Ph.D. Program in Educational Studies
Senior Advisor/Faculty

Beginning in the first year of study, Ph.D. students work with a senior advisor to develop and carry out plans for doctoral study. In many cases, the advisor also serves as chair of the student's doctoral study committee in phases II and III of the program. Senior advisors are chosen from across the University. Current faculty members serving as senior advisors are:

Bill Barowy
B.S., M.S., Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Main research interest: ecological, social, cultural, and historical perspectives of human cognition, learning, and development.  Underlying these broad categories is the central tenet of mediational means: people act, communicate, learn and develop with cultural resources, including language, symbols, technology, and other people. Taking this approach means abandoning the assumption that thinking occurs in only the head and accepting instead that thinking consists of ecological processes, with potentially dramatic consequences for education. The learning model of Activity Theory is one example of how this view offers powerful ways to improve educational practices. Dr. Barowy's practical interest is in applications to science and technology education, organizational change, and teacher research. He has published research articles in various journals, developed software for teaching science, and published the Science by Design curriculum materials with the National Science Teachers Association. Visit Dr. Barowy's home page for more information.

George E. Blakeslee
B.S.  Ed., Miami University
M.Ed., Ed.D., Boston University
Technology in Education: digital media, societal impact issues, fostering effective school change, grant writing.  Science Education: communities of learning, internships, private sector partnerships.  Distance Learning: Web-based course design, asynchronous dialog, learner profiles. Current research interests include the techniques and dynamics of web publishing, and the application of technology to improve teacher productivity and student achievement.

Marcia S. Bromfield
B.S., Tufts University (Jackson College)
M.S., Ph.D., Syracuse University
Areas of interest include: establishing and supporting inclusive environments for persons with special needs and preparing teachers to work in such environments; teacher collaboration and collegiality; school/college partnerships, especially professional development schools; issues related to student teaching experiences and supervision; mentoring.

Julia Byers
Diploma Social Science, Vanier College, St. Laurent, Quebec
B.Ed., McGill University, Montreal
M.A., IHC., Los Angeles, CA
Ed.D., University of Toronto
Arts, Creativity and the Human Condition in Education and Therapy: Transformational learning Expressive Arts Psychotherapy: Clinical. Populations include individual, group and families with specialization in crisis intervention.  Human Development: Developing empathy and compassion between all cultures, life situation, the stages; Body/Mind connected knowing, learning, cross-cultural relationships, immigrants, refugees, "street kids," children with learning disabilities.  Open Studio: Artist as Healer, Communicator, and Program Developer Alternative Scholarship - Film-Video Exhibitions.  Ethics: Issues and standards in educational and human service practice. Human Systems Intervention Consulting; Professional Development Training.

Joseph Cambone
B.A., Mount St. Mary College
M.A., Boston College
Ed.D., Harvard University
Areas of interest: Educational Leadership, teaching students with special needs, adolescent psychology

Vivian Carlo
M.Ed., Lesley University
Ed.D., Boston University
Areas of interest:  Alternatives to violence, equity, peacemaking, language and literacy, multicultural issues in education, elementary education

Mariagnese Cattaneo
B.A., M.A., Conservatory Wintherthur
Ph.D., The Union Institute
Expressive therapist, art therapy, music therapy.  Research and professional interests are in: creativity; aesthetics in the arts and therapy; clinical work and supervision; professional standards and ethics; impact of race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation on identity development; the arts, graduate education and clinical work.  Visual artist focusing on artists' book, mixed media, two and three dimensional art work.

Sharlene Voogd Cochrane
B.A., Hastings College
M.A., New York University
Ph.D., Boston College
I am interested in questions of history, education and cultural and spiritual identity.  My research includes women's studies and issues of race, class and gender in American life, and connections between gender, religion and anti-racism.  I look at who we are as teachers, including The Courage to Teach, and the implications for pedagogy, curriculum design, and professional development.

