Meet Our Speakers

Alphabetical by Last Name:  A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z

• Louise Ada (M.A. '84) | Professor Emeritus of Neurological Physiotherapy, University of Sydney & 2018 Distinguished Alumna
  Ada is a physiotherapist and currently teaches in and leads the neurology program in the Discipline of Physiotherapy at the University of Sydney. Her passion for teaching is driven by a desire to produce the highest quality graduates with the end goal of improving patient outcomes, particularly for people with stroke. She is the leading physiotherapist in Australia and eighth in the world. She has over 90 publications, her work has been cited 1,400 times and she has received $3 million in research grants. She is also the head of the World Congress of Physiotherapy.
• Warner Burke | Edward Lee Thorndike Professorship of Psychology & Education, Teachers College
  
  
• Jenny W. Chan (M.A. '13) | Founder of Origami Tree
• Joe Ciccolo | Assistant Professor of Applied Physiology, Teachers College
  Ciccolo is an Assistant Professor of Applied Exercise Physiology in Department of Biobehavioral Sciences at Teachers College. He has degrees in exercise physiology and exercise psychology, with additional training in behavioral medicine. Dr. Ciccolo’s laboratory, the Resistance Exercise, Health and Behavior Lab, or REHAB Lab, focuses on the use of resistance training, or more commonly “weight lifting”, as a treatment for managing mental illness and substance use disorder. Over the past 10 years, Dr. Ciccolo has received approximately $2.5 million in private and federal funding for his projects, and he has published more than 50 peer reviewed papers on his work.
• Claudia Cohen | Associate Adjunct Professor, Teachers College
  Cohen is an Adjunct Faculty member in the Social-Organizational Psychology Program. A scholar-practitioner of conflict studies, her career has combined research, practice and teaching. Her areas of expertise include conflict management in organizations, dialogic practices, mediation and the role of interpersonal dynamics in prison reentry program success. Dr. Cohen was previously on faculty at Rutgers and the Stevens Institute of Technology.Dr. Cohen has written and spoken about practices that promote individual dignity (“doing Dignity”) and led a 2016 ACR-GNY panel about Dignity and Mediation. In her social justice work in NJ, Dr. Cohen has supported the growth of Dialogue Circles on Race through curriculum design, facilitator training and Grant support. Circles offer Black and White citizens an unflinching curriculum re: the history of racism in America and the dialogic practice of listening with empathy to one another’s stories across racial lines.
• Peter Coleman (Ph.D. '98) | Professor of Psychology and Education and Director of MD-ICCCR, Teachers College
  
  
• Jennifer Dauphinais | Doctoral Candidate, Teachers College
  Dauphinais is an early career scholar interested in race-conscious teacher identity and curriculum research. She is a former New Haven Public School teacher and district leader for developing teacher career pathways. Jennifer holds several certifications and training backgrounds in Mindfulness, Yoga and Social Emotional Learning. In 2017, she received a Dean's Grant for Student Research at Teachers College. Her work has been published in Education Week, Teachers College Record, Youth Today, and TC Public Space. She is currently developing programs for teacher self-care and student wellness in the Masters of Art program at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut.
  
• Chloe Dawson | Student Senate President, Teachers College
  Dawson is first-year doctoral student in the Adult Learning and Leadership Program and President of the Teachers College Student Senate. As a leadership educator, researcher and practitioner, Chloe leverages adult learning and leadership to create agile lifelong learning opportunities in formal and informal spaces.
  
• Adriana Diaz Donoso | WeBop Instructor, Jazz at Lincoln Center
  
  
• Susan Fuhrman | President, Teachers College
  
  
  
• Bill Gaudelli | Professor of Social Studies and Education and Social Studies Education Program Director, Teachers College
• Julliene Gatchalian | M.A. Candidate, Teachers College
  Gatchalian joined the Li’l Stories team as a Curriculum and Learning Designer in 2016. Using her years of classroom teaching experience, she helps develop new learning tools and original lesson plans that nurture children’s inherent love for storytelling. Julliene first earned a BS in Childhood Education and Special Education from New York University. Most recently, Julliene earned her MA in the Design and Development of Digital Games from Teachers College, Columbia University. She merges her learnings from the field and her studies by continuing to improve on the Li’l Stories curriculum while training other teaching fellows on the Li’l Stories team. Additionally, she is the lead teacher for Li’l Stories Labs at various public elementary schools around NYC.
  
• Maria Paula Ghiso | Associate Professor of Literacy Education, Teachers College
• Mark Gooden | Christian Johnson Endeavor of Professor of Education Leadership and Program Director for Education Leadership, Teachers College
• Kenneth Graves (M.A. '13) | Doctoral Candidate
  Graves is a Ph.D. Candidate in Education Leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University, where his research explores conceptions of technology leadership for social justice and pattern-analyzes generalizable data to help schools and districts lead instructional technology interventions that address specific issues for historically underserved populations. His dissertation research has received accolades from American Educational Research Association and the University Council for Educational Administration. Kenny holds a M.A. in Instructional Technology and Media from TC and a B.A. in English, Secondary Education, and Latin American/Iberian Studies from the University of Richmond.
  
