September 2023 Newsletter
Welcoming New Faculty
The School of Education is pleased to welcome three new associate professors of teaching in education to our faculty.
Dr. Claudia
Rodriguez-Mojica researches the classroom
instruction of bilingual children and the intersections among
language, race, ethnicity, gender and culture as they relate to
the teaching and learning of Latinx bilingual learners.
Rodriguez-Mojica is the principal investigator and project
director on a $2.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of
Education’s Office of English Language Acquisition to support
Spanish–English bilingual instruction in California and New
Mexico. Read
more about Claudia Rodriguez-Mojica.
Dr. Nancy
Tseng researches the development of productive
student–teacher relationships in elementary classrooms and
practices that support mathematics learning and teaching. She is
a co-investigator on a $1.69 million Institute of Education
Sciences grant to explore how general education teachers can use
inclusive math and literacy instructional practices to support
autistic learners in K–3 classrooms. Previously a
Lecturer/Supervisor in the School’s Multiple Subject Credential
Program, Tseng will continue to serve as the coordinator of the
Mandarin Bilingual Authorization Program. Read
more about Nancy Tseng.
Dr. Matt
Wallace has been the cohort lead and served as a
Lecturer/Supervisor for the School’s Math Credential Program
since 2012, preparing students to teach full spectrum mathematics
up to AP calculus. He is also the primary faculty advisor for the
MA program and coordinates the annual MA symposium. Wallace
graduated from UC Davis with a BS in psychology and a minor in
math, earned his teaching credential and MA, and taught high
school math until returning to UC Davis for his PhD in
mathematics education. Read
more about Matt Wallace.
Yuuko Uchikoshi Named Associate Dean of Academic Programs
Prof. Yuuko
Uchikoshi has been appointed the Associate Dean of Academic
Programs and Instruction for the School of Education and will
serve a three-year term. Uchikoshi joined the School’s faculty in
2004. She brings considerable experience and expertise to the
role, having served previously as the School’s Undergraduate
Programs Chair and Director of Undergraduate Programs. Her
research focus is on language and literacy development for dual
language learners.
City Nature Challenge Sacramento Crowdfund Campaign
The School of
Education’s Center for Community and
Citizen Science is inviting friends to support their
Crowdfund UC Davis campaign. The center organizes the Sacramento
region City Nature Challenge, a four-day event held annually in
April. Sacramento is one of hundreds of cities around the globe
encouraging people to find and document plants and wildlife by
using the iNaturalist app and web platform. Crowdfund support
will help organizers coordinate iNaturalist trainings for
teachers and community groups, provide supplies and assistance
for events where people work together to find and identify as
many species as possible, and expand our outreach to new
partnering organizations. The Crowdfund campaign starts
October 1, but you can make an early gift at the Center
for Community and Citizen Science donate page. Please
indicate in the comment section that your gift is to be directed
to the CNC Crowdfund Campaign.
Faculty News
Lauren Lindstrom’s South Africa Collaboration
Prof. Lauren Lindstrom has recently
returned from her sabbatical trip to South Africa, Botswana and
Lesotho, and has documented her experiences in a travel blog. She was hosted
by Prof. Maximus Sefotho, pictured at right, from the Faculty of
Education at the University of Johannesburg. Their joint project
focuses on building capacity for schools and communities to
support young people with disabilities in the transition from
school to inclusive employment.
Alicia Rusoja and Ryan Meyer Named Faculty Fellows
Prof. Alicia Rusoja and Dr. Ryan
Meyer, Executive Director of the Center for Community and Citizen
Science, have both been named Faculty Fellows by the UC Davis
Office of Public Scholarship and Engagement. The fellowship comes
with a $1,000 grant in support of their initiatives, and this
year’s cohort will meet monthly through March 2024 to advance
their public engagement skills and pursue their public
scholarship projects. The Faculty Fellows program recognizes
outstanding individuals dedicated to advancing public scholarship
and to making academic research more accessible to
all. Read
more about the Faculty Fellows’ projects.
Ujima GIRL Camp Comes to UC Davis
This July, Prof. Faheemah
Mustafaa and colleagues welcomed African American/Black
middle and high school girls who participated in the summer Ujima
GIRL (Girls in Robotics Leadership) Camp. Students came from
Antioch, Sacramento and Stockton to tour campus, visit the Diane
Bryant Student Design Center and other engineering labs in Bainer
Hall, and hear from keynote speaker LeShelle May.
The Ujima GIRL Project addresses the significant challenges of
inclusion and equity for Black/African American middle and high
school girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics
(STEM) education through a hands-on coding and robotics program
provided within a culturally relevant environment. This project
is funded by a $2.4 million National Science Foundation grant,
and Mustafaa is co-principal investigator with Dr. Harry Cheng,
College of Engineering.