Judith Beth Cohen
B.A., M.A. University of Michigan
Ph.D., Union Institute University
Creative writing: memoir and fiction. The teaching of writing. American Studies, Women's Studies, Interdisciplinary Studies, Adult Learning, narrative as a research methodology. Recent publications include short stories and memoir. Contributor to Mezirow's Education As Transformation (Jossey-Bass, 2000). Current projects include: Yoga and Education, and images of women in global fiction.  Faculty in the PhD in Educational Studies with a Specialization in Adult Learning program. For more information, visit her GSASS page.

Stephan Cohen
B.A., Hampshire College
M.Ed., Lesley College
Ed.D., Harvard University

Anne Collins
B.A., Westfield State College, B.S., Framingham State College
C.A.G.S., Harvard University
Ph.D., Boston College

Constantina Comnenou
B.A., Goucher College 
M.A., Boston College 
Ed.D., University of Massachusetts, Amherst 
My educational background is in sociology, anthropology, counseling, community social psychology, organization development and human service provision.  Core interests and experience: Developing educational and change programs for organizations and individuals that promote personal and professional growth and system wide change on behalf of social justice and cultural pluralism.  The study of cross-cultural change and interface and the impact of these processes for individual, group, and system interaction and growth. 

Sylvia R. Cowan
B.A., LaGrange College, LaGrange, Georgia
M. A., University of Hawaii, Honolulu
Ed. D., Boston University
Areas of Interest:  Issues relating to identity, culture, and the politics of difference; the arts and identity; transitions and change; intercultural conflict and solutions; diaspora and migration; adult learning across cultures.   Areas of expertise:  intercultural and international management, consulting, and training; organizational systems and development; program & curriculum development & evaluation; multicultural education; adult education; project development.

Linda Dacey
B.A., Boston College
Ed.M., Lesley College
Ed.D., Boston University
Mathematics Education: Research on the ability to solve problems with particular interest in the area of representation and communication of knowledge; the use of alternative assessment strategies and examination of ways to analyze student work; professional development for teachers; and the development of curriculum materials that help teachers to view mathematics in new ways. Recent publications focus on inclusive teaching strategies that provide access to mathematics for all learners.

Arlene Dallalfar
B.A., Tufts University
M.A., Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles
Arlene Dallalfar, faculty in both the Intercultural Relations Program (GSASS) and in Lesley College, has been teaching courses in women's studies and family studies at Lesley since 1995. Her areas of specialization are gender, immigration and diaspora, women and work, and feminist theory from a cross-cultural perspective. The paradigms in sociology discourse surrounding gender roles and the family, inequality in the capitalist world economy, and immigration studies have been Dallalfar's areas of specialization. She is also a documentary filmmaker, and interested in issues of visual ethnography and cross-cultural representation.

Gene Diaz
B.S.E.E., San Diego State University
M.Ed., Ph.D., University of New Orleans
Educator, visual artist, ethnographer, and former electronics engineer, Gene currently teaches curriculum theory and qualitative research methods, including arts-based and critical ethnography. Her research interests include integrating arts into teaching and learning, democratic curriculum practices, and the social contexts of education and technology.  She is co-editor, with Martha McKenna, of Teaching for Aesthetic Experience (2004, Peter Lang).  In 2002 she spent six months at the Universidad de Antioquia in Medellín, Colombia, as a Fulbright Scholar, teaching and collaborating in research on dramatic play as pedagogical method and research practice. She is fluent in Spanish. Click here for more information.

Mary Dockray-Miller
B.A., Vassar College
M.A.T., Boston University
M.A., Ph.D., Loyola University, Chicago
Research interests include: medieval literature and history, especially from the Anglo-Saxon period; women's educational history, both in the U.S. and U.K; hagiography; feminist literary theory and criticism.  Visit my homepage.

Susan Doubler
B.S., Bowling Green State University, Ohio
M.Ed., Boston University
Ph.D., University of Liverpool, England
Curriculum & Instruction, Science Education, Technology in Education.  Work and study focused on science education, particularly the development of children's scientific ideas and the use of technology to support science learning in K-8 education.

Ronnie Elwell
R.N., Johns Hopkins School of Nursing
B.A, M.A., Ph.D., The American University
Sociology, Social Psychology.  Current research interests focus on the mental health system in the United States with particular interest in social psychiatry, mental hospital systems, and health care administration.  My specialty area is medical sociology with an emphasis on women's health issues and women professionals in the health care system. 

