Research & Teaching Fellows

(Some bios upcoming)

Center Research Fellows

Mary Alfred, Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Professor, FIU
Charles Bleiker, Curriculum & Instruction Professor, FIU
Delia Garcia, Professor & Director of Urban Teacher’s Master’s Program, FIU
Lynne Miller, Curriculum & Instruction Professor, FIU
Anthony Normore, Educational Leadership & Policy Studies Professor, FIU
Linda Spears-Bunton, Curriculum & Instruction Professor, FIU
Robert Vos, Curriculum & Instruction Professor, FIU; Gear Up Express Director
Alex Stepick, Director, Immigration & Ethnicity Institute, FIU
Carol Stepick, Field Research Director, Immigration & Ethnicity Institute, FIU

Center Teaching Fellows

Ira L. Everrett, Jr., Executive Director, Jubilate performance organization
Patricia Lesesne, teacher, Stranahan High School

Research Fellows 

Dr. Bob Probst

Bob Probst has been Professor of English Education at Georgia State University in Atlanta , an English teacher--in both junior and senior high school--in Maryland , and Supervisor of English for the Norfolk , Virginia , Public Schools. He earned an A.B. in English from Amherst College , an M.A.T. in English from Johns Hopkins University , and a Ph.D. in English Education from Duke University .

Probst is a nationally and internationally renowned scholar in literary response theory. Interested in the teaching of both writing and literature, he is the author of Response and Analysis: Teaching Literature in Junior and Senior High School (Boynton/Cook, 1988; revised 2004). He is also Senior Author of Elements of Literature (1997, 2000, 2003), Holt, Rinehart and Winston's literature, composition, and language program for grades 6-12. He has contributed chapters to such books as Literature Instruction: A Focus on Student Response , Reader Response in the Classroom: Evoking and Interpreting Meaning in Literature , Handbook of Research on Teaching the English Language Arts , and Transactions with Literature: A Fifty-Year Perspective ; and has had articles in English Journal , Journal of Reading , Educational Leadership , Revue des Langues Vivantes , The Clearing House , and elsewhere. 

Probst is a member of, among other professional organizations, the International Reading Association and the National Council of Teachers of English, where he has worked on the Committee on Research, the Commission on Reading , and the Commission on Curriculum, and has served on the Board of Directors of the Adolescent Literature Assembly. He is also a member of the National Conference on Research in Language and Literacy.

Dr. Tonette Rocco

Tonette Rocco is an assistant professor finishing her fourth year in the Adult Education and Human Resource Development program at Florida International University . Her research interests include continuing professional education; qualitative research methods; equity and privilege, specifically in terms of race (Critical Race Theory); sexual orientation (Queer Theory); and age and disability (Critical Disability Theory). She is also interested in fostering graduate student writing through a peer support group, the Writing Group; mentoring; personal research; courses such as one on Writing for Publication; and individual support of student writing.

Rocco participated in planning the Third Annual COE Research Conference in 2004 and served as the Qualitative Methods Editor for Human Resource Development Quarterly . She led a group of colleagues from FIU in writing a chapter for The Handbook of Mixed Methodology, published by Sage. A paper based on this chapter was presented at the Academy of Human Resource Development Annual Conference in Honolulu , Hawaii and earned recognition as one of the Defining the Cutting Edge Award Top Ten Best Papers of 2002. An article based on this work was published in Information Technology, Learning, and Performance Journal ( Moorehead , KY : Organizational Systems Research Association).

At the 2002 National Association for Adults with Special Learning Needs Conference, Rocco was a plenary speaker . In 2003 she presented a paper entitled Helping Adult Educators Understand Disability Disclosure, which has also been published by Adult Learning (2001). In addition she has co-authored a chapter in Border Crossings: Adult Education in an Urban Context (Elice Rogers and Larry Martin, Eds.), entitled Discriminative Justice in Adult Education . As a graduate student, she and a colleague published Deconstructing Privilege: An Examination of Privilege in Adult Education in Adult Education Quarterly , the top journal in adult education. This paper also won the Graduate Research Award at the Midwest Research to Practice Conference.

Dr. Greg Bowe

Greg Bowe, Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Florida International University , received his doctorate from the University of New Hampshire in Composition and Rhetoric. He teaches undergraduate courses in writing and grammar, and graduate courses in rhetoric and the teaching of writing. In addition, Bowe supervises some 65 part-time faculty and Graduate Teaching Assistants who teach the bulk of the first-year writing courses.

Bowe's current research focuses on two projects. The first introduces a new pedagogical method to first-year writing courses called Ôwriting circles.' In a writing circles class, regular class meetings are replaced by weekly, one-hour conferences. The teacher and five students work together around a conference table to learn the behaviors of successful writers.

The WebESOL Project, initiated with a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and now supported by the Center for Urban Education, is an interactive resource for teachers and students. WebESOL provides ongoing training for language arts and writing teachers and is based on three principles:

• Language issues perfuse the curriculum at all levels . Furthermore, changes in the demographics of America have already begun to bring language issues in schools into high relief.
• Students who bring more than one language or culture to the class bring a gift to the class. In writing classes, where a focus on language is at the center of the course, teachers can tap deep funds of student knowledge about language to advance their pedagogical aims.
• Helping students learn to write should not arbitrarily re-inscribe the dominant discourse at the expense of students.

Dr. Ann Nevin

Ann Nevin , Visiting Professor at FIU and Professor Emerita at Arizona State University , graduated magna cum laude from the University of Minnesota with a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology. She also earned advanced degrees in special education and educational administration and has participated in the development of innovative teacher education programs since the 1970s. For example, she is one of the co-founders of the Vermont Consulting Teacher Program at the University of Vermont , an innovative teacher preparation program in which special educators collaborate and co-teach with general educators.

