Meet the Board AY 2017-2018

Updated Fall 2017

This is a forum of the American Journal of Education. It is a space for readers of the journal—researchers, students, and policy makers—to engage in dialogue on both of-the-moment issues and enduring themes in education from pre-K through university. The forum is led by a Student Board and is mentored by the journal’s senior editorial staff.

The members of the Student Board are:

Jeremy Anderson is a PhD student in the Education Theory and Policy program at Penn State University. He holds a Master of Arts in Teaching from the University of Pittsburgh. Jeremy is a former high school social studies teacher whose interests include school consolidation, school district funding and equity, and technology in education.

F. Frank Ayata is a Ph.D. student in the Educational Leadership program at Penn State University. He holds a M.S. in School Business Leadership from Wilkes University. His research interests include racial inequality in school funding, charter school funding, and the economics of education. He also serves as a business manager for a local school in State College, PA since 2007.

Angel Xiao Bohannon is a Ph.D. student in the Human Development and Social Policy program at Northwestern University. Her research interests include the role of partnerships and educational leadership in supporting K-12 policy implementation. She previously worked at the Carnegie Foundation to support the work of the Carnegie Math Pathways research-practice partnership. She previously earned a B.A. from University of Chicago.

Nikki Cohron is a Ph.D. student in the Educational Theory and Policy Program at Penn State. She holds master’s degree in Educational Leadership, Organizations, and Policy from Samford University and a bachelor’s degree in Collaborative Education from Birmingham-Southern College. Her background includes teaching at the elementary and undergraduate levels, as well as promoting college faculty development as an instructional technologist. Nikki’s current research interests include the intersections between research, policy, and the K-12 classroom and understanding how teachers perceive their role in educational change.

Katie Crabtree is a Ph.D. student in the Philosophy of Education at Leeds Trinity University, University of Leeds. Her research attempts to re-imagine liberal arts university education and the meaning of being a student. She focuses on the philosophy of Jean-François Lyotard. Katie holds a M.A. in the Philosophy of Education from the UCL Institute of Education, a M.Sc. in Higher Education from the University of Oxford, and a B.S. in Psychology from Grand Valley State University.

Seyma Dagistan-Terzi is a Ph.D. student in the Educational Theory and Policy Program at Penn State University. She earned two undergraduate degrees, one in Political Science from Bilkent University, the other in English language teaching, literature and culture from the Middle East Technical University and SUNY. She has a master’s degree in Psychology from the University of East London. She worked as a literary translator for a couple of publishing companies, and as an English teacher at the Bogazici University. Her current interests are in understanding and evaluating grassroots approaches to education. Specifically, Seyma is interested in understanding the extent to which students can contribute in education as street-level bureaucrats through dialogue and youth-adult partnerships and the role of educators in encouraging students’ contributions.

Sebrina Doyle Fosco is a PhD student in the Educational Leadership program at Penn State. Her primary educational interest is in individual and structural supports for well-being in schools and organizations. For most of the last decade, she worked as a Project Manager and then as an Assistant Research Professor at the Bennett-Pierce Prevention Research Center where her primary research has been on mindfulness-based professional development programs to address individual capacity to handle stressful work. Sebrina has a Master’s degree in Psychology from the University of Oregon and is a certified facilitator for the Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education (CARE) Program. She has also served as an ad-hoc reviewer for the journal Mindfulness. 

Katharine Dulaney is a Ph.D. student in Educational Theory and Policy at Penn State University. She holds a M.A. from Teachers College, Columbia University, a B.A. from UNC-Chapel Hill, and a secondary teaching credential from the American Montessori Society. Prior to beginning her studies at Penn State, she taught middle school English and history for six years in her home state of North Carolina. Katharine is interested in the history of progressive education in America and increasing access to progressive methodologies in the public sector.

Sarah L. Hairston is a Ph.D. candidate in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Previously, she taught theatre and public speaking for 16 years and holds an Educational Specialist degree in Educational Leadership and a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction. Her current research interests include educational discourse from a Foucauldian lens, democratic education, student agency and voice, and educational policy.

Beth Howd is a Ph.D. student in the Education Theory and Policy program at Penn State University.  She has over fifteen years of experience teaching chemistry and physics in multiple settings.  These experiences have created an interest in urban and rural education, school effectiveness, and STEM education.  She holds an M.Div. from Mercer University and B.S. from Furman University.

Lee Juarez is a PhD student in the Higher Education program at Penn State University. She holds a dual master’s degree in Higher Education and Comparative International Education from Penn State University and a bachelor’s degree in Cognitive Science with a Psychology minor from the University of California, Merced. Her research interest includes studying first generation, transfer, and adult students while analyzing student basic needs insecurity at 2 year and 4 year colleges/universities.

