Shannon is a doctoral candidate in TLC and plans to graduate in May 2011. Her research interests include single-sex public schools, girls' education, participatory research collaboration with schools, and teacher education. Shannon is a senior research assistant for the Center for the Study of Boys' and Girls' Lives, a non-profit research organization. She has also worked as a researcher on Dr. Kathy Schultz's Learning to Teach project for the past four years. Prior to coming to GSE Shannon was a high school English teacher and earned her Masters degree in Liberal Arts at St. John's College in Annapolis, MD.

email: sandrus@dolphin.upenn.edu

Like Merlin, NancyLee lives life backwards. With only a BA in Biology (Penn), she started teaching science while waiting for “her turn” for graduate school. (Intended as a temporary job, teaching was captivating – she stayed 29 years). She got her MS from Penn the hard way: while living in Connecticut. NancyLee has taught teachers since 1982, starting at Penn. Currently Coordinator of the M.S. Ed. - Elementary and Urban Education Minors, she teaches science methods and field seminars in both. In one innovative methods course, NancyLee and her students work asynchronously in the same classroom. Shared context has permitted deep conversations about teaching. This may well become NancyLee’s thesis work. She is a part-time Ed.D. student, with two kids in college and a very understanding husband.

email: nancylee@gse.upenn.edu

Betty Chandy received her M.S. Ed. from Penn in 2006 and is presently in her second year pursuing an Ed.D. in Teaching, Learning and Curriculum. She earned her Bachelors degree from St. Stephens College, Delhi, India, and has a Masters Degree in Political Science from Madras Christian College, India. Before coming to Penn, she worked as a Social Studies teacher in an Indian school in Kuwait. Her research interests include exploring the use of technology within classrooms, creating technology mediated learning environments, and supporting teachers in the use of technology in schools through professional development programs.

email: chandyb@dolphin.upenn.edu

Heather Curl M.S.Ed., is an Ed.D. student and is a certified teacher in Pennsylvania. She has experience teaching English and social studies in a number of educational institutions and currently mentors first year Teach for America teachers while pursuing her degree. In the fall, she will teach Educ 301: Curriculum and Pedagogy and Educ 302: Practice Teaching Seminar at Bryn Mawr College. Her research interests include social class, upward mobility, youth culture, and education as international development.

email: hcurl@dolphin.upenn.edu

Rashmi Kumar is a doctoral student in the Teaching, Learning and Curriculum program. She is interested in understanding how the dissemination of knowledge regarding opportunities of learning and teaching about science takes place in urban schools. Another area of her interest lies in exploring parental involvement in curriculum development and evaluation measures. Rashmi has published in the journals Childhood Education and Young Children.

email: rashmik@dolphin.upenn.edu

Nina Hoe

Nina Hoe is a Ph.D. student in Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education and she is an Institute of Education Sciences Pre-Doctoral Fellow. Her research interests include global citizenship, international education and mathematics education. Specifically, she is interested in the ways in which youth develop and acquire a sense of global citizenship or a globally focused identity, and the curricula, programs, and institutional initiatives that attempt to foster this. Prior to doctoral studies, she received a B.A. in Anthropology and International Affairs from Colorado College and an M.S.Ed. in Education, Culture, and Society from the University of Pennsylvania. She has also taught high school math in Colorado, and then math and cultural studies at an internationally traveling high school based in Oregon. She currently works on two projects focused on mathematics education, aimed to better understand problems of curricula and teacher and student experiences. 

email: ninahoe@gse.upenn.edu

Dorothea Lasky is a doctoral student in Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum. Her dissertation research centers around ways in which teachers can harness creativity in their students in order to aid their learning and school success. She does this work as part of the ITEST-Nano research team, with Dr. Susan Yoon. Her other research interests include education policy and school reform initiatives concerned with closing the achievement gap, arts education, informal learning, and issues surrounding reading, writing, and literacy. At Penn, in addition to her current research, she has done work with the Executive Education team, working with Dr. Douglas Lynch. Prior to coming to Penn, she worked as an English teacher and did research in a variety of informal learning environments, including Harvard's Project Zero. She is also a poet and is the author of two full-length poetry collections.

email: laskyds@dolphin.upenn.edu

Tanya is a doctoral student in the Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum program.  Her research interests broadly include teacher education, practitioner-based inquiry, and mathematics education.  More specifically, she seeks to learn more about the ways teachers critically engage with issues of race, class, and diversity both inside and outside their classrooms.  Tanya is the Mentor Coordinator for GSE’s Teach For America Master’s and Certification Program.  In addition, she is a senior research assistant for the Center for the Study of Boys' and Girls' Lives, a non-profit research organization.  She also works as a researcher on Dr. Kathy Schultz's longitudinal Learning to Teach project. Prior to coming to GSE, Tanya was a high school mathematics teacher and earned her MAT at National-Louis University in Chicago, IL.

