
School of Education logo at the online UC Davis Store.
Proceeds from all store sales benefit UC Davis Athletics.
PUBLICATIONS
Prof. Yianella Blanco co-authored the essay “Youth Historians and the Radical Possibilities of Writing History” in The History Teacher.
Prof. Marcela G. Cuellar co-authored “Accountable to whom? Reimagining Hispanic serving institutions’ financial models,” published in New Directions for Higher Education.
Prof. Darnel Degand published “An arts-based inquiry-inspired rubric for assessing college students’ comic essays” in the SAGE Journal Multimodality & Society.
Prof. Paco Martorell co-authored “The effects of exam frames on student effort and performance,” published in Economics of Education Review.
UC Davis undergraduate alumna Anysa Santini, ’21, Jennifer C. Bullen, PhD ’22, Matthew C. Zajic, PhD ’18, Nancy S. McIntyre, PhD ’15, and Prof. Peter Mundy co-authored “Brief Report: The Factors Associated with Social Cognition in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder” in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
Prof. Nicole Sparapani co-authored “Bringing Assessment-to-Instruction (A2i) technology to scale: Exploring the process from development to implementation,” published in the Journal of Educational Psychology.