a student walking on the OSU oval

Ten new faculty have joined the College of Education and Human Ecology this autumn, including a new chair for the Department of Human Sciences. Most come from universities in Ohio and across the country, but three have been promoted from within the college. 

Educational Studies

Yvonne Goddard
Associate Professor of Educational Policy
Director of the First Education Experience Program

Interests: Teacher collaboration and its connections with school leadership, teacher practices and teaching efficacy; effective instruction; connecting teaching practice to school climate

Goddard has served for three years as visiting professor as director of the First Education Experience Program, which supports undergraduates in exploring education as a career path through real-world experiences. She will continue in that role. She revamped the program, working to build partnerships with faculty and staff across campus and throughout the community. Her research examines teacher collaboration and using differentiated instruction to produce measurable student outcomes.

Her work has been published in Teachers College Record, the American Journal of Education, the Elementary School Journal, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis and Educational Administration Quarterly. As co-PI on a $2.7-million grant from the Institute of Education Sciences, she examined the efficacy of a school leadership training program. She chairs the department’s Diversity Committee and as a member of the Dean’s Advisory Committee on Diversity. She works across campus to recruit, support and retain underrepresented students, with a focus on African-American males.

 

Scott Graves
Associate Professor of School Psychology

Interests: Understanding protective factors that lead to appropriate development in early childhood; identifying strengths in African American children that lead to positive socio-emotional and academic outcomes.

Graves’ recent scholarship examines the effectiveness of culturally adapted social/emotional interventions for black children and diversifying school psychology. While at Duquesne University, his published works included contributions with his graduate student researchers in School Psychology Quarterly, Journal of Early Intervention, the Journal of Black Psychology and the Journal of African American Studies.

His book, Psychoeducational Assessment and Intervention for Ethnic Minority Children: Evidence Based Approaches, was published by the American Psychological Association in 2016. He also has served in high-profile professional roles, including the chair of the American Psychological Association’s Committee on Ethnic Minority Affairs and, currently, associate editor of School Psychology Forum. He previously was associate editor of the Journal of School Psychology. Graves has been named a National Institute of Mental Health Scholar and received an early career scholar award from the School Psychology Research Collaboration.

 

Amy C. Barnes
Assistant Professor of Higher Education and Student Affairs

Interests: Critical perspectives of leadership theory and college student leadership development, strengths-based leadership development, development of cultural competency among college students, student mentoring

Transitioning from a senior lecturer role, Barnes brings expertise in both teaching and college student affairs administration. She has 14 years of experience working in various student affairs offices, including residence life, first-year experience and career services. Since 2005 she has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in leadership development, group dynamics, case analysis and intercultural leadership.

Her research and teaching interests include critical pedagogy and student leadership development. She is co-author of the Innovative Leadership Workbook for College Students and recently co-authored Leadership Theory: Facilitator’s Guide for Cultivating Critical Perspectives.

 

Jessica Logan
Assistant Professor of Quantitative Research, Evaluation and Measurement

Interests: Use of advanced and emerging statistical techniques to further the field’s understanding of preschool and elementary-age students’ cognitive development and its contributing factors, and to introduce advanced statistical and research methods to education researchers.

Logan has been a senior researcher for EHE’s Crane Center for Early Childhood Research and Policy for the past five years. Her background spans research methods, statistics, psychology and education. Her research focuses on measuring individual differences in young children’s learning and best practices in supporting their knowledge and skills growth.

She is author or co-author of more than 40 articles in refereed journals, including Child Development and the Journal of Educational Psychology. As a co-principal investigator on eight research grant projects from funders such as the National Institutes of Health and the Institute of Education Sciences, she generates results that teachers can apply to benefit their preschool and elementary-age students. She will continue as associate faculty with the Crane Center.

 

Minjung Kim
Assistant Professor of Quantitative Research, Evaluation and Measurement (QREM)

Interests: Latent variable modeling (e.g., regression mixture models, growth mixture models) and longitudinal data analysis using multilevel modeling and latent growth modeling; investigating the advanced method of growth modeling – including latent growth curve modeling and growth mixture modeling.

Kim brings expertise in structural equation modeling (SEM) and multilevel modeling to the growing QREM faculty at Ohio State. Currently, she focuses her research on evaluating the method of Regression Mixture Models under SEM framework, which allows researchers to explore the potential differential effects of interest in outcomes.

She received her doctoral degree from Texas A&M University and was an assistant professor at the University of Alabama prior to joining EHE.

 

Human Sciences

Erik Porfeli
Chair of Department of Human Sciences

Interests: Lifespan career development with an emphasis on how children and young adults establish a career identity and adapt their career goals in the face of changing life circumstances

Porfeli focuses his career on promoting positive human health and development and strengthening the fabric of our communities. He specializes in harmonizing and aligning resources and partnerships around a common mission. As one example, his prior role was associate dean of community engagement and admissions and tenured faculty in the Department of Family and Community Medicine for the Northeast Ohio Medical University.