  
• Sybil Jordan Hampton (Ed.D. '91) | Foundation and Higher Education Consultant & 2018 Distinguished Alumna
  Hampton was one of the Little Rock Nine-the first students to integrate into Little Rock Central High School-and later she was the first African-American student to graduate from the school. Beyond her historical significance, she has had a distinguished career in her own right. She has held leadership roles in universities in New York, Wisconsin and Texas and executive positions in two foundations of national renown: Manager of the GTE Corporate Foundation in Stamford, CT; and President Emerita of the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation in Little Rock, AR. She has received the Iona College Woman of Achievement Award, the Madison, WI NAACP Education Award, and the National Conference for Community and Justice Humanitarian Award. She was also inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame.
  
  
• James Jones | Professor Emeritus and Director of the Center for the Study of Diversity, University of Delaware
  Jones is regarded as a champion for social justice and minority education and an expert in the field for his decades of research on racism and prejudice. He is Trustees’ Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Black American Studies and Director of the Center for the Study of Diversity at the University of Delaware. He is also the former Executive Director for Public Interest and Director of the Minority Fellowship Program at the American Psychological Association.
  
  
• Michelle Knight-Manuel | Professor Education and Associate Dean, Teachers College
• Pamela Koch (Ed.D. '00) | Executive Director, Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education & Policy, Teachers College
  Koch conducts research about the connections between a just, sustainable food system and healthy eating. She translates her research into curricula for schoolteachers and recommendations for policy makers. She speaks about nutrition education and sustainable food systems and she writes for several publications including The New York Times. Her work contributes to increased access to nutritious and sustainable food for all.
  
• Etta Kralovec (Ed.D. '87) | Associate professor of Teacher Education, University of Arizona-South & 2018 Distinguished Alumna
  Kralovec is currently associate professor of Teacher Education and program director of the M.Ed. in Secondary Education at the University of Arizona-South. Her program has received the Peter Likins Inclusive Excellence Award from the University of Arizona and a Best Practices Award from the Mexican government for raising over $3 million in federal funds to prepare STEM teachers for Title One schools in Arizona border communities. In addition to many other accomplishments, Dr. Kralovec is a founding member of the International Research Consortium on Human Development at the Universidad de Guanajuato. She is also a leading voice in the US to end homework.
  
  
• Joey Lee | Lecturer, Teachers College
  Lee was a Co-PI on a 5-year National Science Foundation funded grant on Climate Change Education along with partners at the American Museum of Natural History, Alaska-Fairbanks and Barnard College. He directed design-based research projects including EcoChains: Arctic Life, a food web game and EcoKoin, a mobile sustainability app. He has also published in Nature Climate Change journal an article on Climate Change Games as potentially useful tools for people to better understand the issue and learn how to take action.
  
• Ioana Literat | Assistant Professor of CMLTD, Teachers College
  Literat is Assistant Professor in the Communication, Media & Learning Technologies Design program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research examines creative practices of online communication, with a particular focus on social, educational and civic implications. Her work has been published in the Journal of Communication, New Media & Society, Communication Theory, International Journal of Communication, and Information, Communication & Society, among others.
  
  
• Bradford Manning | Co-Brother at Two Blind Brothers & 2018 Early Career Awardee
  Manning is the co-founder of Two Blind Brothers, a cause-driven fashion company on a mission to cure blindness. The company donates 100% of its profits to fund research to find a cure. Bradford sits on the Board of Directors of the Foundation Fighting Blindness. Prior to launching 2BB, Bradford worked in investment management. He graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.S. in Finance and Commerce, and holds a M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Columbia University. Bradford was born in Charlottesville, VA, and currently works in New York City.
  
• Mary Mendenhall  (Ed.D. '08) | Associate Professor of Practice, Teachers College
  Mendenhall is an Associate Professor of Practice and the Director of the International and Comparative Education Program at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research interests include refugee education across camp, urban and resettlement contexts as well as teacher support and professional development in crisis settings. Dr. Mendenhall currently serves as the Chair of the Teachers in Crisis Contexts Working Group, an inter-agency effort to provide continuous, quality professional development to teachers working in displacement contexts.
  
  
• Kenny Nienhusser | Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership, University of Hartford
  Nienhusser is an Assistant Professor in the Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership in the College of Education, Nursing, and Health Professions at the University of Hartford. As a first-generation Latino college student who grew up in a working class household of immigrant parents, diversity, equity, and inclusion are at the core of his work as a researcher, teacher, and scholar-citizen. His research focuses on the higher education access of underserved adolescents. Specifically, Dr. Nienhusser examines how education institutional agents (e.g., higher and K-12 systems-level officials, higher education administrators, and high school staff) implement public and institutional policies that affect underserved students’ high school to college transition. The majority of his research has examined the educational policy environment for undocumented and DACAmented students in relation to their postsecondary education access.
  