Holly Klock is a Ph.D. candidate in Curriculum and Supervision at Penn State University. Klock is a former intern in her alma mater’s Elementary Professional Development School Partnership. She has also been a supervising professional development associate in this setting during her graduate work. Prior to her graduate studies, Klock taught Kindergarten and Fourth grade in Fairfax County Public Schools. Her research interests involve preservice teacher learning in relation to identity, transformation, and social justice.

Andrea (Andii) Layton is an experienced educator with an enduring commitment to equity, access, leadership, and student empowerment.  She has worked with middle through college-aged students in both traditional and non-traditional academic settings. She holds a master’s degree in social service administration and community schools from the University of Chicago and is currently a Ph.D. student in higher education. Andii is also a Teacher Assistant with the Center for the Study of Higher Education. Her professional portfolio includes working with top researchers from the University of Michigan and creating programming to increase college entry and college graduation for low-income, first-generation students.

Megan E. Lynch is a Ph.D. candidate in Curriculum and Supervision at Penn State University. She has over 10 years of experience teaching emergent bilinguals both abroad and in the United States. Situating herself in Marxist and Vygotskian scholarship, Megan’s current research interests are in developing a socially just pedagogy in teachers, primarily within the contexts of professional development schools, instructional supervision, and preservice teacher education.

Kelly McGurgan is a doctoral candidate in Curriculum and Supervision at Penn State University. As an elementary reading specialist in a rural Pennsylvania public school district, Ms. McGurgan works with students from kindergarten through third grade.  In the past nineteen years she has worked with primary, intermediate, and K-12 gifted and advanced students. She also has facilitated online Masters’ courses for students working to earn their Reading Specialist certifications in Pennsylvania and as a public school district administrator. Kelly’s current interests include video self-analysis as professional development, online education, teacher evaluations, and teaching strategies.

Jonathan (JD) McCausland is a PhD student in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus in Science Education at Penn State University. He is a former high school science teacher who served New York City’s “overage and under-credited” population and holds an M.Ed. from Brooklyn College. His current research interests surround preservice teacher education as well as understanding the experiences and policies affecting the success of “overage and under-credited” students and their teachers.

Arun Muthusamy is a graduate student currently enrolled at the University of Cincinnati(UC) for a MA in Educational studies (with a Higher Education Administration focus) and a Masters in Neuroscience. His research interests are centered around equity in education, higher education administration and internationalization of education. He has a tonne of student leadership experience as a result of multiple leadership opportunities at UC including President of the UC Quiz Club (UCQC), Creative Director of TEDxUCincinnati and President of the Graduate Student Government (GSG). Prior to joining the University of Cincinnati, he obtained a Bachelors in Chemistry and a Masters in Biology from IISER-Thiruvananthapuram.

Logan Rutten is a Ph.D. candidate in Curriculum and Supervision with a minor in Educational Theory and Policy at Penn State University. A classicist and musician, he has taught grades K-12 in public, charter, and cyber schools. Logan studies the relationship between practitioner inquiry and teacher learning. He also studies teacher education and instructional supervision. He earned a B.A. at Concordia College and an M.Ed. from Penn State.

Hansol Woo is a dual-title Ph.D. candidate in Educational Leadership Program and Comparative International Education at Pennsylvania State University. Previously, he received a Master of Education in Educational Administration from Seoul National University, he was a research associate at Korean Educational Development Institute. In addition, Hansol worked as associate manager in charge of training programs for school leaders at National Academy for Educational Administrators in South Korea. His current research interests include teacher quality and policy in international context, including teacher collaboration, professional learning with technological innovation.

Supporting members of the American Journal of Education editorial team:

Mindy Kornhaber, Student Board Advisor

Gerald LeTendre, Editor

Dana Mitra, Editor

David Gamson, Book Review Editor

Alumni  of the Student Board are:

Megan Austin
Shefa AlHashmi
Katie Bateman
Nikolaus Barkauskas
Elizabeth Bell
Pauli Badenhorst
Deanna Burgess
Leslie Cano
Jana Clinton
Alex Collopy
Susan Crandall Hart
Samantha Deane
Jason A. Engerman
Scott D. Farver
Kathryn Fishman-Weaver
Anne Frank-Webb
Adam Hocker
Emily Hodge
Barbara Hou
Joseph Levitan
Jing Liu
Daniel A. Lilly
Lorraine A. Jones
Kayla Johnson
Jacob Kirksey
Bryan Mann
Natasha Mansur
Vanessa Miller
Rachel Montgomery
Raquel Muñiz
Mary Neville
Nnenna Ogbu
Abigail Orrick
Andrew Pendola
Yahya Shamekhi
Stormy Stark
Aubree Webb
Shulong Yan
Sarah Zipf
Diane Zack