Christine Evans
M.A., Ph.D., Harvard University
B.A., M.A., Stanford University
Christine Evans is Professor of Comparative Literature at Lesley College. Her research has focused on the nineteenth and twentieth century European novel (Theodor Fontane, Marcel Proust), literary theory (debates on popular literature), twentieth century women philosophers who wrote literature or wrote about literature (Iris Murdoch, Simone de Beauvoir and Simone Weil), and French literature written during World War II.  Her articles have appeared in collections of essays and in Modern Language Studies, Popular Culture Studies, Simone de Beauvoir Studies and Cahiers Simone Weil, among other publications.  Her teaching aims at bringing students to see that knowledge is something they can engage in richly and own through disciplined study, and that in reading literature, they are not merely interrogating the text, but the text is looking back and offering illumination and even transformation.

Paul A. Fideler
B.A., St. Lawrence University
M.A., Ph.D., Brandeis University
Current research issues in the humanities (especially modernism and postmodernism in historiography literary criticism, and political theory) and their application in elementary, middle and secondary school teaching practice; historical and philosophical approaches to education and social policy in the United States and early modern and modern Britain, school-college collaboration in teacher and curricular development.

Rosalie Fink
B.S., University of Massachusetts at Amherst
M.S., State University of New York at Cortland
Ed.D., Harvard Graduate School of Education
Research: Literacy development across the lifespan; specific reading disabilities; studies of highly successful men and women with dyslexia; studies on the role of gender and individual interest in learning and development; studies on gender, mentoring, and self-identity development.  Curriculum Development: literacy and study skills; college transition program for sociolinguistically diverse students; reading/writing program for middle school and high school students in need of academic support.

Lisa Fiore
B.A. Brandeis University — English & American Literature, Theater minor
M.A.T. Tufts University — Child Study
Ph.D. Boston College — Developmental & Educational Psychology
Research areas include early childhood education and lifespan development; children’s anxiety and coping strategies for families and teachers; mindful practices in parenting and education; connecting children, families, and teachers to nature and the environment; and incorporating inspirations from the Reggio Emilia approach to Early Childhood Education into American contexts.

Irene Catherine Fountas
B.S., M.Ed., C.A.G.S., Ed.D., Boston University
Early literacy; holistic theory and practice in elementary, intermediate middle schools; literature-based reading and writing programs; reading recovery for at-risk first graders; writing process; thematic curriculum development.

Susan Gere
B.A., Oberlin College
M.S.W., Ph.D. Simmons School of Social Work
Susan is core faculty and director of the Division of Counseling and Psychology in the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences. Her teaching and research interests integrate knowledge from education and clinical practice. She teaches, writes, and consults about: a) trauma in child and adult populations (including the homeless and refugees), b) violence and secondary stress in human service workers, c) the reflective process and the integration of personal and academic knowledge in training professionals, d) aesthetic regard in the teaching and learning process, and e) consultation skills for counselors and mental health professionals.

Stephen Gould
B.M., Berklee College of Music
M.Ed., Fitchburg State College
Ed.D., University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Stephen is an assistant professor and program director of the Educational Leadership Ph.D. program. He is a practitioner-scholar with a background as a principal, assistant superintendent, leadership coach, consultant and composer.  Areas of interest include the role of schools in a democratic society, creating a sense of community in schools, collective inquiry, organizational development, the process of large-scale change, leadership development, curriculum, assessment, instructional design, systems thinking, team building, strategic planning, executive coaching, arts in education, ethnomusicology, djembe drumming and music composition.

Barbara Govendo
B.Ed., SUNY at Buffalo
M.Ed., Lesley College
Ph.D., Boston College
Barbara teaches courses related to: Special Education, Inclusive Schooling, Collaboration, Literacy, Universal Curriculum Design and the Clinical Practicum & Seminar. She is interested in ongoing assessment, innovative instruction, effective collaboration among professionals in schools, and the study of neuroscience as it applies to learning.