He also co-directed the Ohio Alliance, a statewide program of the national Sullivan Alliance to Transform the Health Professions. Composed of scientific, educational, workforce and community partners, the alliance focused on meeting Ohio’s most pressing health care needs, especially in medically underserved communities. Under Porfeli, the alliance appreciably increased the number of underrepresented young people pursuing health professions education at member institutions. In funding, he and his collaborators built a portfolio of more than $9 million to support research and programs. He has also developed career assessments used in research and practice worldwide. He serves as associate editor of the Journal of Vocational Behavior, the top journal in vocational psychology.

 

Julie Hillery
Clinical Associate Professor of Fashion and Retail Studies

Interests: Ethics, sustainability and corporate responsibility in the fashion, retail and hospitality industries; clothing and society, with emphasis on how dress affects personal and workplace interactions; consumer retailing and consumer behavior; and applied research on best practices in teaching and helping students transition from college to career.

Hillery arrives from the University of New Mexico, where she was a visiting professor and the Garrey Carruthers Endowed Chair in the Honors College. She also taught online fashion and culture courses for Ohio University.

Before that, she garnered 15 years of teaching experience at Northern Illinois University, where she was the Kohl’s Professor of Retailing and Merchandising. In that role, she helped Kohl’s develop its national internship program and placed students in it and in other management positions. With funding from Target and other major retailers, she presented workshops to students on professional development and diversity in the workforce. Hillery has co-authored three books — most recently, Guide to Fashion Career Planning: Job Search, Resumes and Skills for Success. She is working on the second edition of her Ethics in the Fashion Industry. Before entering academia, Hillery spent 20 years in the retail industry as a store manager, buyer, wholesaler and cosmetics sales representative. She has worked with clothing manufacturers representing their clothing lines to retailers across the Midwest.

 

Leeann M. Lower
Assistant Professor of Sport Management

Interests: Effectiveness of sport programs and mechanisms of participant development within the contexts of collegiate recreational sport and youth sport; legal issues, research methods and pedagogical strategies in sport management.

Lower returns to Ohio State as assistant professor after earning her doctoral degree in 2015 with advisor Brian Turner. She studies the development of youth and young adults through sport, recreation and play. In the classroom, Lower takes a humanistic approach to education, customizing the learning experience for each student to guide them toward their academic and professional goals.

As an assistant professor at Ball State University, she published research on gender issues in sport, the priorities of coaching education and motivations to participate in recreational sports.

Teaching and Learning

Peter Sayer
Associate Professor in Dual Language/Bilingual Education

Interests: Educational sociolinguistics; how bilingual communities use their linguistic repertoires; how translanguaging helps to conceptualize multilingual interactions; social justice and language education

Sayer brings more than two decades of experience in English-as-second-language education — as a teacher, educator, researcher and scholar.

His recent research at the University of Texas San Antonio examines how bilingual communities use multiple varieties of Spanish and English to interact within families, local communities and schools.

He conducted ethnographic research in Oaxaca, Mexico, studying how English teachers’ linguistic ideologies impact their teaching. His work encourages taking a more bilingual and diverse view of learners in ESL classrooms, pushing educators to reconsider attempts to separate languages, embrace nonstandard Spanish and understand effective use of translanguaging — drawing from students’ entire language repertoire. Sayer’s published works include the book Ambiguities and Tensions in English Language Teaching: Portraits of EFL Teachers as Legitimate Speakers, eight scholarly chapters and 22 referred journal articles, including in TESOL Quarterly, Modern Language Journal, and ELT Journal. Fluent in Spanish, he taught at Universidad Autónoma de Oaxaca and was a Fulbright scholar at the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla. He has led innovative study-abroad experiences to Mexico and Peru, which included school-based practicum experiences for pre- and in-service teachers and the study of Latin American indigenous languages.

 

Mandy Smith
Assistant Professor in Science Education

Interests: Improving learners’ conceptual understanding in science; building effective learning environments for all students, particularly culturally and linguistically diverse learners.

Smith’s research and writing involves developing science teaching models that are developmentally appropriate for all children, especially from preschool to third grade. Her work considers making science learning more meaningful for underrepresented groups, including multilingual learners. Smith has published in high-impact research outlets such as the International Journal of Science Education and the International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences.

She also co-published chapters in Research in Early Childhood Science Education and International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences, second edition. She has 12 years’ teaching experience in high-need, urban and linguistically diverse schools. After receiving her PhD in science technology engineering and mathematics education at Ohio State in 2015, she taught for two years at Capital University.

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