email: tanyatmaloney@gmail.com

Ali is a Ph.D. student in Teaching, Learning and Curriculum.  Her research interests include culturally relevant pedagogy, teacher education and race, with a specific focus on whiteness.  She earned her B.A. in African Studies and Political Science from Williams College and her M.A. in Anthropology and Education from Teachers College, Columbia University.  In her spare time, she is completing her manuscript, My Scar, My Road, the biography of South African feminist activist Gertrude Nonzwakazi Sgwentu, with whom she has collaborated since 1998.

email: ali.s.michael@gmail.com

Nancy Peter is the Director of Penn’s Out-of-School Time Resource Center (OSTRC). The OSTRC promotes out-of-school time student achievement by conducting research on and providing access to staff resources and professional development. Nancy has a Bachelor's Degree in Animal Behavior, a Masters Degree in Education, is a certified teacher, and is an instructor in the Pennsylvania Quality Assurance System. Before coming to Penn, she worked as the After-School Project Manager in The Best Practices Institute, Philadelphia ’s Senior Policy Specialist for Youth and Afterschool, Curriculum Manager for The Fairmount Park Commission, and Director of Education at the Academy of Natural Sciences. Nancy lives in the Mount Airy section of Philadelphia. Among other projects, the Peters coordinate a group of neighborhood families who explore Philadelphia public school for their children’s education

email: npeter@sp2.upenn.edu

Luke is a doctoral student in Teaching, Learning and Curriculum, interested in issues of equity and curriculum in K-12 mathematics education.  Before coming to Penn, Luke taught middle and high school math and science in North Carolina and Philadelphia. He is currently working with the MetroMath research team investigating the role of homework in facilitating communication between elementary school teachers and parents.

email: lreinke@dolphin.upenn.edu

Sonia Rosen is a doctoral student in the Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum program in the Graduate School of Education. She received her M.S.Ed. from Penn in 2003 with a master's paper on social justice education. From there, she became interested in democratic learning environments and youth civic engagement, doing research on the Philadelphia Student Union and Youth United for Change, as well as the exploration of various alternative schooling models. With a background in teaching English and Social Studies in New York City and Philadelphia high schools, founding an afterschool program for Palestinian youth, and directing a summer camp, Sonia is currently focused on out of school and afterschool learning in contexts that support youth civic engagement. She has also taught courses for Penn GSE's Teach for America master's program and Penn School of Arts and Sciences' undergraduate education minor.

email: soniar@dolphin.upenn.edu

Kristin Searle is a doctoral student in the Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum program at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education. Formerly a research assistant at the University of Utah’s American Indian Teacher Training Program and the Center for the Study of Empowered Students of Color in Higher Education, Kristin’s master’s thesis research focused on the ontological and epistemological tensions in American Indian graduate students’ constructions of self within the context of a school counseling program. Her current interests continue to include American Indian education and Indigenous epistemologies, but while at Penn GSE she has been introduced to film as a medium of teaching and learning. She is especially interested in film as a tool of educational research and the ways in which film provides individuals and communities with the ability to self-author.   

email: searle@dolphin.upenn.edu

Marni Baker Stein is a part-time Ph.D. student in Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum, and the Director of Program Development at Penn's College of General Studies. Her dissertation research is on the role of organizational structure in the responses of low-performing urban high schools to district and state policies aimed at English Language Learners. Over the past fifteen years, Marni has worked for universities, both in the United States and abroad, on the conceptualization, design and implementation of cutting-edge educational programming for a diverse array of student audiences. Most recently these programming efforts include work on Penn's http://www.sas.upenn.edu/CGS/graduate/mapp/>Master of Applied Positive Psychology and http://www.sas.upenn.edu/CGS/graduate/mmp/>Master of Medical Physics. Marni is married and is the devoted and exhausted mother of three – Eva, Lila and Neve – all currently under the age of four.

email: mbaker@sas.upenn.edu

Rachel Throop is a joint Ph.D. student in GSE and the department of Anthropology. Her research interests focus on the relationship between educative institutions (broadly defined) and social organization under late capitalism. She is also interested in the theory/practice relationship in teacher education and language planning and policy, and in the use of ethnography as a tool for studying global processes. Before coming to Penn, Rachel taught middle and high school science and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) courses, and earned an M.Ed. from Arizona State University.

email: rachelnt@dolphin.upenn.edu