Lorraine Greenfield
B.S. in English Ed., Boston University
M.Ed. in Reading, Boston University
CAGS in Computers and Writing, Bridgewater State College
Ed.D., Boston University
My areas of specialization are curriculum, instruction and assessment; my doctoral work focused on gender and school leadership, looking at feminist theory and how women manage and lead in male-dominated  institutions.   I am interested in helping our students look at schools from a systems perspective and understand the impact on student learning from relationships between and among students, faculty, administration, and parents. 

Bard Rogers Hamlen
B.A., Radcliffe College
M.A.T., Harvard Graduate School of Education
E.D., University of Massachusetts/Amherst
My research interests are English and American literature, writing, equity and access issues in higher education, urban school organization and change, and desegregation.

Caroline Elizabeth Heller
B.A., University of Chicago
M.F.A., Bennington College
M.Ed., Ed.D., University of California, Berkeley
Areas of interest include community-based literacy programs and social action, out-of-school learning settings, the role of reading and writing in the creation of self-identity, the intellectual and artistic legacies of refugee communities, qualitative research, the relationship of the writing of qualitative research with non-fiction and journalism, teaching the writing of qualitative research.  Her ethnography of a women's writing group taking place in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco, Until We are Strong Together, was published by Teachers College Press. Her book, based on letters and archival research, Reading Claudius: A Literary and Cultural Inheritance, will be published by Random House in 2009.

Matthew Hirshberg
B.A., Oberlin College
M.S., Columbia University
M.A., Ph.D., University of Washington
Main areas of research and interest include political psychology and socialization, citizenship education, patriotism, international perceptions, beliefs about poverty, distributive ethics, electoral systems, and broadcast journalism.  Taught for fifteen years at University of Canterbury in New Zealand, and is the author of Perpetuating Patriotic Perceptions (1993).

Lisa Tsoi Hoshmand
B.A., University of Hong Kong
M.A., University of Hawaii
Ph.D., University of Hawaii
Multidisciplinary scholarship, qualitative research, narrative psychology, action research in mental health and education, cultural psychology and diversity issues, community based approaches to prevention and interventions.

Paul Jablon
B.S., Manhattan College
Ph.D., New York University
Middle school and small high schools; science education; urban education; inquiry teaching and learning; interdisciplinary and project-based teaching and learning; effective learning communities.

Jay Jones
B.S., University of Maryland
Ph.D., Boston College
Intercultural Relations.  Recent Courses: Conceptualizing Intercultural Relations, International & Ethnic Interdependence.

Marjorie Jones
B.A., M.Ed., Boston State College
Ed.D., Harvard University
Adult Education

Jared D. Kass
B.A., Amherst College
Ph.D., The Union Institute
Areas of specialization:  health psychology, psychology of religion. Research interests:  relationship between religious experience, human development and health; relationship between gender-specific socialization patterns and health.

Neal Klein
B.A., Dickinson College
Ed.D., M.Ed., Boston University
Areas of specialization include holistic/humanistic/integral psychology; psychosynthesis; cross- cultural psychology; higher education- a holistic vision; levels of the unconscious; counseling techniques for exploring the superconscious; the fully-functioning human being; mystics, shamans and enlightened beings.

Anne S. Larkin
B.S., M.Ed., Boston State College
Ph.D., Boston College
Research in the areas of the autism spectrum disorder; adults with special needs transitioning from school to work/higher education; inclusive schooling; school-college partnerships; and Scholarships Programs.

Solange de Azambuja Lira
B.A., Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
M.A., University of Delaware
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
Language diversity issues applied to first and second language learning and teaching; English language development; bilingual education; sociolinguistics of Brazilian Portuguese.

Dalia Llera
B.A., University of Florida
M.Ed., Boston University
Ed. D., Harvard University
Counseling Psychology. Interests include issues of power, privilege and oppression, social justice, feminist and multicultural approaches to counseling, women, adolescence, schools, violence, resilience, community focused interventions and outreach.

