New Faculty 2007-8

Laura Justice - Professor

Professor Laura Justice (PhD, Ohio University), a speech-language pathologist, is a nationally prominent scholar in child language and literacy development and disorders, with emphasis on intervention for children at risk due to poverty and/or language impairment. She publishes extensively across the disciplines of early childhood, speech and language disorders, reading, and special education. With impressive funding from the US Department of Education and the National Institutes of Health, she is a frequently invited speaker, sharing her novel approaches and rigorous design of her intervention research, including the development of innovative tools for measuring children's understanding of print knowledge, and interventions for improving children's language and vocabulary. Justice joined the School of Teaching and Learning at the start of autumn quarter.

Azita Manouchehri - Professor

With an outstanding background in mathematics and mathematics education, Professor Azita Manouchehri (PhD, University of Georgia-Athens) has contributed significantly to mathematics curriculum reform, the role and impact of technology in mathematics instruction, and mathematical classroom discourse, its effect on student learning, and the results when teachers use it for inquiry-based teaching. Her impressive publication record spans the leading journals in mathematics education, mathematics education teaching, and general teacher education. She has gained an unusually broad audience for her work both within and outside the typical community of mathematics educators. Manouchehri joined the School of Teaching and Learning at the beginning of autumn quarter.

Elaine Richardson - Professor

Professor Elaine Richardson's (PhD, Michigan State University) rich and sophisticated body of work pushes the boundaries of theory and practice in linguistics, literary theory, language arts education and composition studies, and popular culture. She is one of the top scholars in the nation focusing on literacy studies among African-American youth and has created a culturally relevant model of composition instruction that brings cultural legacies of students to the forefront of the curriculum and helps them become proficient writers. The frequency of her speaking engagements and the many awards she has received for her books attest to the enthusiasm that the broad academic community has for her research. Richardson joined the School of Teaching and Learning at the start of autumn quarter.

Ross Nehm - Associate Professor

Ross Nehm (PhD, University of California Berkeley) is both a scientist and a science teacher educator. He began his career as a paleobiologist with a PhD in biology. He chose to earn an EdM in science education and taught high school science. Later, he entered college teaching, holding dual faculty appointments in biology and science education. Through his recent National Science Foundation Career Award, he brings together undergraduate students and international scientists in research on evolutionary biology. His ambitious science education research program adds to the School of Teaching and Learning's STEM education initiative and to Metro High School, the university's STEM laboratory school.

Valerie Kinloch - Assistant Professor

With an interest in adolescent identities and youth digital literacies, writing research, urban education, and African American studies, Valerie Kinloch (PhD, Wayne State University) joined the School of Teaching and Learning from Teachers College - Columbia University where she was an assistant professor of English education. Active in the field, Kinloch works with youth and teachers in local high schools to facilitate her research and professional development. For instance, she was a visiting instructor, student/teacher mentor, and researcher at two Harlem high schools (2005-2007). Kinloch has multiple publications, has given many presentations, and has received funding from the Spencer Foundation and the National Council of Teachers of English.

Leslie Moore - Assistant Professor

Leslie Moore (PhD, UCLA), who joined the School of Teaching and Learning this autumn, is an applied linguist with a deep interest in variation and change over time in the ways communities organize their communicative interactions, particularly in settings characterized by cultural and linguistic contact. She specializes in language socialization research, an ethnographic and interactional discourse analytic approach to the study of human learning and development, and did postdoctoral study with developmental psychologist Barbara Rogoff. Moore has conducted most of her research in multilingual communities in northern Cameroon, where she has worked since 1992. She examines the cultural patterning of children's apprenticeship into multiple languages and the activities and relationships associated with them.