TEACH - Key Persons


Adriana D Cimetta

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Academic Programs Committee
  • Associate Research Professor / Member of the Graduate Faculty
  • Associate Research Professor and Director of the Center for Educational Assessment
Adriana Cimetta, PhD, MPH, is an Associate Research Professor and Director of the Center for Educational Assessment, Research, and Evaluation (CEARE) in the Department of Educational Psychology. Her expertise is in culturally responsive, mixed methods research and evaluation, educational measurement and assessment, STEM and early childhood evaluation, and organizational change. Her research focuses on understanding and the dynamics and processes of learning and development based on the unique and diverse backgrounds and experiences of young children and students of all ages. One aspect of her research examines the family, child, and societal characteristics that impact school readiness and health outcomes in early childhood. Another aspect of her research investigates the impact of STEM education and undergraduate research experiences in creating equitable educational opportunities to a diverse population of students. Specifically, she investigates sense of belonging, self-efficacy, identity, relationships, and institutional policies that impact students, especially underrepresented minoritized groups, retention in STEM majors and persistence in college. The processes through which outcomes are achieved, their sustainability, and variability across different populations are important components in her research and evaluation projects.

Alex Lynch

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Faculty and Staff Awards Committee

Amanda Tashjian

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Academic Programs Committee

Amy Moraga

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Director, Donor and Alumni Relations

Anita McDonald

Job Titles:
  • Member of the National Advisory Board

Ann Boice

Job Titles:
  • Honorary Member

Arlett A Perez

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Faculty and Staff Awards Committee
  • Project Director

Ashley Dominguez

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Diversity Committee

Augie Gallego

Job Titles:
  • Member of the National Advisory Board

Barbara Miller

Job Titles:
  • Honorary Member

Barbara Sullivan

Job Titles:
  • Member of the National Advisory Board

Bruce Johnson

Job Titles:
  • Honorary Member

Carl Liaupsin

Job Titles:
  • Department Head

Charlotte Harris

Job Titles:
  • Member of the National Advisory Board

Christy Bustillos Rodriguez - Treasurer

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Diversity Committee
  • Treasurer
  • Administrative Associate, Senior

Danielle Thu

Job Titles:
  • Honorary Member

David Overstreet

Job Titles:
  • Member of the National Advisory Board

David Yaden

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Academic Programs Committee

Diana L Peel

Job Titles:
  • Administrative Assistant

Dr. Amanda Kraus

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Diversity Committee
  • Associate Professor of Practice, Educational Policy Studies and Practice
  • President of the Association of Higher Education and Disability
Originally from the suburbs of New York City, Dr. Amanda Kraus has lived in Tucson, AZ and worked at the University of Arizona (UA) for over twenty years. Dr. Kraus currently serves as Assistant Vice President for Campus and Executive Director of UA's Disability Resource Center. One the largest in the nation, the Disability Resource Center is an international model of progressive service delivery, uniquely positioned to approach campus access systemically. Through strategic outreach, the goal is to design campus environments and experiences to be usable and welcoming for a diverse range of individuals, thereby reducing the need for individual accommodations or modifications. Dr. Kraus is highly involved in collaborative efforts with University personnel to foster the development of a seamlessly accessible campus environment and infuse disability into the campus community. As Associate Professor of Practice in the Center for the Study of Higher Education at the UA, Dr. Kraus coordinates the M.A. program and instructs courses on student services and disability in higher education. Borrowing from disability studies, Dr. Kraus studies disability identity, disability dynamics in the student veteran community, and disability-related biases and microaggressions. Through her research and teaching, she challenges the dominant deficit or tragedy narrative on disability and promotes models and tools to increase access and equity and ultimately reframe concepts of difference in higher education. Dr. Kraus is President of the Association of Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD) and previously chaired its standing committee for diversity. She has had the privilege of delivering keynote addresses and facilitating workshops at institutions such as Singapore Management University, Duke University, Wake Forest University, the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and was recently invited to join a delegation convened by the US Department of State to engage in dialogue on disability access in education and employment in Beijing, China and again in Washington, D.C. Outside of work, Dr. Kraus is an avid wheelchair tennis player and has served on the board of director for the United States Tennis Association Southern Arizona District to grow opportunities for disabled players and increase the national visibility of wheelchair tennis. She is currently on the board of Visit Tucson where she will help to position Tucson as an inclusive and accessible destination. Dr. Kraus is passionate about social justice and access; this is reflected in her work on campus, teaching and community involvement.