Bruce M. Logan
B.A., Oberlin College
M.A., Ph.D., University of Chicago
Research interests include developing effective strategies for building and sustaining organizational capacity; developing effective strategies for continuous policy and program evaluation; and, developing models for Internet-based public policy participation.

Vivien Marcow-Speiser
B.A., University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa
M.Ed., Lesley College
Ph.D., The Union Institute
Vivien Marcow-Speiser, ADTR, LMHC, NCC, is a Professor in Dance Therapy at Lesley University and the Director of International and Collaborative Programs in the Graduate School of Arts and Social Sciences . She has developed and implemented numerous arts based training programs throughout the U.S and Israel. As former founder and director of the Arts Institute Project in Israel, she has been influential in the development of Expressive Arts Therapy in that country. She has taught and lectured extensively throughout Scandinavia, Israel, South Africa, and the United States. She has used the arts as a way of communicating across borders and cultures and believes in the power of the arts to create the conditions for personal and social change and transformation. Her interests are in cross-cultural conflict resolution through the arts and in the discipline of authentic movement, as well as the use of rites of passage rituals in expressive arts practice. She is currently undertaking research in using the arts towards the integration of the Ethiopian immigrant community in Israel.  To read more about her please go to her website.

Brenda G. Matthis
B.B.A., University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee
Ed.M., Ed.D., Harvard University
Research interests:  emerging technologies, supporting learners across the cognitive spectrum; Universal Design for Learning; effects on software’s social construction on human development; and supporting learning disabilities from birth through life via grant from Japan Ministry of Education. Dr. Matthis consults in the fields of software pathology and design ethics.

Martha Barry McKenna
B.A., Emmanuel College
M.A., M.Ed., Ed.D., Columbia University
Arts:  History and philosophy of the performing and visual arts; aesthetics and education; integration of the arts in the curriculum.  Adult Development:  pedagogy and practice in adult development; role of the arts in adult development; museum education and programming for adults.

Mary C. McMackin
B.S. Boston State College
M.Ed. Boston State College
Ed.D. University of Massachusetts Lowell
Areas of interest include literacy education at the early childhood, elementary and middle school levels: curriculum, instructional methods, materials, and assessment practices. Current areas of research and writing are in differentiated instruction and writing, especially nonfiction writing.

Shaun McNiff
A.B., Fordham College
M.A., Goddard College
Ph.D., Union Institute and University
My areas of experience include the interface between the arts and the professions, art-based research, creativity enhancement in varied sectors of personal and community life, arts and healing, progressive pedagogy, leadership, and the subjects explored in my books and other publications. As an artist, educator, and leader, I have always combined academic disciplines in new ways and I am interested in working with students who share these interests and who can teach me through their studies and research in wide ranging areas of inquiry. For more detailed information please visit my Lesley website.

Susan Merrifield
B.A., University of Massachusetts at Boston
M.A., Goddard College
M.Ed., University of Maine at Orono
Ed.D., Harvard University
I have taught grades two through graduate school during my three decades as an educator.  Current teaching and research interests include: literacy learning across the lifespan, education for first generation college students, literature for children and young adults, women and education, and professional development of teachers and school administrators.  Currently working on a book that explores issues related to the literacy learning of undergraduates at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, 1965-2000.

Margery Staman Miller
A.B., Simmons College
M.S., Ed.D., University of Pennsylvania
In the field of literacy, interest in research and practical applications of the reading/writing connection, especially in relation to expository text and the interactive relationship between assessment and instruction.  Interest in studying and disseminating recently developed teacher-researcher models; looking at current models for staff development and classroom inquiry and the relationship to professional growth as well as implications for the school as workplace in order to accommodate such models.

Mary Mindess
B.S., Simmons College
Ed.M., Boston University
Special interest in social cognition--helping children think about their social interactions.  My areas of specialization are Early Childhood Education and Developmental Psychology with special focus on creativity, social skill development, the Reggio Emilia Approach, and educational experiences for gifted children. Other interests include planning educational conferences and teaching and learning online.  Co-developed and taught the online course, Children with Behavior Problems: Responding to the Challenge. I have had experience working on State Department committees focused on standards based, developmentally appropriate curriculum for young children.

