Team Leadership

Steven Athanases, PhD, Principal Investigator (PI) is Professor and the Dolly and David Fiddyment Chair in Teacher Education, University of California, Davis and serves as PI for this Teachers-as-Learners grant/project. He taught high school English in Illinois for nine years, and served as an Instructional Improvement Teacher for one of those years in the teaching of writing. His degrees and work have sat at the intersection of English, communication studies, and education, and he has long been obsessed with dynamics of meaningful class discussion, which has been central to his teaching and research. Athanases completed a PhD in Education and a postdoctoral fellowship in English, both at Stanford University. He prepares English teachers and studies teaching and teacher education, focused on literacy, diversity, and equity. Drawing upon his background in performance studies, Athanases also has served for several years as Research Director of the UC Davis Center for Shakespeare in Diverse Classrooms, partnered with Globe Education, Globe Theater, London.

Kristen Pilner Blair, PhD, Co-PI is a senior research scholar at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education and is the Director of Research for Stanford’s Digital Learning Initiative. Her research focuses on improving STEM instruction and assessment in both formal educational settings like classrooms, and informal settings, like camps and museums. Dr. Blair has collaborated with cross-institutional partners to develop new learning technologies and instructional materials for helping to teach math and science. She also examines fundamental learning questions, such as how students learn from both positive and negative feedback.  Dr. Blair holds a PhD in Learning Sciences and Technology Design and an undergraduate degree in Mathematical and Computational Science, both from Stanford University.  She is co-author of the book, The ABCs of How We Learn: 26 Scientifically Proven Approaches, How They Work, and When to Use Them.

Jennifer Higgs, PhD, Co-PI is an Assistant Professor of Learning & Mind Sciences and Language, Literacy, & Culture at the University of California, Davis. She is interested in how young people and teachers make sense of digital environments that invite new forms of reading, writing, and communication, how digital and face-to-face learning ecologies interact, and the kinds of support structures that may help teachers facilitate equitable and consequential uses of new technologies. She investigates practices around digital tools, particularly in relation to literacy teaching and learning, as well as improvement of digital tool practices. Prior to pursuing her Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Higgs was a public high school English teacher in Virginia and Illinois.

Lee Martin, PhD, Co-PI is an Associate Professor and Chancellor’s Fellow in the School of Education at the University of California, Davis. His research looks across in-school and out-of-school settings to investigate the varied ways that people assemble social, material, and intellectual resources to help them to meet their goals. His investigates the design of equitable learning environments that foster the development of adaptive expertise. These questions have led him most recently to study youth participation in making and the maker movement, and teachers learning to facilitate classroom discussion.

Danny C. Martinez, PhD, Co-PI is Associate Professor of Language, Literacy and Culture at the University of California, Davis. His research is inspired by his experiences as a middle and high school literacy teacher in San Francisco and Los Angeles. His scholarship explores the cultural and communicative practices of Black and Latinx youth in secondary literacy classrooms, and teacher learning as it relates to leveraging youths’ rich communicative repertoires for learning. Martinez’ future work will continue to grapple with notions of solidarity and ingenuity in the lives of Black and Latinx teachers and their students.

Alexis Patterson Williams, PhD, Co-PI is an associate professor at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Patterson Williams’s research lies at the intersection of equity studies, social psychology, and science education. Her work explores 1) equity issues that arise from social hierarchies when students work together on group projects in science and 2) teacher development of practices that support equitable and robust interactions between students that can deconstruct implicit and explicit language and literacy hierarchies. Her recent project has led to the development of an educational framework, (W)holistic Science Pedagogy, with her colleague and sister scholar, Dr. Salina Gray

Megan Welsh, PhD, Co-PI is an Associate Professor and Chancellor’s Fellow in the School of Education at UC Davis where she teaches graduate courses in assessment, measurement theory, and research design. Her research interests are in test validity, the use of assessment results, and instrument design. Megan has served as a Co-Principal Investigator or as research methodologist on $9.5 million in research grants from federal and philanthropic sources. Before becoming an academic, she was a 3rd and 4th grade bilingual Cantonese teacher in Oakland, a school district assessment coordinator in Amphitheater and San Diego public schools, and an educational policy researcher for a think tank in Washington, DC.

Collaborative Partners

Leslie Banes, PhD is an Assistant Professor at California State University Sacramento. Leslie is a former bilingual elementary and middle school teacher. Her research interests include exploring the relationship between language and content learning, bilingual education and biliteracy, mathematics discourse, issues of equity in assessment, and elementary teacher education.

Joanna Wong, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Education and Leadership at California State University Monterey Bay. Dr. Joanna Wong is committed to addressing social justice and equity issues related to the language and literacy education of culturally and linguistically diverse students. She grounds her teaching and approach to research in over fourteen years of experience working in the Oakland Unified School District. She has worked as an elementary teacher, site-based instructional coach, and district literacy specialist. Dr. Wong is also co-founder of Esperanza Elementary, a Spanish-English dual-language immersion school in OUSD.  Her research interests include bilingual writing, teacher education, and qualitative research methods. Publications include articles in International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, Bilingual Research Journal, International Multilingual Research Journal, and book chapters in Second Language Writing in Elementary Classrooms (Palgrave Macmillan) and The Career Trajectories of English Teachers (Symposium Books). 