  
• Oren Pizmony-Levy | Assistant Professor of International and Comparative Education, Teachers College
• Detra Price-Dennis | Assistant Professor Elementary & Inclusive Education, Teachers College
  Price-Dennis’s research on preparing critically conscious teachers who develop curricula that centers digital literacies and criticality in sociotechnical spaces has been published in journals such as The Reading Teacher, English Education, Equity and Excellence in Education, and Reading and Writing Quarterly. Her scholarship and contributions to the field of literacy teacher education have been recognized by her peers. In 2017 Dr. Price-Dennis was honored to receive the AERA Early Career Award for Teaching and Teacher Education, the Janet Emig award from NCTE’s Conference on English Education, and in 2018 she was elected to the board of directors for the Literacy Research Association.
  
  
• Sonali Rajan (Ed.D. '10) | Assistant Professor of Health Education, Teachers College
• Michael Rebell | Professor of Law and Educational Practice, Teachers College
  Rebell is the executive director of the Center for Educational Equity and Professor of Practice in Law and Educational Policy at Teachers College, Columbia University. He is also an adjunct Professor of Law at Columbia Law School. Previously, Mr. Rebell was the executive director of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, and co-counsel for the plaintiffs in CFE v. State of New York, a challenge to the system of funding public education in the State of New York which has established the right of all students in the state to the “opportunity for a sound basic education. ” Mr. Rebell has also litigated numerous major class action lawsuits, including Jose P. v. Mills, which involved a plaintiff class of 160,000 students with disabilities. He also served as a court-appointed special master in the Boston special education case, Allen v. Parks. Currently, he is co-counsel for plaintiffs in New Yorkers for Students Educational Rights (NYSER) v. State of New York, a challenge to the state’s failure to fully implement the rights established in the CFE case.
  
• Daniela Romero-Amaya | Doctoral Fellow in the Social Studies Education Program, Teachers College, Columbia University
  Romero-Amaya is a Doctoral Fellow in the Social Studies Education program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She holds a B.A. degree in History and a M.A. degree in International Educational Development. Her research interests are related to History Education, Citizenship Education, and youth’s civic participation in conflict-affected contexts. She is currently researching on young citizens’ meanings and understandings of the armed conflict in Colombia, as well as their engagement in the current peace process.
  
  
  
• Sandra Schmidt | Associate Professor of Social Studies Education, Teachers College
• Gabriela Simon-Cereijido (M.S. '01) | Associate Professor, California State University, Los Angeles & 2018 Distinguished Alumna
  Simon-Cereijido is an accomplished educator, researcher and pioneer in the field of bilingual speech pathology. Simon-Cereijido has given lectures and keynote speeches locally, nationally and internationally. She is part of an Interdisciplinary Team working on a project to improve oral health outcomes for Los Angeles children and families (the Dental Transformation Initiative, Dental Pilot Program) and is committed to the education and well-being of communities and students from all backgrounds. Her work has been published in several national and international journals and she has received many awards including the Trailblazer Award from the Latino Alumni Association of Columbia University and, most recently, the Thesis Advisor Appreciation Award, Honors College, California State University, Los Angeles.
• Basil A. Smikle, Jr. | Political Strategist and Policy Analyst
  
  
• Lalitha Vasudevan | Professor of Technology & Education and Director, Media and Social Change Lab, Teachers College
  Vasudevan is Professor of Technology and Education and Vice Chair of the Mathematics, Science, and Technology Department at Teachers College, Columbia University. She studies the literacies, communicative practices, and digital lives of adolescents across a variety of contexts, including the educational and institutional experiences of system-involved youth; and she explores the use of new media and multimodal methods in research. Lalitha has co-edited two volumes that explore the intersections of youth, media, and education: Arts, Media, and Justice: Multimodal explorations with youth and Media, Learning, and Sites of Possibility.
  
• Lena Verdeli | Associate Professor of Psychology and Education, Teachers College
  
  
• Erica Walker | Professor of Mathematics and Education, Teachers College
• Debra Wein (M.S. '94) | CEO & President, Wellness Workdays
  Wein, MS, RDN, LND, CWPD is CEO and founder of Wellness Workdays and is the Program Director of the Wellness Workdays Dietetic Internship, one of the largest programs in the country, training future Registered Dietitians in the areas of nutrition entrepreneurship, worksite wellness, health promotion and sports nutrition.Her company, Wellness Workdays is currently embarking on a research project with its partner, Harvard School of Public Health and its client, BJ's Wholesale Club. The study is currently funded with approximately $2.5 million in funds from sources including The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Institutes of Health.
  
• Derald Wing Sue | Professor of Psychology and Education, Teachers College
  Wing Sue is Professor of Psychology and Education in the Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University. He was the Co-Founder and first President of the Asian American Psychological Association, past presidents of the Society for the Psychological Study of Culture, Ethnicity and Race (Division 45) and the Society of Counseling Psychology (Division 17). Derald Wing Sue can truly be described as a pioneer in the field of multicultural psychology, multicultural education, microaggression theory, psychology of racial dialogues, multicultural counseling and therapy, and the psychology of racism/antiracism.