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.
Rebecca Ambrose
Professor
After teaching middle school math for ten years, I decided to pursue a PhD to get a fresh perspective on the issues I observed every day in my classroom and thought that maybe I could help develop remedies that would help other teachers, as well.
Sylvia Aquino
Supervisor, Social Science Credential
Heidi Ballard
Professor and Chancellor’s Fellow
Heidi Ballard is the Founder and Faculty Director of the Center for Community and Citizen Science. You can find more information about her past and current projects, and sign up for occasional updates at the Center’s website.
Carolynne Beno
Lecturer
Education/Credentials
Ed.D. Educational Leadership, University of California at Davis, June 14, 2017
Clear Administrative Services Credential, September 2015
Education Specialist Instruction Credential, Level 2, National University, November 2012
M.S. Special Education, National University, January 2007
B.A. Psychology, University of California at Davis, December 2003
B.S. Exercise Physiology, University of California at Davis, December 2003
Megan Bettis
Lecturer/Supervisor, Science Teacher Credential and Program Director, Young Scholars Program
M. Yianella Blanco
Assistant Professor
Dr. Yianella Blanco is an Assistant Professor in the School of Education. Her research interests focus on the teaching and learning of Latine/x histories and experiences, particularly those of Central America(ns) and how those intersect with American empire. Dr. Blanco’s research draws from community-based and participatory action research methods.
Lacey Boatman
Lecturer
Cynthia Carter Ching
Professor and Interim Dean
Cynthia Carter Ching (she/her/hers) is Professor of Education and Associate Dean for Academic Programs 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 examines the intersection of technology, learning, collaboration, and identity. Her work examines how children, youth, and adults represent and negotiate aspects of themselves via technology in classrooms, in online environments, and in games.
Marcela G. Cuellar
Associate 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
Assistant Professor
Darnel Degand joined the School of Education as an assistant professor in July 2017. He 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. His research also involves the design and development of formal, nonformal, and informal educational media products and experiences.
Kerry A. Enright
Associate Professor
I research the relationship between Latinx students’ everyday uses of language (English and Spanish) and their engagement in language and literacy practices in institutional settings (classrooms and professional work-study placements). Some schools identify bilingual adolescents as “limited” in their English proficiency even though they use sophisticated literacy repertoires outside of school; other learners are deemed ”fluent” in English but still struggle with the language and literacy demands of their academic coursework or workplace.
Nancy Erbstein
Associate Professor in Residence
My work focuses on how communities and regions produce and disrupt disparities in youth well-being, with emphasis on disparities associated with race/ethnicity, immigration, socio-economic status and geographic location. My interest in youth well-being situates my activity at the intersection of educational reform, public health, youth development and community development. I ground my work conceptually at the nexus of theories of development in social ecological contexts, critical human geographers’ analyses of space and place as socially produced, and critical race theory.
Kevin Gee
Professor and Chancellor's Fellow
Fall 2023 Office Hours TBA
Cassandra M.D. Hart
Professor
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.
Alicia Herrera
Lecturer
Patti Herrera
Lecturer
Nolan Higdon
Lecturer
Jennifer Higgs
Associate Professor
Jennifer Higgs is an Associate Professor of Learning and Mind Sciences and Language, Literacy, and Culture. Drawing from sociocultural learning theories and employing methodologies such as design-based research and survey research, she investigates young people’s and teachers’ sense-making of digital tools and ecologies that invite new forms of reading, writing, and participation; support structures that may help teachers facilitate equitable uses and understandings of digital technologies; and the spread and scale of educational innovations in our advanced digital age. Dr.
Kim Holsberry
Supervisor, Multiple Subject Credential
Education
- CLAD (2004)
- Certificated Early Literacy Group Teacher, CSU Bernardino (1997)
- Certificated Reading Recovery Teacher, CSU Bernardino (1994)
- B.A.
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 E. Lindstrom is an active researcher whose areas of interest include autism and developmental disabilities, special education, career and college readiness and transition services for youth with disabilities, and access to quality education for families in poverty. She has been recognized internationally for her work promoting employment and access for individuals with disabilities. She is an affiliated faculty member at the UC Davis MIND Institute and a member of the UC Davis Graduate Group in Education.