Dr. Judy Marquez Kiyama

Job Titles:
  • Associate Vice Provost, Faculty Development Within the Office
  • Professor, Center for the Study of Higher Education / Associate Vice Provost, Faculty Development
Dr. Judy Marquez Kiyama serves as the Associate Vice Provost, Faculty Development within the Office of Faculty Affairs at the University of Arizona. In this role she implements efforts that further the aims of the University of Arizona to excel in its Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) designation through increasing institutional capacity among faculty. This includes developing equity-focused recruitment, hiring, and retention practices; and developing faculty capacity in research, teaching and curriculum, and service. Dr. Kiyama is a professor in the Center for the Study of Higher Education, Department of Educational Policy Studies and Practice. Prior to serving in this role, Dr. Kiyama was Chair of the Higher Education Department at the University of Denver's Morgridge College of Education where she supported faculty in developing their scholarly agendas, inclusive teaching practices, annual review processes, and mechanisms of support for students. She worked to cultivate partnerships across the university and state-wide institutions to establish accessible opportunities for students. Additionally, she served as the College's Office of Diversity and Inclusive Faculty Fellow where she established a comprehensive plan for recruiting, hiring, and retaining faculty of color, organized regular mentoring sessions with faculty of color, and (co)developed an audit tool for implementing recruitment and retention plans. Dr. Kiyama has served as a faculty member at both the University of Denver and the University of Rochester. As a community-engaged scholar, her research examines the structures that shape educational opportunities for minoritized groups through an asset-based lens to better understand the collective knowledge and resources drawn upon to confront, negotiate, and (re)shape such structures. Working alongside Latinx/o/a families and communities are at the core of her research efforts. She grounds her work in community knowledge and organizes her research in three interconnected areas: the role of parents and families; equity and power in educational research; and minoritized groups as collective networks of change. As a first-generation, Mexican American college student, she draws on her own experiences with her family to connect with the sources of support that first-generation, families of color offer their students in the transition to college. Her numerous publications focus on equity and inclusion efforts to better serve minoritized students, and their families and communities, including her most recent book: Funds of Knowledge in Higher Education: Honoring Students' Cultural Experiences and Resources as Strengths. Dr. Kiyama is committed to building partnerships across academic and student support units, and community and institutional contexts. She brings a deep understanding of the organization and governance of higher education institutions; a long-established research agenda focused on educational access and opportunity for Latinx/o/a communities; a record of cultivating effective teams at the department, institution, and national levels; and a passion for faculty development. She is a three-time graduate of the University of Arizona and a proud former participant of both the New Start Summer Program and TRiO Student Support Services.

Dudley B Woodard

Job Titles:
  • Professor Emeritus

Elizabeth J Pope

Job Titles:
  • Associate Professor of Practice, Educational Psychology

Eric D Smith

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Faculty and Staff Awards Committee
  • Associate Professor of Practice, Education
Dr. Eric Smith earned his B.S. in psychology from Ursinus College and an M.A./Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Virginia, where his graduate research work was supported by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. Dr. Smith's research interests revolve around two foci: (1) how children and adults interact and are impacted by various forms of fiction (e.g., pretend play, storybooks, narratives, etc.); and (2) the scholarship of teaching and learning (e.g., how do study guides impact student learning).

Erica L Travassos

Job Titles:
  • Director of Development, College of Education

Felisia Janice Tagaban Gaskin

Job Titles:
  • Director

Gary D Rhoades

Job Titles:
  • Department Head
  • Interim Department Head, Educational Policy Studies and Practice / Professor, Educational Policy Studies and Practice
  • Interim Department Head, Educational Policy Studies and Practice / Professor, Educational Policy Studies and Practice Director, Educational Leadership and Policy Program
  • Professor of Higher Education
Gary Rhoades is Professor of Higher Education. After serving as President of the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) in 2004, from January 2009 to June 2011, he served as General Secretary of the American Association of University Professors in Washington, D.C., during which time he also sat on the American Council on Education's Board of Directors. Rhoades has served as Professor and Director of the Center for the Study of Higher Education from 1997-2009, and as Center Director and Head of the Department of Educational Policy Studies and Analysis from July 2012 to July 2020. He has been a faculty member at the Center for the Study of Higher Education since August 1986. Rhoades' scholarship focuses on the restructuring of academic institutions and of professions in the academy, and on comparative higher education, in work on university marketing. In addition to his books, Managed Professionals (1998, SUNY Press), and Academic Capitalism and the New Economy (with Sheila Slaughter, 2004, Johns Hopkins University Press), Rhoades is now working on a new volume, tentatively entitled, Organizing ‘Professionals': Academic Employees Negotiating a New Academy, and is framing another book being conceptualized, Managing to be Different: From Strategic Imitation to Strategic Imagination.