Pablo Navarro-Rivera
M.Ed., Ed.D., Harvard University
Administration, planning & social policy, adult education, Latin American affairs.

Marion J. Nesbit
B.A., Gettysburg College
Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin
Areas of interest include:  the relationship between systems and individuals;
leadership and consultation; organizational development and administration; women's studies, legal issues in education, thesis advisement and higher education pedagogy, group dynamics in adolescence and young adulthood.  For more information about Marion, visit her GSASS page.

Sarah Nieves-Squires
B.A., University of Puerto Rico
M.A., University of Chicago
M.A., University of Puerto Rico
Ed.D., Columbia University
Areas of interest:  Sociolinguistic issues dealing particularly with bilingualism and language planning at national levels; national identities and ethnic diversity in the Caribbean and China; women's issues as determined and defined by national status and ethnic ascription.  Areas of expertise:  Sociolinguistic analysis, research methodology, film criticism and analysis, bilingual issues, research and analysis.

James O'Keefe
B.A., Boston College
M.Ed., Harvard Graduate School of Education
Ph.D., Boston College
Curriculum and instruction; mathematics education; mathematics and technology.

Anne E. Pluto
B.A., M.A., Ph.D., SUNY, Buffalo
Humanities; drama; English.

Marianne Reiff
BGS University of Michigan
Ph.D., University of California Santa Barbara
Adult learning and development in academic and non-traditional settings; alternative learning environments (cohorts, online, workplace); learning as dialogue; qualitative research methods; course and program design.

Rick Reinkraut
B.A. (Philosophy), Rutgers College
M.A. (Philosophy), University of Connecticut
Ph.D. (Philosophy), University of Connecticut
Ed.D. (specialization in Counseling/Consulting Psychology), Harvard University
Areas of interest include: therapist use of self, the process of psychotherapy, therapist authenticity, counselor training, the gatekeeping responsibility of counselor educators.

Branca Telles Ribeiro
B.A., M.A., Catholic University, Rio de Janeiro
M.S., Ph.D., Georgetown University
Areas of interest: Sociolinguistic discourse analysis:  the use of language in everyday interaction with specific emphasis on talk and work in institutional settings (schools, hospitals).  Talk and context in psychiatric settings:  ongoing research project that focuses on discourse coherence, the co-construction of narratives of health and illness, therapeutic discourse.  A second project focuses on Brazilian immigrant women and access to health.  Areas of expertise: intercultural communication, interactional sociolinguistics, ethnography of communication, narrative analysis, and discourse pragmatics.

Maureen Riley
B.S. Boston College
M.Ed., Harvard University
Specialization in the application of cognitive assessment to curriculum development, students with learning disabilities, school age through postsecondary.  Research studies: children's thinking in science, constructivism and special education; teacher development, teacher planning for assessment, instruction and curriculum development for reading and writing in the inclusionary classroom; synthesis of intervention research on inclusion.

Nancy Roberts
A.B., Ed.M., Ed.D., Boston University
Investigating the potential of advanced technologies for improving the teaching/learning process.  Understanding the barriers to integrating technologies into education, at both the pre-college and college levels.  Exploring new models of preparing adults for the teaching profession, including new teacher online support.  For more information, visit Nancy's web page.

Arlyn Roffman
B.A., Connecticut College
M.Ed., Lesley College
Ph.D., Boston College
Areas of interest center within special education and psychology--in particular, transition of students with disabilities from high school into adult life; adults with LD and ADHD; adolescent development; social skills development; and mental health concerns among adolescents and adults with LD.

Eleanor Roffman
B.A., Oakland University
M.Ed., Northeastern University
Ed.D, Boston University
Eleanor Roffman’s interests include critical and cooperative pedagogy and feminist and liberation psychology.  She has a background in school counseling, feminist counseling and educational activism.

Robin L. Roth
B.A., City College of City University of New York
M.A., Ph.D., New School for Social Research
Areas of interest:  social policy, poverty and issues of inequality; sociology of family; gender issues.  Research is currently on welfare reform and its impact on women and children. 