Chantal Mace
Lecturer/Supervisor, Multiple Subject Credential
Chantal Mace joined the School of Education faculty with 15 joyful years of experience as a classroom teacher. Teaching has been woven into the fabric of her family history for several generations. In 2007, she earned her doctorate from St. Mary’s College, conducting case study research on teacher persistence in an era of profound attrition rates. Chantal is actively involved with Words Take Wing, an organization here at UC Davis, founded by her mentor Dr.
Lynn Martindale
Lecturer/Supervisor, Agricultural Credential
By appointment only
Education
EdD – Drexel University, Sacramento, CA – expected date of completion, 2014
M.S., Agriculture – California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo – 1990
Pupil Personal Service – Fresno Pacific University, Fresno, CA - 1995
Danny C. Martinez
Associate Professor and Chancellor’s Fellow
Danny C. Martinez is Associate Professor in the Language, Literacy, and Culture program area in the School of Education. His research explores the cultural and linguistic practices 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.
Sophia Mattingly
Lecturer
Education
University of California, Davis, CA
Ph.D. Education (Language, Literacy and Culture), Jun 2015
University of Kansas, KS
National Consortium for Teaching about Asia Summer study tour in
China, Jun 2010
• NCTA Summer institute for alumni designed to facilitate teaching and learning about East Asia in the K-12 curriculum via participation in a variety of hands-on experiences in Asia.
Elizabeth Montaño
Associate Professor of Teaching in Education, Chair of CANDEL
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
Faheemah N. Mustafaa
Assistant Professor
Dr. Faheemah N. Mustafaa joined the School of Education as an assistant professor in 2019. She is also a member of the Human Development Graduate Group, and faculty research affiliate with the Center for Poverty & Inequality Research. Prior to joining the School of Education faculty, she was a postdoctoral researcher in Social-Personality Psychology at University of California, Berkeley, and in Teaching and Learning at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Mustafaa earned her Ph.D.
Cynthia M. Passmore
Professor
Research Interests
Science Education; Secondary Education
Education
Ph.D., Curriculum and Instruction – University of Wisconsin, Madison – 2002
Broadcast, Print or Electronic Media
modelbasedbiology.com
modelinglivingearthbiology.org
Alexis Patterson Williams
Associate Professor and Chair of Teacher Education
Alexis Patterson Williams, Ph.D., joined the School of Education in July 2015 as an Assistant Professor in science education. She is currently a CAMPOS Faculty Scholar and is excited to work with her cohort to develop a research center that focuses on increasing the participation of women of color in STEM related fields.
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
Drina Ramirez
Supervisor, Multiple Subject Credential
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
Associate 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.
Heather Schlaman
Lecturer
Nicole Sparapani
Associate Professor
Nicole Sparapani, Ph.D., is an associate professor within the School of Education and the MIND Institute. Dr. Sparapani’s background in speech-language pathology, developmental psychology, and education has informed her research agenda, which focuses on the dynamic and transactional interplay between children and their classroom environment. The overarching goal of her research agenda is to improve the educational experiences and outcomes of neurodivergent learners, including children on the autism spectrum. Dr.
Lisa Sullivan
Lecturer/Supervisor, Multiple Subject Credential
Dr. Lisa Sullivan brings a range of skills and experience to her work in Teacher Education. Lisa worked as a classroom teacher in East Los Angeles and in Northern California before obtaining her doctorate from UC Davis in Learning and Mind Sciences. She has worked extensively with both classroom teachers and higher education faculty to improve teaching and learning. Lisa has conducted over twenty program evaluations for K-12 and university based education initiatives. She has expertise in the area of special education, having worked on a national implementation grant to support general education teachers to implement best practices for students with autism. Lisa has also taught both credential and Masters students at UC Davis, Sacramento State University and Loyola Marymount University. Her dissertation research examined the role of attention in learning and school readiness for preschool children. Her main area of interest is in working with educators to translate research into practice that will improve outcomes for all students.
