Notes on Contributors
Tammi R. Davis
is an Assistant Professor of Elementary Education at Missouri State University. For over 30 years she has worked in the field of education as a classroom teacher: as a teacher educator. Her research and teaching focuses on the lives of teachers, teacher education, literacy, narrative inquiry, and reflective practice through the use of a variety of technologies.
Tim Foster
was the principal at Gavin H. Cochran Elementary School in Louisville, KY, and recently retired in 2019. He spent ten years teaching Advanced Placement U.S. Government and Politics at duPont Manual High School. During that time, he received the Gilder-Lehrman Kentucky History Teacher of the Year Award. Tim was an assistant principal at Liberty High School for four years before becoming principal at Cochran. Through his leadership, Tim helped moved the school from the first percentile in state accountability data to a status of proficient school in five short years. Tim approaches education with a student first mindset.
Lateefah Id-Deen
is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education in the Department of Early Childhood and Elementary Education at Kennesaw State University. Her research examines vulnerable students’ identities and perspectives to enhance student-teacher relationships and their sense of belonging in mathematics classrooms. Additionally, she focuses on ways prospective teachers learn to understand and implement equitable mathematics teaching practices. In addition to research, she teaches mathematics methods courses for prospective elementary mathematics teachers. Her work reflects her passion for creating equitable learning environments for students of color in mathematics classrooms.
Ann Larson
is the Assistant to the President focused on P-20 initiatives and former Dean of the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Louisville. Dr. Larson was a middle and secondary classroom teacher for 13 years in Kansas. Dr. Larson’s research areas are curriculum theory and studies, teacher education and development, professional development schools, and English education. She has been actively engaged in leadership roles that have supported success in national and state accreditations (NCATE, CAEP, and EPSB) of educator preparation programs and professional development schools, and has been active in English education. Dr. Larson currently serves as a member of AACTE’s Executive Board.
Bianca Nightengale-Lee
is an Assistant Professor at Florida Atlantic University in the department of Curriculum, Culture, & Educational Inquiry. Dr. Nightengale-Lee has taught for 15 years in urban, suburban, and rural settings, which has grounded her non-traditional approach to literacy pedagogy for culturally and linguistically diverse students. Her research situates in critical literacy and intersectionality as it relates to anti-discriminatory and inclusive educational practice. As a critical researcher, Nightengale-Lee develops courses which seek to critique, resist, and re-design traditional ideologies of how literacy is taught, and learned, to re-frame the ways we engage students of color in literacy instruction.
Lori Norton-Meier
is a Professor of Literacy Education and Interim Director of the Interdisciplinary Early Childhood Research Center at the University of Louisville. She taught in the public schools for seven years in an inner-city environment where many of her students lived in poverty and for whom English was a second language. Dr. Norton-Meier’s areas of interest include early childhood education, cross-disciplinary literacy practices in mathematics, and science, teacher as researcher, mixed methods research, case studies of teachers and young learners, both preservice and advanced teacher education, clinical partnerships, and a particular emphasis on equity, access and inclusive practices.
Mikkaka Overstreet
is an Assistant Professor at East Carolina University. Her research focuses on preservice and in-service teacher learning and change, particularly as related to enacting culturally responsive pedagogical practices. Her current research centers on integrating culturally responsive practices as content in literacy methods courses in order to prioritize and centralize this work in teacher education. Additionally, she is collaborating on research projects focused on recruitment and retention of teachers of color at various stages in the educational pipeline, on the integration of arts and literacy in schools serving diverse populations, and on engaging preservice teachers with culturally responsive pedagogy.
Shannon Putman
is a Teacher in Residence at Cochran Elementary School in Louisville, Kentucky. She spent eight years teaching the multi-modal communication special education classroom. She also spent two years as the learning and behavior disorder resource teacher. While working over the last three years as the teacher in residence, Shannon has focused on supporting the professional development relationship between Cochran Elementary and the University of Louisville. Her doctoral work explores the use of virtual reality technology as educational interventions.
Gabrielle Read-Jasnoff
is a Curriculum and Instruction doctoral candidate at the University of Louisville in Louisville, Kentucky. Her main areas of research include mathematics and technology education, and teacher preparation. Her professional educational experiences include middle-secondary mathematics teacher, technology education instructor, and digital content and technology integration specialist. Gabrielle’s passion includes helping current and future educators improve their craft by integrating technology into their teaching and learning.
Amy Shearer Lingo
is the Interim Dean of the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Louisville. Previously, she was appointed as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Unit Effectiveness beginning July 2015. Her research interests are academic interventions for P-12 students with or at risk for disabilities. Dr. Lingo has been heavily engaged in P-12 schools in Kentucky through her teaching, research and service. In addition, she has continuously served as a Teacher Educator with the Kentucky Teacher Internship Program (KTIP) since 1999 to support the induction and retention of new teachers in Kentucky P-12 school classrooms.
Anetria Swanson
is a Resource Teacher in the Human Resources department of Jefferson County Public Schools. She oversees student teacher and field experience placements and assists in the district’s teacher recruitment and retention efforts. Anetria earned a Master of Arts in Teaching and a Master’s Degree in K-12 School Counseling from the University of Louisville. She has worked with a team of resource teachers to develop a new elementary social studies curriculum promoting civic knowledge and engagement. Anetria is an adjunct lecturer for the University of Louisville, where she is pursuing a doctoral degree in curriculum and instruction.
Emily Zuccaro
is an Assistant Professor at Eastern Kentucky University with an emphasis in Literacy Education. Her dissertation examines the teaching of English to Congolese refugees. She currently leads the Kentucky Reading Project at the University of Louisville; previously, she taught third grade in Houston, Texas, second grade in Monterrey, Mexico, and literacy methods courses at the University of Louisville.