Amy Rutstein-Riley
B.A., Simmons College
M.P.H, Boston University School of Public Health
Ph.D., Lesley University

Priscilla Sanville
B.A., University of Denver
M.A., Lesley College
Ph.D., The Union Institute
Creative Arts in Learning Program: coordinator of the Community Arts Masters program. Special interests in drama and critical literacy and social justice issues.  Courses: Arts Approach to Multicultural education,  Arts Approach to Diversity and Reflective Practice. Drama and critical literacy and thesis course. Work:  Public schools for many years as a classroom teacher and 15 years a drama supervisor for k-12. Has taught cross-culturally in Russia, Israel, British Columbia and Quebec, Canada. Served in different capacities in community organizations.

Maria de Lourdes B. Serpa
B.S. Escola do Magistério de Angra, Universidade dos Açores
B.S., M.Ed., Boston State College
Ed.D., Boston University
Areas of interest: teacher education, nondiscriminatory assessment, multicultural-bilingual/ESL special education, response to intervention (RTI), biliteracy, Portuguese reading, Feuerstein's Instrumental Enrichment & LPAD and Niza’s and Freire’s models of alfabetização.

Stephanie A. Spadorcia
B.S., Lesley College
M.Ed., Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Stephanie is core faculty in the Division of Language and Literacy in the School of Education.  Her teaching and research interests include assessment and evaluation in the areas of literacy and language; struggling readers and writers; literacy instruction for students with learning disabilities, and students with significant special needs including students with autism; and integrating educational software and assistive technology into literacy curriculum.

William T. Stokes
B.S. S.U.N.Y. at Stony Brook
M.Ed., Ed.D., Boston University
Language:  Linguistics, language acquisition, and second language acquisition form the basis for my interests in language learning (including ESL), literacy development and the political implications of language and literacy.  Literacy: Research in emergent literacy in home and school settings with emphasis on balanced approaches for comprehensive literacy programs in schools, including efforts toward school reform.  Critical Literacy:  philosophical, historical, cultural, and socio-political perspectives on progressive educational practices.

Joanne M. Szamreta
Ph.D., Boston College
M.Ed., Erikson Institute
B.A., Smith College
Child and family development, early childhood education, early intervention, the Reggio Emilia approach, learning through play, bilingual early childhood education, partnering with parents, inclusive educational practices for young children, social policy issues focused on women and children; Research interests focused on workforce development in early care and education and parents’ perceptions of early childhood educational practice 

Joan Thormann
B.A., University of Wisconsin
M.A., Boston College
Ph.D., University of Oregon
Joan Thormann has been at Lesley since 1989.  Prior to coming to Lesley, she taught in public and private schools, worked for a software company and at the Massachusetts Department of Education in the Division of Special Education, where she directed and implemented projects such as training district special education directors and staff to use telecommunications, organizing teacher in-service programs and publishing a statewide newsletter. She has been an editor of a column on technology and special needs for Learning and Leading with Technology since 1991, had co-authored three books and written numerous articles. Her current research interests involve teaching and learning online, use of technology for students with special needs and supporting student research relating to the use of technology in the schools.

Frank Trocco
B.A., State University of New York, New Paltz
M.A., Clayton University, St. Louis, MO
Ph.D., The Union Institute
Frank Trocco holds a Ph.D. in the Social Studies of Science from the Union Institute. In 1978, he co-founded the National Audubon Society Expedition Institute (AEI), creating undergraduate and graduate degree programs in environmental studies. Since the summer of 1989 (when he spent a year living at a Navajo trading post in Rough Rock, AZ), he has participated every fall in the Navajo nine-night Nightway Ceremony, a traditional healing ritual. From 1972 through 1992 he attended Kachina dances every spring on the Hopi and Zuni reservations, and since 1990 he has attended yearly Easter ceremonies in Yaqui (Tucson, AZ), Tarahumara (Chihuahua, Mexico), and Tzotzil (Chiapas, Mexico) communities. In his Ph.D., he investigated scientists who study phenomena and healing modalities that are considered scientifically unorthodox. He has a particular interest in looking at science as it is applied in areas of popular culture and the conflicts between popular and orthodox conceptions of science. Frank is the co-author (with Trevor Pinch) of Analog Days: The Invention and Impact of the Moog Synthesizer (Harvard, 2002), a look at the social history of technology and electronic music. He is currently working on a book about Navajo healing and spirituality.