Education
- Ph.D. in Learning and Mind Sciences, University of California, Davis, 2010
- M.A. in Educational Psychology, University of California, Davis, 2006
- B.A. in Psychology, Phi Beta Kappa, cum laude, University of California, Irvine, 1986
Publications and Working Papers
- Franzone, E., Kucharczyk, S., Sullivan, L., & Szidon, K. (2012). Facilitating the use of evidence based practices in classrooms: The national professional development center model for implementation. In Mundy, P. & Mastergeorge, A. (Eds), Autism for Educators, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
- Sullivan, L. (2010). Joint attention: Interactions with word learning and school readiness. Dissertation Abstracts International: Section B: The Sciences and Engineering, Volume 71(11-A), pp.3902.
- Abedi, J., Kao, J.C., Leon, S., Mastergeorge, A., Sullivan, L., Herman, J., & Pope, R. (2010). Accessibility of segmented reading comprehension passages for students with disabilities. Applied Measurement in Education, 23 (2), 168-186.
- Mundy, P., Sullivan, L., & Mastergeorge, A. (2009). A parallel and distributed-processing model of joint attention, social cognition and autism. Autism Research, 2(1), 2-21.
- Abedi, K., Kao, J., Leon, J., Sullivan, L., Herman, J., Pope, R., Nambiar, V., & Mastergeorge, A. (2008). Exploring factors that affect accessibility of reading comprehension assessments for students with disabilities: A study of segmented text (Report No. 746), 80pp. Los Angeles: National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST).
Manuscript Currently Under Review
- Sullivan, L., Mundy, P., & Mastergeorge, A. Joint Attention, Social Behavior and School Readiness in Preschool Children.
Nancy Tseng
Associate Professor of Teaching in Education and Bilingual Coordinator–Mandarin
Dr. Nancy Tseng is an Associate Professor of Teaching in Education in the School of Education. She began her career in education as a public elementary school teacher. Her research interests focus on the development of productive student-teacher relationships in elementary classrooms, identifying instructional practices that support mathematics learning and teaching, and pre-and in-service teacher education. Dr. Tseng received a BA in psychology, elementary teaching credential, and MA from the University of California, Davis. She has a Ph.D.
Yuuko Uchikoshi Tonkovich
Professor and Associate Dean of Academic Programs
Research Interests
Early Childhood; Multilingual Learners; Bilingualism and Bilingual Education; Educational Television and Multimedia; Language Acquisition; Early literacy Development; Quantitative Methods
Professional Experience
Professor, School of Education, University of California, Davis, 2019–present
Associate Professor, School of Education, University of California, Davis, 2012–2019
Assistant Professor, School of Education, University of California, Davis, 2004–2012
Matt Wallace
Associate Professor of Teaching in Education
Education
- BS—University of California, Davis
- MA—San Francisco State University
- PhD—University of California, Davis
Professional Experience
- Associate Professor of Teaching in Education, UC Davis, 2023–present
- Lecturer/Supervisor of Teacher Education, UC Davis, 2012–2023
- Director, Math for America Berkeley, 2012
- Lecturer, University of California, Berkeley, 2012
- University Supervisor, California State University, East Bay, 2011-2012
- Mathematics Teacher, Elk Gr
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.
Maisha T. Winn
Professor, Chancellor's Leadership Professor, and Co-Director of Transformative Justice in Education Center (TJE)
Maisha T. Winn’s research spans a wide variety of understudied settings including her earlier work on the literate practices extant in bookstores and community organizations in the African American community to her most recent work in settings where adolescent girls are incarcerated.
Lawrence (Torry) Winn
Associate Professor of Teaching in Education, Chair of Undergraduate Programs, Co-Director of Transformative Justice in Education Center (TJE)
With over fifteen years of professional experience, Winn has worked and consulted with foundations, cities, and non-profits including Casey Family Programs, Annie E. Casey, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, City of Newark (NJ), City of Madison (WI), St. HOPE, MLK Community Resources Collaborative, and Race to Equity. His expertise includes youth programs/education, civic and community engagement, strategic partnerships, race and equity, and community based participatory research.