Postdoctoral Scholars

Kayce L. Mastrup, PhD is a Postdoctoral Scholar with the Teachers as Learners Project. Prior to receiving her Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from UC Davis Kayce was a public secondary mathematics teacher. Kayce’s research agenda centers around mathematics preservice teachers’ development and expands to teacher learning across all content areas and levels of expertise. Both preservice and in-service teachers bring a wealth of knowledge, experiences, and tools in their teacher toolbox that researchers should leverage. These individuals are professionals that often seek collaborative learning opportunities to advocate evidence-based practices that will benefit their students. Kayce draws from narrative qualitative methods, collecting stories, interviewing participants and understanding the life histories of the individuals she works with in order to maintain a social justice lens in her work as she explores mathematics preservice teacher development and teacher learning. 

Liam Aiello, PhD is a postdoctoral scholar for the Teachers as Learners Project. He received his PhD in Literacy, Language, and English Education from Stanford’s Graduate School of Education. His research focuses on text discussions in English language arts classrooms, particularly the affordances and challenges of conducting these discussions in dialogic and inclusive ways. Liam is a former fifth grade teacher, and more recently has taught education courses at Mills College and provided professional development through Stanford’s Center to Support Excellence in Teaching.

Sergio Sanchez is a Ph.D. Candidate – Language, Literacy & Culture; Designated Emphases: Writing, Rhetoric and Composition Studies & Second Language Acquisition. Sergio is interested in working with underrepresented populations to understand the processes that enhance (or hinder) their opportunities to access higher education. Sergio is also interested in studying the benefits of drama and poetry in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms for language acquisition and writing.

3D Team

Bianca Goodson is a 2nd year English teacher at Smedberg Middle School, where she teaches English 7. Bianca completed her undergraduate degree at Sacramento State University where she majored in Government and Ethnic Studies, and minored in Communications. She then earned her M.Ed. from University of California, Davis. Bianca believes that transformative practices, classroom equity, and student voice are all essential for students to thrive not only inside the classroom, but outside as well. Bianca believes that diverse students need diverse teaching practices and has dedicated herself to this practice. Teachers as Learners provides a space for like minded educators to discuss, reflect, and ponder not only what the aforementioned means, but what it might also look like for our students. These discussions allow us to cultivate such practices, creating a more equitable classroom.

Mariah Houston is a 4th year English teacher at Monterey Trail High School, where she teaches English 12, English 10 Pre-AP, and an EL elective. Mariah has served as the lead of the 10th grade Professional Learning Community and is currently an advisor for the Student Equity Council. She received her Bachelor’s in English from Hampton University and her M.Ed. at the University of California, Davis. Mariah has dedicated herself to providing an equitable experience to all students that come through her classroom. Being a self proclaimed lifelong learner landed her in the Teachers as Learners Program where she has been able to reflect on the importance of student voices in the classroom. 

Michael Hutchings is a 5th-year English Teacher at Franklin High School, where he teaches English 12 and English 9 Honors. He received his M.Ed. at the University of California, Davis and has dedicated himself to the continued learning of adaptive student-centered practices driven by reflective pedagogy. After joining the Teachers as Learners Project, Michael has found renewed importance in designing and facilitating equitable spaces for student voice in the ELA Classroom. 

Taylor Ferdinandsen is a 3rd-year English teacher at Vacaville High School, where she teaches English 11 and ELD. She received her Bachelor’s degree in English from Santa Clara University, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa her junior year, and graduated magna cum laude. After earning a Master’s in Education at UC Davis, she joined the Teachers as Learners Project in order to help herself (as well as pre-service teachers) learn to lead equitable discussions in the classroom. 

Xeng Xiong is a high school English teacher and has been working for Lodi Unified School District since 2013. She currently teaches college preparatory English 10 and Ethnic Literature and Studies. She earned her bachelor’s degree in English, minoring in Education from the University of California, Davis, her master’s degree in Education from the University of California, Davis, and her Doctorate in Education from the California State University, Sacramento. Inspired by the voices of her diverse students in the classroom, Xeng joined the Teachers as Learners Project to continue her learning in creating safe and equitable spaces for student voice.

Tierney Werner is a 5th year English teacher at James Rutter Middle School where she currently teaches English 7, English 7 Honors, and Intermediate ELD. Tierney received her BA in Politics from the University of California Santa Cruz, and her M.A. in Education from the University of California Davis. Fueled by her belief in growing the capacity of current and future educators, as well as the power and strength of student voice, Tierney joined the Teachers as Learners Project to continue to reflect on her own teaching practices as well as engage in collaborative design work to help inform the teaching practices of preservice teachers. 

Samantha Camblin is a 5th year English teacher at Dixon High School where she currently teaches English 12 and Intermediate and Beginning ELD. Sam received both her BA in English and M.A. in Education from the University of California Davis. Sam’s instructional practice is driven by her commitment to fostering a diverse and equitable classroom environment for her students. She is an active member of her school community and staff, filling numerous roles on campus such as department chair, class advisor, and is a member of the Equity Task Force, and AVID and PBIS site teams. Samantha is also part of the Teachers as Learners Project, where she works with Professor Steve Athanases and other former UC-Davis graduates to analyze the significance of discussion as a learning tool, engaging in design work that will ultimately inform and support the development of preservice ELA teachers. 

Teacher Education Internal Advisory Board: Collaborators at UC Davis

Margarita Jimenez-Silva, Associate Professor, Director of Teacher Education (1.18)

Pauline V. Holmes, Lead Supervisor of Secondary English

External Advisory Board Members and Consultants

Diego Roman, Southern Methodist University

Lisa M. Barker, Towson University

Joanna W. Wong, California State University, Monterey Bay

Juliet H. Wahleithner, California State University, Fresno

Megan Madigan Peercy, University of Maryland

Lisa H. Bennett, California State University, Fresno

Luciana C. de Oliveira, University of Miami

Jennifer Knudsen, SRI International