Gloria Barnett

Job Titles:
  • Member of the National Advisory Board

Heather Frankfort

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Diversity Committee

Heather Haeger

Job Titles:
  • Counselor
  • Assistant Professor, Educational Policy Studies and Practice
  • Research Director for the Science
Dr. Haeger is the Research Director for the Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (STEM) Learning Center and an Assistant Professor in Educational Policy Studies and Practice. Her research is focused on equity in educational practices and barriers to full participation in STEM education. Her research is used to inform programmatic interventions aimed at engaging students that have been traditionally marginalized in higher education and creating more inclusive and culturally responsive STEM learning environments. Dr. Haeger also serves as a counselor in the Undergraduate Research Program Division and serving on the Committee of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion for the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR). She served as the Assessment and Research Coordinator for the Council on Undergraduate Research from 2016-2020. In that role, she developed tools for CUR members to conduct their own research and assessment, studied the role of faculty mentoring of undergraduates in tenure and promotion, and conducted a collaborative study with seven universities on the impact of undergraduate research on retention and graduation for first-generation and low-income students in STEM.

Heidi Legg Burross

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Faculty and Staff Awards Committee
  • Member of the Faculty Personnel and Salary Committee
  • Professor of Practice, Educational Psychology / Member of the Graduate Faculty

Iliana Reyes

Job Titles:
  • Associate Dean
  • Member of the Academic Programs Committee
  • Member of the Diversity Committee
  • Member of the Faculty and Staff Awards Committee
  • Chairman, OOD, Ongoing
  • OOD Associate Dean, Ongoing

Jamaica Delmar

Job Titles:
  • Director, Project SOAR / Assistant Professor of Practice, Educational Policy Studies and Practice

James Brunenkant

Job Titles:
  • Member of the National Advisory Board

Jameson D. Lopez

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor, Educational Policy Studies and Practice
  • Member of the Quechan
Jameson D. Lopez is an enrolled member of the Quechan tribe located in Fort Yuma, California. He currently serves as an Assistant Professor in the Center for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Arizona. He studies Native American education using Indigenous statistics and has expertise in the limitations of collecting and applying quantitative results to Indigenous populations. He carries unique experiences to his research that include a 2010 deployment to Iraq as a platoon leader where he received a bronze star medal for actions in a combat zone.

Jenna Newkirk

Job Titles:
  • Undergraduate Student Rep, 2023 - 2024

Jennifer White

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Academic Programs Committee

Jenny J. Lee

Job Titles:
  • Professor at the Center for the Study
  • Professor, Educational Policy Studies and Practice / Member of the Graduate Faculty
Jenny J. Lee is a Professor at the Center for the Study of Higher Education and College of Education Dean's Fellow for Internationalization at the University of Arizona. She is a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and serves as the AERA Division J (Postsecondary Education) Vice President. She formerly served as a NAFSA Senior Fellow, US Fulbright Scholar to South Africa, the Chair for the Council of International Higher Education and Board of Directors for the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE). She has participated as a distinguished Global Professor at Korea University and as an international visiting scholar at the City University of London, the University of Pretoria, and the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Professor Lee's research examines how migration policies, geopolitics, and social forces shape inequities in higher education, in the US and abroad. Professor Lee has investigated university internationalization and partnerships, student and scholar mobility, and scientific collaboration, to name some. Based on her comparative research in the US, Southern Africa, and East Asia, she has introduced widely cited critical frameworks, such as neo-racism and neo-nationalism, to the field. In addition, Dr. Lee's expertise is regularly sought by national and international news outlets. NPR, Nature, Science, the New York Times, the Atlantic, ABC News, the Wall Street Journal, and Reuters are among the prominent news networks that have quoted Professor Lee and featured her research. Her latest research focuses on the geopolitics of global science, which is covered in her multi-award winning edited book, "U.S. Power in International Higher Education," published by Rutgers University Press in 2021. Currently, she is undergoing two major studies, one funded by NSF and another in partnership with the Committee of 100, on how international research collaboration can overcome current US-China tensions and the racial profiling of Chinese scientists and students in the US.

