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.