Barbara Vacarr, PhD
Associate Professor, Adult Learning Division
Director, PhD in Adult Learning
PhD in Transpersonal Psychology and Human Development, Union University
My interest in the ways that individuals and communities transform lives of silence and powerlessness into lives of social engagement and committed action has led to my curiosity about  processes of transformation, roles and responsibilities of those who participate in and facilitate others’ development and learning, and creating learning environments that invite all participants to honor and challenge our most deeply held values, beliefs, and assumptions.  Over the past 20 years, my work teaching adults, practicing as a psychologist, and interviewing Holocaust survivors for Steven Spielberg’s Visual History of the Shoah project informs my thinking that our willingness to know our own stories, to uncover for ourselves the meaning of the hidden stories of our lives, is central to the dynamic relationship that exists between narrator and listener, teacher and student.  It is also central to our ability to transform silence into action.  I question what the field of Adult Learning has defined as “transformative learning,” and wonder if it would more accurately be described as CO-transformation—a mutual process by which storyteller and audience, teacher and learner are included, engaged, and changed.  My current research involves interviewing “teachers” and learners about these kinds of life-changing experiences.

Maureen Brown Yoder
B.A., George Washington University
M.Ed., Lesley College
Ed.D., Boston University
Areas of interest:  Classroom use of multimedia and the Internet, emerging technologies, distance learning, creative methods of teaching online.

Special Status

John D. Aram
B.A., Economics, Yale University
Ph.D., Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Areas of interest: interactions between organizations and society, including issues of governance and accountability, employee rights, and civic participation; collective action, or the development of cooperation among independent groups or organizations for community well-being; also, bridging the frequent gap between academia and the professions.

Constance Counts
A.B., Radcliffe College
Ed.M., Tufts University
Ed.D., Harvard
Research interests include: women and leadership, in particular, gender differences in decision-making and leadership styles in schools; adult development--the psychological development of adult students in the Lesley University Adult Learning Division, in particular, the new immigrant PEECE scholars, whose program I direct; diversity and multiculturalism. Visiting scholar at Cambridge University, Cambridge, England (1996 and 2003), studying anti-racist education in Britain, co-chair of Lesley Diversity Council (2004-2007).

William Lee Dandridge
B.A., Pennsylvania State University
M.P.A., Temple University
Ed.D., University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Areas of expertise: the history of American public education; state and national education reforms initiatives and policies; teacher preparation, induction and mentoring; schools of education as education reform agents; and policies and programs to enhance the education needs of children of color and language minorities.

Frank E. Davis
B.A., Franklin & Marshall College
M.S., University of Massachusetts/Amherst
Ed.D., Harvard University
Research and evaluation projects involving efforts to improve mathematics and science education. I am particularly interested in understanding factors both within classrooms and the broader school community that affect performance of African American students. In addition, I am interested in the theoretical foundation and practice of program evaluation, and interdisciplinary theories and research about adult development and learning.

George E. Hein, Professor Emeritus
B.A., Cornell University
M.S., Ph.D., University of Michigan
Museology, including visitor research in museums, informal learning, and museum education; program evaluation, application of qualitative methodologies to research on learning and to assessment research in  both school and informal settings; and science education and science
assessment.

Debora C. Sherman, Professor Emeritus
B.A., Barnard College
M.S., S.U.N.Y., Buffalo
Ed.D., New York University
Background in history and fine art and as a classroom teacher and reading consultant of pre-school through grade 12.  Specialist in adult literacy and learning and teacher education at college and graduate school level, and communications in public service agencies and corporations.  Current areas of specialization include educational philosophy and perspectives and adult development, curriculum development, mentoring, educational reform, supervision and development of teachers, and doctoral level writing.

Valora Washington
B.A., Michigan State University
Ph.D., Indiana University at Bloomington
Areas of interest: children, families, public policy