College of Education Welcomes 16 New Faculty Members - September 10, 2007

The College of Education at The University of Texas at Austin gained sixteen new faculty members in the spring and fall semesters of this year. Please welcome our new instructors, who are listed below by department:

Department of Educational Psychology

Germine H. Awad, Ph.D.: Assistant Professor, Educational Psychology
Came to department from: University of Missouri at Columbia
Research/teaching interests: Prejudice and racism; affirmative action; high stakes testing; racial and ethnic identity development; Arab American/Middle Eastern identity and acculturation.
Stephanie W. Cawthon, Ph.D.: Assistant Professor, Educational Psychology
Came to department from: University of Wisconsin – Madison
Research/teaching interests: Language development in children with disabilities; communication and literacy; integration of quantitative and qualitative research designs.
Kevin Cokley, Ph.D.: Associate Professor, Educational Psychology & Counseling Psychology
Came to department from: University of Missouri at Columbia
Research/teaching interests: Psychosocial and academic development of African American students; academic self-concept; academic motivation; student-faculty interactions; racial and ethnic identity development; Afrocentric psychology.
Brandon Vaughn, Ph.D.: Assistant Professor, Quantitative Methods
Came to department from: Florida State University
Research/teaching interests: Applied statistical modeling; development and validation of test and survey instruments; students’ academic achievement in mathematics, statistics, psychometrics and research design; teaching methods for mathematically challenged students.

Department of Special Education

Michael P. Krezmien, Ph.D.: Assistant Professor
Came to department from: University of Maryland
Research/teaching interests: Differences in achievement, mental health needs and special education status of incarcerated/committed youth; literacy and delinquency; understanding student needs in corrections settings; effective reading instruction for students with emotional and behavioral disorders.

Department of Curriculum & Instruction

Deborah Horan, Ph.D.: Research Assistant Professor, Language and Literacy Studies
Came to department from: Salem State College
Research/teaching interests: K-5 teacher beliefs and practices concerning writing instruction; impact of creating educational zines on pre-service teachers’ critical thinking and awareness of social justice; site-based professional development for science teachers; bilingual students’ understanding of English language orthography, syntax and semantics; impact of music and literacy integration on classroom dynamics, reading and writing in multicultural, bilingual elementary classrooms.
Joan Hughes, Ph.D.: Associate Professor
Came to department from: University of Minnesota
Research/teaching interests: Role of teacher knowledge and learning experiences in forming technology-integrated pedagogy; development and student perception of the learning environment in virtual and traditional secondary schools; school technology leaders; content-focused technology inquiry groups for teachers.
Xiaofen Deng Keating, Ph.D.: Associate Professor, Curriculum Studies and Physical Education
Came to department from: California State University, Los Angeles
Research/teaching interests: Physical education teachers’ attitudes toward and use of fitness testing in schools (in the U.S. and China); college students’ physical activity levels; assessment of kinesiology instructors’ techniques in higher education; analysis of research methods coursework and instruction in U.S. kinesiology/physical education classes.
Melissa Mosley, Ph.D.: Assistant Professor, Language and Literacy Studies
Came to department from: Washington University in St. Louis
Research/teaching interests: Anti-racist teaching; culturally relevant and anti-racist approaches to literacy instruction; development of literacy teacher identity; preparation of literacy researchers in the close analysis of literacy practices within ethnographic research.
Lia Plakans, Ph.D.: Assistant Professor, Early Childhood Education
Came to department from: The University of Iowa
Research/teaching interests: Second language writing processes, socio-cognitive models and reading-writing connections; second language writing assessment and test use; Web-based language learning; teachers’ issues with technology in language learning.
Catherine Riegle-Crumb, Ph.D.: Assistant Professor, Science and Mathematics Education; Faculty Research Associate, Population Research Center
Came to department from: University of Texas at Austin’s Department of Sociology and Population Research Center
Research/teaching interests: Gender differences in science and math education; levels of gender inequality; academic achievement of Latino adolescents; friendship networks, social capital and immigrant students’ academic achievement; the role of gender and friendship in advanced course selection.
Allison Skerrett, Ph.D.: Assistant Professor, Language and Literacy Studies
Came to department from: Boston College
Research/teaching interests: Impact of race, ethnicity, gender and social class background on teaching sociocultural theory in education; role of students’ racial and cultural diversity in effective U.S. and Canadian schools; teaching English language arts in racially diverse U.S. and Canadian secondary classrooms; preparation of teachers for diverse learning environments.

Department of Educational Administration

Walter G. Bumphus, Ph.D.: Professor and Sid W. Richardson Regents Fellow in Community College Leadership
Came to department from: Serving as president of the Louisiana Community and Technical College System
Research/teaching interests: Developing institutional effectiveness models for community colleges; continuous quality improvement in higher education; leadership in higher education; role of community colleges in economic and workforce development.
Jennifer Jellison Holme, Ph.D.: Assistant Professor, Public School Executive Leadership Program
Came to department from: University of California, Los Angeles
Research/teaching interests: Salience of colorblindness in desegregated schools; assessment of adult graduates of racially mixed schools; charter schools and racial and social class segregation; relationship between standardized tests and the demise of racially mixed schools.
Richard J. Reddick, Ed.M.: Assistant Professor
Came to department from: Harvard University (Ed.D. expected Nov. 2007)
Research/teaching interests: Exemplary programs for retaining and supporting students of color in higher education; multiracial equity in American education; African American faculty and their mentoring relationships with African American students; poor and working class black families.
Victor B. Sáenz, Ph.D.: Assistant Professor; Faculty Member, Center for Mexican American Studies
Came to department from: University of California, Los Angeles
Research/teaching interests: Low-income students of color in higher education; students’ pre-college racial environments and their diversity experiences in college; experiences of Latino and African American students during their first year of college; national trends for first-generation college students; assessing community college engagement; pre-college characteristics and experiences of minority students committed to the biomedical and behavioral sciences; relationship between a college climate of service and students’ level of political engagement after college.