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Daniel Martín Garzón, Equity, Bilingualism & Biliteracy
Dissertation: “Languaging in Miami in Restrictive Times: A Letter of Hope”
Faculty Advisor: Mileidis Gort

Dr. Daniel Garzón earned his doctorate in Equity, Bilingualism, and Biliteracy. His dissertation, "Languaging in Miami in Restrictive Times: A Letter of Hope", explored the interactions and intersections of social dynamics, language ideologies, and individual and collective agency in emergent bilinguals’ languaging practices—and how these practices are influenced by the multiple layers of language policy articulation and implementation—in an elementary bilingual school in South Florida. As a doctoral student, Danny exhibited an impressive ability to connect theory and research with his own experiences as an elementary teacher, second generation Latinx immigrant, and first-generation college student. Danny continues to live these experiences and intersecting identities in his teacher education work at California State University Los Angeles, where he has been an assistant professor of bilingual education since August 2025.

Devon Hedrick-Shaw, Equity, Bilingualism & Biliteracy and Teacher Learning, Research & Practice
Dissertation: “Learning to Become Language Policy Actors: A Qualitative Longitudinal Study of Bilingual Special Educators in Synchronous-Service Teacher Preparation”
Faculty Advisors: Jamy Stillman and Mileidis Gort

Dr. Devon Hedrick-Shaw earned his PhD in Equity, Bilingualism and Biliteracy and Teacher Learning, Research and Practice. His study, "Learning to Become Language Policy Actors: A Qualitative Longitudinal Study of Bilingual Special Educators in Synchronous-Service Teacher Preparation", draws on queer theory and a critical, sociocultural policy framework to explore the relationship between education policy and teacher learning in Synchronous Service Programs in the context of Bilingual Special Education. A recipient of 91�Թ���’s GPTI Award and the SOE Outstanding Teaching Award, Devon has made critical contributions to the elementary teacher education program and A Queer Endeavor and been an essential participant in research projects focused on bilingual education and teacher learning. Devon will join the faculty of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as an Assistant Professor of Bilingual Education this fall.

Elizabeth Silva Diaz, Equity, Bilingualism & Biliteracy
Dissertation: “Yo soy bilingüe—The Perspectives and Experiences of Emergent Bilinguals with Dis/ability Designations”
Faculty Advisor: Jamy Stillman

Dr. Elizabeth Silva Diaz earned her PhD in Equity, Bilingualism and Biliteracy. Her dissertation study, "Yo soy bilingüe: Perspectives and experiences of emergent bilinguals with dis/ability designations", uses critical theories of race and disability to challenge deficit narratives about students with double designations that dominate public and educational discourse. Now a faculty member and program director for the Bilingual/Dual Language, TESOL, and Childhood Special Education Programs at Bank Street Graduate School of Education in New York City, Elizabeth aims to empower future educators with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to honor the resilience, creativity, and strengths of emergent bilinguals with disabilities, paving the way for more equitable, inclusive education systems.

Mary Beth Snow Balderas, Equity, Bilingualism & Biliteracy
Dissertation: “Language, Literacy, and Belonging: A Descriptive Inquiry Study of Early Childhood Teachers’ Experiences in a High-Stakes Teaching Context”
Faculty Advisor: Mileidis Gort

An exceptional scholar, teacher, and teacher educator, Dr. Mary Beth Snow Balderas earned her doctorate in Equity, Bilingualism, and Biliteracy. Her dissertation, "Language, Literacy, and Belonging: A Descriptive Inquiry Study of Early Childhood Teachers’ Experiences in a High-Stakes Teaching Context", explored the experiences and sensemaking of teachers serving young multilingual students of diverse language and ability backgrounds in the context of a state takeover. By centering the perspectives of community- involved, experienced teachers of color, the study offers insight into perspectives that have traditionally been ignored or dismissed by educational reform movements. Mary Beth’s work is poised not only to impact the broader fields of language and literacy education and teacher education, but also to influence broader policy conversations involving district and state level officials who exert influence over or carry out the implementation of “school improvement.”