Jessica J Summers

Job Titles:
  • Department Head
  • Department Head, Educational Psychology / Professor, Educational Psychology
  • Department Head, Educational Psychology / Professor, Educational Psychology / Member of the Graduate Faculty
Jessica Summers (Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin, 2002) is a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Arizona. She previously served on the faculty of the University of Missouri-Columbia. Summers' scholarship focuses on understanding the role of motivation and social relationships in learning and achievement, specifically how social context (as both processes and phenomena) affects students' motivation to learn, and how this contributes to students' overall success as learners.

Ji Hong

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Faculty Personnel and Salary Committee

Jon Vela Enriquez

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Diversity Committee
  • Graduate Student Rep, 2023 - 2024, 2024 - 2025

Jonathan G Tullis

Job Titles:
  • Associate Professor, Educational Psychology
  • Director of the Cognition and Memory
Dr. Tullis is the director of the Cognition And Memory in Education and Learning Lab.

Juan Ceja

Job Titles:
  • Member of the National Advisory Board

Judy Ovitt

Job Titles:
  • Member of the National Advisory Board

Julie Abrams

Job Titles:
  • Co - Chair

Julio Cammarota

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Faculty Personnel and Salary Committee

Karina G Salazar

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Faculty and Staff Awards Committee
  • Assistant Professor in the Center for the Study
  • Higher Education
Karina Salazar is an assistant professor in the Center for the Study of Higher Education. Her research analyzes how the enrollment management practices of public universities shape college access for underserved student populations. Using data science methodologies and the Freedom of Information Act as data collection strategies, her current work focuses on exploring how university recruiting and marketing efforts interact with spatial politics that contribute to the educational disenfranchisement of communities of color. Salazar is a 2023 National Academy of Education Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow. Her research has been published in The American Educational Research Journal, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, The Journal of Higher Education, The Review of Higher Education, and Research in Higher Education. Salazar's research has also been featured by The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, CNN, Inside Higher Ed, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Forbes, and U.S. News & World Report. Salazar is a local Tucsonan and proud graduate of the Sunnyside Unified School District. She completed her graduate work at the University of Arizona where her dissertation research was funded by the American Educational Research Association.

Katherine C Cheng

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor
  • Member of the Diversity Committee
  • Member of the Graduate Faculty
Dr. Katherine Cheng (also known as Kat) graduated with her PhD in Family and Human Development from Arizona State University, with a specialization in Measurement and Statistical Analysis, and also holds a Master's degree in Psychology from New York University with Developmental and Social Psychology concentrations. Kat completed her two-year postdoc fellowship at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, in the Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools. Before joining the UA, Kat spent one year as Assistant Professor in Human Development at California State University San Marcos. Her research and teaching interests involve children, youth, and young adult well-being, particularly relating their emotional and motivational development, and stress regulation (manifested in surveys and biomarkers such as salivary cortisol) in high-risk family and educational contexts. Dr. Cheng is also the principal investigator for the BioSPHEREs Lab.

Kerri Sierra-Flores

Job Titles:
  • Program Coordinator, Senior

Larry Bahill

Job Titles:
  • Member of the National Advisory Board

Laura Nobles Bank-Reed

Job Titles:
  • Honorary Member

Laurel Hendrickson

Job Titles:
  • Graduate Student Rep, 2023 - 2024

Lisa Furr

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Diversity Committee

Lora Lynn Francois

Job Titles:
  • Administrative Associate

Marcy Wood

Job Titles:
  • Department Head

Mariah Kuehl

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Faculty and Staff Awards Committee

Mary L Puig

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Dean, Finance and Administration

Mary M Mccaslin

Job Titles:
  • Professor Emerita
Mary McCaslin, (pka McCaslin Rohrkemper), PhD, Michigan State University (1981), is a Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Arizona. McCaslin is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, Division 15, Educational Psychology. She previously served on the faculties of the University of Maryland-College Park, Bryn Mawr College, and the University of Missouri-Columbia. McCaslin's scholarship focuses on the role of opportunity, activity, and identity in the development and display of student motivational dynamics within a co-regulation framework. Currently, McCaslin serves on the Editorial Board of Educational Psychologist, is Co-editor of the Educational Psychology section of the Routledge Encyclopedia of Education (online), and a member of the Dissertation Awards Committee of Division 15, APA.

Michelle Tellez

Job Titles:
  • Executive Assistant
  • Member of the Academic Programs Committee
  • Assistant to Iliana Reyes
Michelle Tellez is assistant to Iliana Reyes, Associate Dean, serves as the Coordinator for Academic Management & Academic Program Committee (APC), and is the building manager for Education and Education North. In her role, she works in close collaboration with curricular affairs, COE departments, and UA room and course scheduling. Michelle also coordinates college room scheduling activities, collaborates with departments to identify room needs, and manages both buildings. She works closely with the deans, COE shared services team, and academic advising. Michelle has been with the college for 20 years serving as a resource for the dean's office, students, staff, and faculty.

Moira Ozias

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Professor, Educational Policy Studies and Practice

Nancy Berge

Job Titles:
  • Honorary Member

Nancy Woodling

Job Titles:
  • Member of the National Advisory Board

Nicole B Kersting

Job Titles:
  • Associate Professor, Educational Psychology

Nolan L Cabrera

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Faculty Personnel and Salary Committee
  • Expert
  • Professor, Educational Policy Studies and Practice / Associate Professor, American Indian Studies - GIDP
  • Professor, Educational Policy Studies and Practice / Associate Professor, American Indian Studies - GIDP / Associate Professor, Social / Cultural / Critical Theory - GIDP
Dr. Nolan Cabrera is a nationally recognized expert in the areas of racism/anti-racism on college campuses, Whiteness, and ethnic studies. He is currently a Full Professor in the Center for the Study of Higher Education at the University of Arizona, and was the only academic featured in the MTV documentary White People. His book, White Guys on Campus, is a deep exploration of White male racism, and occasional anti-racism, on college campuses - a text Jeff Chang (author of We Gon' Be Alright) described as "A timely, provocative, even hopeful book." Additionally, Dr. Cabrera was an expert witness in the Tucson Unified School District's Mexican American Studies case (Gonzalez v. Douglas), which is the highest-profile ethnic studies case in the country's history. He has given hundreds of lectures, keynote addresses, and trainings, throughout the country on challenging racism/Whiteness, working through unconscious bias, creating inclusive college campuses, and the expansion of ethnic studies programs. Dr. Cabrera is an award-winning scholar whose numerous publications have appeared in some of the most prestigious journals in the fields of education and racial studies. He completed his graduate work at UCLA in Higher Education & Organizational Change and Dr. Cabrera earned his BA from Stanford University in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (Education focus). He is a former Director of a Boys & Girls Club in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is originally from McMinnville, Oregon.

Panfilo Contreras

Job Titles:
  • Member of the National Advisory Board

Patrice Brown

Job Titles:
  • Member of the National Advisory Board

Paul Lindsey

Job Titles:
  • Honorary Member

Peggy Douglas

Job Titles:
  • Honorary Member

Peggy Goulding

Job Titles:
  • Member of the National Advisory Board

Rachel Moreno Barton

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Faculty and Staff Awards Committee
  • Assistant to the Dean / Director for Faculty Affairs

Raul Gonzalez

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Diversity Committee

Regina J Deil-Amen

Job Titles:
  • Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs
  • Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs / Professor, Higher Education
  • Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs / Professor, Higher Education / Member of the Graduate Faculty
Former Department Head and Director of the Center for the Study of Higher Education, Dr. Deil-Amen received her Ph.D. in Sociology from Northwestern University and has expertise in qualitative research methods with experience in partnering on mixed methods projects.

Renae Mayes

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Faculty Personnel and Salary Committee

Renée Clift

Job Titles:
  • Honorary Member

Richard Carranza

Job Titles:
  • Member of the National Advisory Board

Ricky Armenta

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Diversity Committee

Robert Q. Berry III

Job Titles:
  • Dean of the College of Education
  • Dean, Education
  • Dean, Education / Professor, Teaching, Learning & Sociocultural Studies / Member of the Graduate Faculty
  • OOD Dean, Ongoing
Robert Q. Berry III Ph.D. is the Dean of the College of Education at the University of Arizona. He is also a professor and holds the Paul L. Lindsey and Kathy J. Alexander Chair. Berry is the immediate Past-President of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). In 2022, Berry was elected to the National Academy of Education, an honorific society of U.S. members and international associates based on outstanding education scholarships. Equity issues in mathematics education are central to Berry's research efforts with four related areas: Understanding Black children's mathematics experiences Measuring standards-based mathematics teaching practices Unpacking equitable mathematics teaching and learning with issues of social justice Exploring interactions between technology and mathematics education Berry is the lead developer of a mathematics classroom observation instrument, Mathematics Scan, which measures standards-based mathematics teaching practices. Berry co-edited the 2020 bestseller book, High School Mathematics Lessons to Explore, Understand, and Respond to Social Injustice. Additionally, he is the co-editor of two upcoming books, Upper Elementary Mathematics Lessons to Explore, Understand, and Respond to Social Injustice and Success Stories for Catalyzing Change. His articles have appeared in the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, Journal of Teacher Education, Educational Studies in Mathematics, and the American Educational Research Journal. Berry has authored more than 100 publications and has made major presentations worldwide. Berry is a two-time recipient of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics' Linking Research and Practice Publication Award and received the University of Virginia's All-University Teaching Award in 2011. Berry is a first-generation college graduate who received his Bachelor of Science degree from Old Dominion University, his master's degree from Christopher Newport University, and a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Ronald W Marx

Job Titles:
  • Professor, Educational Psychology
  • Professor, Educational Psychology / Dean Emeritus
Marx has raised nearly $40 M for research and development projects over his career and has published over 120 scientific papers and articles. His interdisciplinary research focuses on enhancing science education, with a particular focus on urban schools, and developing teacher professional development models. His recent work with psychologists, early childhood educators and public health researchers focuses on early education and school readiness. Marx has over 22,000 citations to his scholarship, with an h-index of 51. Marx is civically engaged as a founding board member of Tucson Values Teachers and a founding member of the leadership council of the Tucson Cradle to Career Initiative. He recently served as a trustee of the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona, chairing the Community Investment team from 2018-2020, and is currently a member of the Southern Arizona Advisory Board of Act One.

Roxana Rico

Job Titles:
  • Member of the National Advisory Board

Sally Drachman Salvatore

Job Titles:
  • Honorary Member

Sara P Chavarria

Job Titles:
  • Assistant Dean, Research
  • Assistant Dean, Research Assistant Director, STEM
Sara Chavarria has been designing and conducting informal educational programming that creates learner-centered interactive experiences for underserved and underrepresented students as well as for teachers that serve these populations. As a first-generation TRIO Upward Bound and college graduate alum who came from a low-income background, she is especially interested in best practices for attraction and retention of low-income, first-generation undergraduate students as well as creating exciting pathways for high school and undergraduate students in higher education. Dr. Chavarria does this through the projects she aligns with such as the New Frontiers of Sound (NewFoS) Science Technology Center (STC), led by Dr. Pierre Deymier, and funded by the National Science Foundation. Dr. Chavarria's (co-PI) role will be to direct all education and broadening participation activities for this national center across 5 time zones! A signature activity will be to leverage Dr. Chavarria's prior experience with designing and coordinating a 12-month Research Experience and Mentoring (REM) program for an NSF EFRI (Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovations) award (PI Pierre Deymier) from June 2018 to May 2021. The REM program involved preparing and supporting 6 undergraduate students a year for an intensive 8-week summer research experience and 12 months of mentoring support from research faculty. More recently, Dr. Chavarria has been connecting College of Education researchers with UA faculty to leverage Education science expertise on topics such as Access, Inclusion, Diversity, and Retention of students to facilitate research on effective learning practices for UA students and PK-12 audiences. She is also busy collaborating with researchers and staff across campus to facilitate institutional partnerships, support effective initiatives, and advance scholarship that promotes equitable access to high-quality STEM experiences, resources, tools, and expertise (also as part of her role within the UA STEM Learning Center).

Sharyn Felton

Job Titles:
  • Member of the National Advisory Board

Sheryl (Jinx) Patterson

Job Titles:
  • Honorary Member

Sofia Ramos

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Diversity Committee

Sung Eun Jung

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Faculty and Staff Awards Committee

Vanessa Perry

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Faculty Personnel and Salary Committee

Whitney Caroline Mohr

Job Titles:
  • Director, Higher Education MA Program
  • Investigator, Civil Rights
Dr. Mohr is originally from Coralville, IA, but started her journey as a Wildcat in 2007, when she came to campus as an undergrad. Dr. Mohr earned a B.A. in Religious Studies from the University of Arizona and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Higher Education from this program! Dr. Mohr loves all things student affairs and has held numerous positions on various campuses across the country. Dr. Mohr, started in Housing and has sense transitioned professionally to work in Equity, Policy, and Title IX. Currently in addition to the work that Dr. Mohr does recruiting, advising, and supporting HED MA students, she works as an Investigator with the University's Office of Institutional Equity. Dr. Mohr's research focuses on the experiences of students with chronic illness in higher education settings and her dissertation was titled "College, Chronic Illness, & COVID-19: It's Complicated."

Z Nicolazzo

Job Titles:
  • Member of the Academic Programs Committee
  • Associate Professor, Educational Policy Studies and Practice