About Me
I have devoted most of my adult life to trying to improve K-12 education. I want to see both innovation AND equity in schools so that students can thrive. My undergraduate thesis at New College was dedicated to transforming the U.S. public schools, and since that time, I've worked steadily and deliberately toward this goal in the following ways:
- Earned my doctorate in educational psychology from the University of Florida. My dissertation research won several national awards, including the APA Division 15 Paul R. Pintrich Dissertation Award
- Served as a K12 teacher-innovator who led local school reform efforts in Colorado
- Taught prospective K12 teachers innovative practices as a professor of teacher education
- Served as a director of an EdD program focused on educational research centered on transforming schooling
- Created the Coalition for Creating and Sustaining Innovative Schools to draw local education leaders together to share best practices in innovation
- Founded a highly successful, innovative charter school and serve as its board chairperson and curriculum chair
- Authored blog posts and a Substack newsletter on transforming education
- Was co-PI of an NSF grant to transform Calculus instruction at a major research university
- Was chosen as an American Psychological Association Citizen-Psychologist in 2018 for my work to improve schools
- Received the Distinguished Contributions of Applications of Psychology to Education and Training Award from the American Psychological Association in 2022
- Recognized as a UCF Luminary in 2022
- Am co-editor of the first and second edition of the leading handbook on teachers' beliefs, International Handbook of Research on Teachers’ Beliefs
- Elected to the American Psychological Association's Board of Educational Affairs
- A photo of me in my office with a sweet article by a UCF journalism student
- Finally, a video from 2007 of my colleague, Max Croft, and I discussing education in the UCF "Faculty Lounge"
Questions? You reach me via email via this link or on LinkedIn
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