Cutting Edge Education

Nicki Newton has been an educator for the past 16 years, working in inner city schools on both the East and West coasts. Having spent several years as a bilingual teacher and staff developer, she has an extensive background in Sheltered Instruction and English Language Learner Strategies. Furthermore, she has worked with Heidi Hayes Jacobs in facilitating both the Curriculum Mapping and the Interdisciplinary Curriculum Institutes at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her work as an adjunct professor at a NY university, teaching elementary curriculum and math methods courses keeps her abreast of the latest educational theories. She has presented at several national and international conferences on education-- including being an invited speaker for the NEA on developing a meaningful, student centered, interdisciplinary social studies curriculum as well as working on a special interdisciplinary social studies curriculum for the AFT.

Tricia Gallagher-Geurtsen, Ed.D. 

Dr. Tricia Gallagher-Geurtsen received her doctoral degree in Curriculum and Teaching from Columbia University’s Teachers College. She holds a Masters in Curriculum and Teaching from Columbia University and Bachelors in Psychology from the University of California, San Diego.  Tricia was a bilingual public elementary school teacher and a migrant education teacher in California.  Tricia has supervised and mentored student teachers in California, New York, and Utah.  As a teacher educator, Tricia has taught both preservice and inservice teachers methods and theory for teaching social studies, reading, science, integrated curriculum, English as a Second Language, and multicultural curriculum and teaching.  She has presented locally and nationally to teachers and researchers about meeting the needs of all students in schools.  She is the recipient of the 2003 AERA Outstanding Dissertation Award for Curriculum Studies and the 2003-2004 Mortar Board National Senior Honor Society Top Professor Award at Utah State University.  Tricia carries out research and publishes about teacher education.  Tricia is passionate about making curriculum engaging and accessible to all students in schools.  She speaks about post-colonial interpretations of schooling and her recent book, (Un)Knowing Diversity, Peter Lang (2012).

Grace Huerta, Ph.D. 

 

Grace Huerta was born in East Los Angeles, California. She completed her Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy from Arizona State University in 1994. She has a Master’s degree in English and Latin American Literature from Cal State University, Los Angeles. She also holds a Bachelor’s degree in English Education from the University of Southern California. Dr. Huerta taught secondary English, ESL and Journalism in Los Angeles County for nine years. Her current areas of interest include diversity education, ESL instructional strategies in the content areas, bilingual education, language arts, educational policy and grant writing.

Marcelo Diversi, Ph.D. 

 

 

Marcelo Diversi is an Assistant Professor of Human Development at Washington State University Vancouver.  He received his PhD in Human and Community Development from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1998 and has since been working and doing research with Latino youth in educational contexts.  From a research standpoint, Marcelo’s focus has been on understanding the culturally relevant ways in which Latino families and the American public school system view formal education and each other.  Marcelo has also collaborated with ESL teachers and school administrators in creating after-school programs that target Latino students who are failing and at risk of dropping out of school due to systemic academic isolation.  Marcelo’s unique contribution is to bring to education expertise in the fields of cultural studies and youth development, and how these disciplines can inform and shape culturally relevant frameworks in public education.

Djanna Hill is professor of education at William Paterson University of New Jersey, where she is director of a home-grown teacher education program.  Professor Hill has over 15 years of experience preparing teachers for K-12 classrooms and performs yearly in-service professional development in the areas of multicultural education and diversity, science education, and pedagogical strategies and assessment.  Dr. Hill's academic degrees are from Howard University and Columbia University.  She is also a recent Fulbright recipient.  Professor Hill conducts annual research presentations at major international conferences and serves as reviewer for several conferences and journals, including the American Educational Research Association and the Journal of Negro Education.  Dr. Hill's academic research is inspired by a desire to expand the notion of womanist theory, prepare teachers for urban schools, bridge science and multicultural education, and include arts-informed research methodologies.  

Marilee Coles-Ritchie, Ph.D.

Marilee Coles-Ritchie has worked in the field of language acquisition and multicultural education for over 20 years.  She has taught English Language Learners in many diverse settings including a public high school in Douglas, Arizona, a bilingual secondary school in Quito, Ecuador and an elementary school in the Navajo Nation.  She has earned a Bachelors of Science degree in elementary education, a Masters of Teaching degree in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) and a Ph.D. in Cultural Foundations of Education.   Currently, she teaches ESL endorsement courses and multicultural foundations of education courses at Westminster College.

Leslie Flemmer, Ph.D.