Marcela Cuellar Team Releases Report on Hispanic-Serving Community Colleges
The School of Education’s Prof.
Marcela Cuellar, PhD candidate Mayra Nuñez Martinez and Alicia
Bencomo Garcia, PhD ’23, and UC Berkeley’s Prof. Gina A. Garcia
discussed their new report “Building Capacity for Equity and
Servingness across California’s Hispanic-Serving Community
Colleges” in a webinar in August. View
the report and a video featuring Cuellar and Garcia discussing
their findings.
Alumni News
Beatriz Chaidez, EdD
’16, has
been named the interim chancellor of San José – Evergreen
Community College District. Until her
appointment, Chaidez was serving as vice chancellor of human
resources to the district, and previously has held various roles
in K-12 administration, including assistant superintendent of
both the Salinas City Elementary School District and Sacramento
City Unified School District.
Tico Zendejas, EdD
’19, has been
appointed as the manager of Yolo County’s Office of Diversity,
Equity, and Inclusion. He will serve as a change agent,
advisor, and strategic partner to the County’s leadership team.
Zendejas previously served as the Executive Director of nonprofit
R.I.S.E. Inc. He also serves on the Yolo County Office of
Education Board of Trustees, where he advocates for youth
development.
Jose Bermudez, Cred. ’06,
MA ’07, started
his new role as Winters Middle School principal in July.
Bermudez grew up attending schools in the Winters Joint Unified
School District, taught at César Chávez Elementary in Davis,
and served as principal at Edwin Markham Elementary School in
Vacaville before his new role in Winters.
Lina Mendez, PhD
’10, was
the featured guest on the monthly talk show Face to Face
With Chancellor May. As the inaugural director of UC
Davis Hispanic Serving Institution Initiatives, Mendez is
responsible for implementing the recommendations of the HSI Task
Force and leading their future work. She previously served as the
founding associate director of the UC Davis Center for Chicanx
and Latinx Academic Student Success.
Student News
PhD student Jaime
Ramirez-Mendoza has
received a 2023 Equity & Inclusion Graduate Student
Fellowship from the Association for Public Policy
Analysis and Management. The fellowships are awarded to 40
graduate students from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds
so that they can travel to and participate in the 2023 Annual
Fall Research Conference in Atlanta, Georgia this November.
PhD student Hodari
Davis received
the Engaged Scholarship and Scholar Activism Award from the UC
Davis Equity Summit in May. He is a partner and chief
innovation officer of Edutainment for Equity, a consulting and
production company that specializes in equity and inclusion,
strategic planning and futures thinking, and youth development
and education.
Events
Teacher Education Program Kicks off the Academic Year
In August, the School welcomed our
incoming teaching credential students at the UC Davis Buehler
Alumni and Visitors Center to hear about program expectations and
resources, network with other students and meet their cohorts, do
community building exercises, and begin their preparations for
the upcoming year. View the kick-off
event photo gallery.
Teacher Education Supervisors Annual Conference
This summer, the Supervisors
of Teacher Education Network Team (STENT) held its
4th annual summer conference, focusing on equity and social
justice practices for supervisors who support and guide
credential candidates. Twenty-three different teacher education
programs and over 120 teacher educators from across California
came together to build community, exchange ideas and share
resources. STENT is led by Dr. Lisa Sullivan at UC Davis, along
with a team of teacher educators from UCLA, UC Santa Cruz, UC
Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego and Cal Poly Humboldt. The
event was coordinated in partnership with the California
Council on Teacher Education, which includes numerous School
of Education researchers.
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. Anthony D. Albano co-authored “Growth and Utility of Language and Early Literacy Measures for Young Children,” published in Journal of Early Intervention.
Prof. Heidi Ballard co-authored “Community‐driven science and science education: Living in and navigating the edges of equity, justice, and science learning,” published in Journal of Research in Science Teaching.
PhD candidate Sandy L. Birkeneder, postdoctoral scholar Jennifer Bullen, Nancy McIntyre, PhD ’15, Matthew C. Zajic, PhD ’18, Lindsay Lerro, PhD ’17, Marjorie Solomon, Prof. Nicole Sparapani and Prof. Peter Mundy co-authored “The Construct Validity of the Childhood Joint Attention Rating Scale (C‑JARS) in School‑Aged Autistic Children,” published in Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
PhD student Audrey Boochever and Prof. Heather Rose co-authored “Student-Teacher Ethnoracial Matching at Charter and Traditional Public Schools,” published in Journal of School Choice.
Prof. Darnel Degand published the article “‘The Last Word’ from The Source: André LeRoy Davis’ contributions to Hip Hop and comics” in Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics.