Kathleen Lynch is an Assistant Professor of Learning Sciences

Academic Degrees: 
Ed.D., Education, Harvard University
Ed.M., Education Policy and Management, Harvard University
Ed.M., Specialized Studies, Harvard University
A.B., History and Literature, Harvard College

Bianca Montrosse-Moorhead is an Associate Professor and Director of Online Learning for the Research Methods, Measurement, and Evaluation program at the University of Connecticut (UConn). She is also an Affiliated Faculty member for the Center for Educational Policy Analysis, Research, and Evaluation, and for the Center for Applied Research in Human Development, both housed at UConn. As an evaluation researcher, educator, and practitioner, Dr. Montrosse-Moorhead specializes in evaluation methodology, theory, practice, and capacity building. Her research focuses on improving evaluation quality, evaluator education, and conducting applied studies of policies and educational interventions designed to promote student learning and educational equity. Her scholarship has appeared in the American Journal of Evaluation, New Directions for Evaluation, the Journal of Multidisciplinary Evaluation, Evaluation and Program Planning, Early Childhood Research Quality, and Teacher Education and Special Education. She regularly provides reviews for the major evaluation journals and Sage and Routledge’s evaluation textbook divisions. In 2014, Dr. Montrosse-Moorhead was awarded the American Evaluation Association’s (AEA) Marcia Guttentag Award for early career contributions.

H. Kenny Nienhusser is an Associate Professor in and Program Coordinator of the Higher Education & Student Affairs Program and Faculty Director of La Comunidad Intelectual, a learning community that nurtures students who identify as Latinx and/or Caribbean or are interested in issues that affect those communities. He is also Affiliate Faculty in El Instituto: Institute of Latina/o, Caribbean, and Latin American Studies. Previously, Professor Nienhusser was an Associate Professor in the Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership in the College of Education, Nursing, and Health Professions at the University of Hartford. As a first-generation Latino college student who grew up in a working-class household of immigrant parents, diversity, equity, and inclusion are at the core of his work as a researcher, teacher, advisor, and scholar-citizen.

His research examines the postsecondary education access of minoritized youth in the United States. More specifically, he addresses two lines of inquiry that shape higher education opportunities for minoritized youth. The first line of scholarship includes a further understanding of the origins of public policies and their implementation environments that affect the postsecondary education access of minoritized youth. The second explores the experiences of minoritized youth (and more recently their families) as they navigate higher education access barriers (largely the consequences of discriminatory public policies and practices). Most of his scholarship has investigated the public policy landscape and experiences of undocumented immigrant youth including those with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status in relation to their postsecondary education access.

Grace Player is an Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Instruction

Academic Degrees:
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
MA, Teachers College, Columbia University
BA, Psychology, Vassar College

Areas of Expertise:
Girls of Color Literacies
Women of Color Feminisms and Education
Critical Writing Pedagogy
Social Justice-Oriented Education
Community Literacies
Literacy Pedagogy

Megan Staples is an Associate Professor of Mathematics Education

Academic Degrees:
Ph.D, Mathematics Education, Stanford University, 2004
MA, Mathematics Education, Stanford University, 1999
BA, Mathematics, Brown University, 1992

Areas of Expertise:
Mathematics Education (Secondary)
Classroom Discourse
Mathematical Argumentation and Justification
Teacher Education
Student Groupings