Melissa Campanella, Learning Sciences & Human Development
Dissertation: “Learning to Break the Loop”
Faculty Advisors: Bill Penuel and Ben Kirshner

Melissa Campanella earned a doctorate in learning sciences and human development. Her three-article dissertation, “Learning to Break the Loop,” explored how to break cycles of injustice in schools and in research-practice partnerships. In one article, she co-designed and studied the use of a toolkit that enabled citizen-activists to defend new social studies standards in Colorado that address BIPOC and LGBTQIA2S+ communities’ struggles for justice and contributions to society. In addition, she explored practices in two different research-practice partnerships for humanizing relationships and for engaging partners in research. Melissa leads the assessment practice in the inquiryHub group at 91�Թ���.��

Ashieda McKoy, Learning Sciences & Human Development and Teacher Learning, Research & Practice
Dissertation: “Prototyping Possibility: Leveraging Afrofuturism in the Design of Justice-Centered Future Educator Learning Environments”
Faculty Advisor: Bill Penuel

Ashieda McKoy successfully defended her dissertation in learning sciences and human development. Her dissertation, "Prototyping Possibility: Leveraging Afrofuturism in the Design of Justice-centered Future Educator Learning Environments" investigates activities that support students in a course on learning with technology in and out of schools to explore matters of justice in everyday technologies. She introduces an Afrofuturist learning framework and uses it as a lens to analyze student projects, reflections, and discussions in a course she re-designed and taught for her study. She explores a new space within an emerging body of scholarship on Afrofuturism in the learning sciences, preservice education.

Adria Padilla-Chavez, Learning Sciences & Human Development
Dissertation: “Buscando La Luz: Children's Expressions of Dignity in a Co-Designed Workshop”
Faculty Advisors: Ben Kirshner and Susan Jurow

Adria Padilla-Chávez is a PhD graduate of Learning Sciences and Human Development. Her dissertation, "Buscando la luz: Children’s Expressions of Dignity in a Co-designed Workshop", explores a social design experiment co-designed with elementary-aged Latine children. Through ethnographic observation and micro-interactional analysis, Adria reveals the children’s collaborations, brilliance, and critiques of schooling. Addressing the intentionally blurred line between researcher and participant, she reflects on her role as designer and teacher, navigating her own learning and unlearning in the workshop. Adria’s work emphasizes how affirming dignity in learning environments fosters new forms of worldmaking, highlighting people’s capacities for coordination and care.��

Marlene Palomar, Learning Sciences & Human Development
Dissertation: “Nuancing Healing: Paths of Conocimiento for Women and Girls of Color”
Faculty Advisor: Kalonji Nzinga

Marlene Palomar is a PhD graduate of Learning Sciences and Human Development. Her dissertation, "Nuancing Healing: Paths of Conocimiento" extends Chicana Feminist Epistemologies, most centrally the work of Gloria Anzaldua. She uses Anzalduan theories of conocimiento to operationalize intergenerational healing within learning environments for femmes of color. Marlene constructs a new framework entitled TEA (Technology Engineering and Art), offering tangible design principles for learning environments where girls and women engage in collective storytelling and becoming. TEA is grounded in a metaphor for rituals of tea making, sharing, and drinking prevalent in her own maternal lineage.

Ishita Pradhan, Learning Sciences & Human Development
Dissertation: “Caste and Learning in Higher Education Activist Movements”
Faculty Advisor: Susan Jurow

Ishita Pradhan earned her doctorate in Learning Sciences & Human Development. Her dissertation, "Caste and Learning in Higher Education Activist Movements", explores marginalized-caste students’ experiences in Indian higher education. Focusing on students’ life histories, Ishita examines how marginalization shapes identity, motivation, and what she calls “activism for dignity.” Her research contributes significantly to understanding social movements as spaces for learning and development and informs policy on student activism. Completed during a time of increasing oppression in India, her work is both timely and courageous, offering vital insights for higher education leaders, human rights educators, and activists alike.

Beatriz Salazar, Learning Sciences & Human Development
Dissertation: “Latina Testimonios of Failure:��Trenzas of Failure, Learning, and Survivance in the Latina Experience”
Faculty Advisor: Ben Kirshner

Beatriz Salazar Medina is a PhD graduate of the Learning Sciences and Human Development program. Her dissertation, titled, "Latina testimonios of failure: Trenzas of failure, learning, and survivance in the Latina experience” is guided by her ethical commitments and relational approach to community-engaged work. Beatriz’s study shows how collaborators drew on practices of survivance and close relationships to navigate setbacks and redefine failure in ways that center their learning, healing, and resistance. Her dissertation offers a compelling call for more humanizing education practices and the need for all of us to normalize failure in human development and learning.

Trang Chau Tran, Learning Sciences & Human Development
Dissertation: “Explorations of the Structure-Agency Dialectic Across Three STEM Education Contexts Focused on Equity and Identity Development”
Faculty Advisor: Joe Polman

Trang Tran earned her doctorate in Learning Sciences and Human Development. Her three-article dissertation was entitled “Explorations of the structure-agency dialectic across three STEM education contexts focused on equity and identity development.” Her work examines engagement in policies and programs across state, university, and K-12 settings. She studied how STEM education leaders navigate policies promoting and hindering equity; how college students transform through guided participation in engineering outreach; and how middle school students do projects where they learn how to use data critically while engaging emotionally with unjust histories. Trang brings people together, and creates highly collaborative, deeply humane learning environments. In January 2025, Dr. Tran began as an Assistant Research Professor at University of Alaska Anchorage.

Blanca E. Trejo Aguilera, Learning Sciences & Human Development
Dissertation: “Healing from the Harms of Schooling”
Faculty Advisor: Ben Kirshner

Blanca Trejo Aguilera is a PhD graduate in Learning Sciences and Human Development. Her dissertation, titled “Healing from the harms of schooling,” examines the experiences of Latine students in a predominantly white high school. Blanca used radical healing and Indigenous traditional knowledge approaches to make visible the students’ painful experiences of schooling, the healing and medicine they fostered through relationships, and their radical imaginations of liberatory education for themselves and future generations. Blanca's work seeks to push the fields of youth organizing and public education to incorporate healing justice and Indigenous knowledge to create a future of abundance and balance.

Sari Widman, Learning Sciences & Human Development
Dissertation: “Exploring Possibilities for Meaningful and Consequential STE(A)M Learning in Public Libraries”
Faculty Advisor: Joe Polman

Sari Widman earned a doctorate in Learning Sciences and Human Development. Their dissertation was entitled “Exploring possibilities for meaningful and consequential STE(A)M learning in public libraries.” They examined how the infrastructures at two libraries had an impact on staff and community members who participated in library programs. Dr. Widman interrogated the values and power relations embedded in the library’s infrastructures, and looked at their implications for fostering critical consciousness and equitable learning of science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics. Dr. Widman’s work offers insight to researchers and practitioners trying to help libraries fulfill their missions to equitably serve the public.

Olivia Jackson Cox, Literacy Studies
Dissertation: “School Based Partnership Amid Science of Reading Reform: Collaborating on Instruction with Rural Elementary Educators”
Faculty Advisor: Elizabeth Dutro

Dr. Olivia Cox is a PhD graduate of Literacy Studies. Her dissertation explores her deep partnership with teachers and administrators at a rural elementary school during a time when teachers and schools were navigating intensive policy mandates. Her study demonstrates teachers as key knowledge-holders in shifting instructional practices and examines the interplay of policy, curriculum, professional learning, and school leadership. Her work is impactful for her partners, where she is a beloved and trusted collaborator, and holds crucial implications for research and practice at the intersections of university-school partnerships in rural districts, support for policy mandates, and school-based collaborative professional learning.

Emily Grace Johns-O'Leary, Literacy Studies
Dissertation: “‘I Would Describe Myself as a Young Artist"’: Integrating Students' Creativity and Social-Emotional Learning into Bilingual Literacy Supports”
Faculty Advisor: Silvia Noguerón-Liu

Emily Johns O'Leary earned her doctorate in Literacy Studies. Building on the the ideas shared by children in her study, her dissertation is titled: "'I would describe myself as a young artist'" Integrating students' creativity and social-emotional learning into bilingual literacy supports." We could describe Emily as an artful and extraordinary teacher and scholar; a careful listener and observer, who centers the gifts and assets of all students at the heart of instruction. Her dissertation examined the ways reading intervention and small-group instruction can (and should!) connect students' goals, linguistic repertoires, and creative efforts with academic performance. By analyzing interactions with students, their writing process and finished products, Emily illustrates the ways literacy activites and assessment can allow students to position themselves in powerful ways. In her time at CU, her contributions to teacher education, outreach, and research projects elevated and expanded our understanding of literacy in all its forms and modalities. Congratulations, Dr. Johns O'Leary!

Chelsea Rae Kent, Literacy Studies and Teacher Learning, Research & Practice
Dissertation: “For the Love of Writing: A Collaborative Pursuit Towards Humanizing Writing Experiences for Preservice Teachers”
Faculty Advisor: Wendy Glenn

Chelsea Kent is a PhD graduate of the Literacy Studies and Teacher Learning, Research, and Practice programs. Her dissertation explored the possibilities that emerged when preservice teachers engaged with writing and discourse around the teaching of writing through their participation in a community of practice that centered theories and pedagogies of love. This work unearthed how teachers might enact loving practices in their teaching and how teacher educators might leverage love to support preservice teachers in their becoming as teachers of writing and as writers themselves. Deeply collaborative, curious, and humble, Chelsea brings a willing spirit to all she does.

Jillian Millie Kneeland, Literacy Studies
Dissertation: “Dismantling the Teetering Tendencies of Global Citizenship Education with Decolonial Literacy Practices”
Faculty Advisor: Wendy Glenn

Jillian Kneeland is a PhD graduate of the Literacy Studies program. Her dissertation centered research conducted with a high school teacher and her students at an international school in Panama. Drawing upon theoretical decoloniality and the intersections between literacy learning and global citizenship education (GCE), this work explored how international school teachers implemented decolonial literacy practices in their English classes to develop critical GCE and what researchers and educators can learn from students who engaged with decolonial literacy as they explored what GCE meant to them. Unassuming and open to alternative perspectives, Jill makes others feel important and valued.

Jacqueline Smilack, Literacy Studies
Dissertation: “Leaning into the Discomfort of School Reform: A Reflective Teacher Leader Attends to the Whole Educator and Affective Spaces in Professional Learning Cycles”
Faculty Advisor: Elizabeth Dutro

Jackie Smilack is a PhD graduate in Literacy Studies. In her dissertation, she traced the design and enactment of professional learning cycles for high school humanities teachers in the context of an urban high school in the midst of a turnaround reform process after being categorized as “underperforming” by the district. With implications for school leaders navigating reform, her findings examine the iterations and adaptations of sessions based on teacher needs and goals, the impact of change on students, teachers, and leaders, and the role of teacher and administrator leadership. In concert with her rich qualitative analysis, Jackie uses creative writing to weave her reflections and learnings as a teacher leader researcher throughout the dissertation.��

Emily Yerkes, Literacy Studies
Dissertation: “Reconstructing Literacies Beyond the Page: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Elementary Literacy in the Context of a State-Level Early Reading Policy”
Faculty Advisor: Elizabeth Dutro

Emily Yerkes is a PhD graduate in Literacy Studies. Her dissertation analyzes the discourse and interpretations of a high-impact state reading policy, applying the tools of Critical Discourse Analysis to examine the language used in policy, media, and a classroom. Her findings suggest that “literacy” and “reading” are often conflated in discourse surrounding early literacy instruction in a way that elides crucial forms of literacy and knowledge, particularly literacies that center historically marginalized communities. This work has significant implications for teacher educators, pre-service and in-service teachers, and critical scholars and communities who desire to navigate policy in ways that ensure children are seen as literate and knowledgeable from the moment they step into the classroom.��

Medjy Pierre-Louis, Research and Evaluation Methodology
Dissertation: “An Alternative to SAT?: An Investigation into the Validity of a High School Capstone Project as an Assessment of Post-Secondary Readiness”
Faculty Advisors: Derek Briggs and Ben Shear

Medjy Pierre-Louis earned her doctorate in Research and Evaluation Methodology. Her dissertation is titled "An Alternative to SAT?: An Investigation into the Validity of a High School Capstone Project as an Assessment of Post-Secondary Readiness." Using a validity argument framework, Dr. Pierre-Louis drew on quantitative and qualitative data sources to investigate the validity of using a performance-based assessment as an alternative to the SAT to assess student postsecondary and workforce readiness in one rural Colorado district. Her work offers important insights into the affordances and challenges to using performance-based assessments in ways that provide fair opportunities for all students.

Brenda Aguirre Ortega, STEM Education
Dissertation: “Observing, Organizing and Acting: Counter-Hegemonic Spaces in Mathematics Education for Teachers, Students and Researchers”
Faculty Advisors: Enrique López and Vicki Hand

Brenda Aguirre-Ortega is a PhD graduate in STEM Education. Born in Esmeraldas, Ecuador, she holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Universidad San Francisco de Quito and an MA in Curriculum and Instruction from 91�Թ���. Her research interests center on mathematics education and equity, exploring the relationships between cultural practices, identity, and mathematics learning. As part of her dissertation research, Brenda has investigated mathematics teachers’ development of political conocimiento as well as developed and implemented an after-school program for bilingual Latinx elementary students that integrates music production and mathematics content and practices, called "Te lo cuento con canciones”, which translates to “I tell and count with songs”. Brenda has received several awards including: the Center for Humanities and the Arts Summer Fellowship, Graduate Fellowship in Community-Based Research, and Community Impact Grant, to name a few. We are confident Brenda will expand upon her scholarship and work as she transitions back to Ecuador to serve her home community.

Kachine Kulick, Teacher Learning, Research & Practice
Dissertation: “Name It, Embrace It, Feel It: Cultivating Somatic Embodied Justice Orientations In Teacher Learning and the Everyday”
Faculty Advisors: Sara Staley and Susan Jurow

Kachine Kulick has earned her doctorate in Teacher Learning, Research, and Practice. Her dissertation, "Name it, Embrace it, Feel it: Cultivating Somatic Embodied Justice Orientations in Teacher Learning and the Everyday", explored how preservice teachers took up somatic embodiment practices in an elementary education course she designed and taught. Drawing on critical, queer, and anti-racist perspectives, Kachine designed somatic embodiment tools for supporting preservice teachers to work through physical sensations that emerge in conversations about racism and whiteness. Her study contributes a praxis-focused snapshot of how somatic embodiment tools can be utilized in justice-oriented teacher education. Congratulations, Dr. Kulick!

Devon Hedrick-Shaw, Equity, Bilingualism & Biliteracy and Teacher Learning, Research & Practice
Dissertation: “Learning to Become Language Policy Actors: A Qualitative Longitudinal Study of Bilingual Special Educators in Synchronous-Service Teacher Preparation”
Faculty Advisors: Jamy Stillman and Mileidis Gort

Dr. Devon Hedrick-Shaw earned his PhD in Equity, Bilingualism and Biliteracy and Teacher Learning, Research and Practice. His study, "Learning to Become Language Policy Actors: A Qualitative Longitudinal Study of Bilingual Special Educators in Synchronous-Service Teacher Preparation", draws on queer theory and a critical, sociocultural policy framework to explore the relationship between education policy and teacher learning in Synchronous Service Programs in the context of Bilingual Special Education. A recipient of 91�Թ���’s GPTI Award and the SOE Outstanding Teaching Award, Devon has made critical contributions to the elementary teacher education program and A Queer Endeavor and been an essential participant in research projects focused on bilingual education and teacher learning. Devon will join the faculty of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as an Assistant Professor of Bilingual Education this fall.

Ashieda McKoy, Learning Sciences & Human Development and Teacher Learning, Research & Practice
Dissertation: “Prototyping Possibility: Leveraging Afrofuturism in the Design of Justice-Centered Future Educator Learning Environments”
Faculty Advisor: Bill Penuel

Ashieda McKoy successfully defended her dissertation in learning sciences and human development. Her dissertation, "Prototyping Possibility: Leveraging Afrofuturism in the Design of Justice-centered Future Educator Learning Environments" investigates activities that support students in a course on learning with technology in and out of schools to explore matters of justice in everyday technologies. She introduces an Afrofuturist learning framework and uses it as a lens to analyze student projects, reflections, and discussions in a course she re-designed and taught for her study. She explores a new space within an emerging body of scholarship on Afrofuturism in the learning sciences, preservice education.

Chelsea Rae Kent, Literacy Studies and Teacher Learning, Research & Practice
Dissertation: “For the Love of Writing: A Collaborative Pursuit Towards Humanizing Writing Experiences for Preservice Teachers”
Faculty Advisor: Wendy Glenn

Chelsea Kent is a PhD graduate of the Literacy Studies and Teacher Learning, Research, and Practice programs. Her dissertation explored the possibilities that emerged when preservice teachers engaged with writing and discourse around the teaching of writing through their participation in a community of practice that centered theories and pedagogies of love. This work unearthed how teachers might enact loving practices in their teaching and how teacher educators might leverage love to support preservice teachers in their becoming as teachers of writing and as writers themselves. Deeply collaborative, curious, and humble, Chelsea brings a willing spirit to all she does.