Her advocacy, research, and teaching include more than 33 years of working with an array of people to help students with disabilities succeed. Nevin is a national and international scholar and expert in the field of collaborative consultation and inclusion of students with special needs in general education environments. Nevin's research interests include the analysis of variables that favorably affect the academic and social progress of students with disabilities in general education environments; analysis of intercultural variables that affect collaboration; documentation of effective instructional techniques using single subject designs and simple statistical models; ethnographic case study approaches (since 1991); and investigation of principles from critical pedagogy for inclusive special education (since 1998).

A prolific scholar with over 150 publications in refereed journals, chapters in books, and conference proceedings, Nevin has co-authored several well-recognized books, including A Guide to Co-Teaching: Facilitating Student Learning (with J. Thousand and R. Villa, published by Corwin Press, 2004), Creativity and Collaborative Learning, 2 nd Ed. (with J. Thousand and R. Villa, published by Brookes, 2002), and Collaborative Consultation 3 rd Ed. (with L. Idol and P. Paolucci-Whitcomb, published by Pro-Ed). Nevin has also worked on refining the doctoral courses in Exceptional Student Education at FIU in order to address urban special education issues. FIU's Doctoral Program in ESE has traditionally prepared students for faculty, administrative, supervisory, and/or research positions. However, there exists a critical shortage of special education leadership personnel, both nationally and locally. Therefore, special education faculty will begin preparing doctoral-level educators who are culturally and linguistically diverse enough to assume leadership roles in the education of urban students with disabilities.

Dr. Elizabeth Cramer

Elizabeth Cramer is currently an Assistant Professor of Special Education in the Department of Educational and Psychological Studies at Florida International University . She earned her Ph.D. in Special Education and Reading from the University of Miami . A strong research component was built into her doctoral program, allowing her to develop expertise in both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. She also holds her Master's degree in Early Childhood Special Education and Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Cramer has been a teacher of secondary students with learning disabilities, emotional handicaps, and Autism.

Cramer is strongly committed to the field of special education with an emphasis on effective preparation of general educators who can instruct all learners, placement issues, and educational outcomes for learners who are culturally and academically diverse. She is currently a LASER Research Associate and has received a $10,000 grant to study the perceived needs of general educators to effectively instruct all learners. She also co-developed an inclusion course, Teaching Students with Disabilities in Inclusive Settings.

Cramer's current research examines what urban general educators feel they are lacking to successfully teach their diverse population of students. She has also begun to develop a study aimed at examining the effects of inclusive class placement practices on urban students at risk of special education placement. Additionally, she is a co-developer of a new doctoral program in Urban Special Education and has been working to obtain funding to support this initiative as well as others aimed at preparing special and general educators to meet the needs of urban students who are culturally, linguistically, behaviorally, and/or academically diverse.

Gaetane Jean-Marie

Dr. Gaetane Jean-Marie is an Assistant Professor of Educational Administration in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Florida International University. Prior to FIU, she was a faculty member at the University of Oklahoma in educational administration. Her background as an educator & administrator is in pre-college programs and the North Carolina Teaching Fellows.

Gaetane’s commitment to social justice is reflected in her research on women and leadership, urban school reform, and issues of equity & access. She has presented at local, regional and international conferences; conducted keynote addresses; and facilitated in-service training and workshops for faculties on school improvement. Her research has been published in academic journals and book chapters. Her most recent scholarly publications include A repository of hope for social justice: Black women leaders at historically black colleges and universities; Welcoming the unwelcomed: A social justice imperative of African-American female leaders; and Black women activists, leaders and educators: Transforming urban educational practices.

Over the years, her community involvement has involved special populations of students (e.g. economically disadvantaged students and individuals of limited English proficiency) who have been traditionally underrepresented in educational practices. Additionally, as a co-founder of a national youth advocacy group, she is involved in providing support and working with organizations that are committed to social justice and developing interdisciplinary approaches to enhance the lives of youth. As a research fellow, she hopes to continue promoting the vision and mission of the Center for Urban Education & Innovation.

Benjamin Baez

Dr. Benjamin Baez is associate professor of higher education in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Florida International University. He received his law degree in 1988 and his doctorate in higher education in 1997, both from Syracuse University. He published Tenure, Promotion, and Reappointment: Legal and Administrative Implications in 1995 (John Wiley), Affirmative Action, Hate Speech, and Tenure: Narratives About Race, Law, and the Academy in 2002 (Routledge-Falmer), and with Marybeth Gasman and Caroline Turner, he has co-edited Understanding Minority-Serving Institutions: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (forthcoming, State University Press of New York Press). Among other leading journals, he has published articles in TC Record, Educational Theory, The Journal of Higher Education, and The Review  of Higher Education. Baez’s teaching and research interests include the politics of education, diversity, social justice, faculty-employment issues (especially issues relating to faculty of color), and legal issues relating to education (especially those relating to race, class, and gender). He serves on the editorial boards of The Journal of Higher Education and The Review of Higher Education. He also serves on the American Association of University Professors’ Committee on Historically Black Institutions and Scholars of Color, and chaired that committee from 2002-2006.

Roger Geertz González

Dr. Roger Geertz González is an Assistant Professor in the Higher Education Program at Florida International University. In addition to being a Center Fellow, he is affiliated with the Center for the Study of Spirituality at FIU. He is a native Miamian who grew up in Little Havana. He attended Miami Senior High School, Miami Dade College, the University of Miami (B.A.) and Florida Atlantic University (M.A.).

He received his Ph.D. in Higher Education, a doctoral minor in Comparative and International Education, and a doctoral cognate in Political Science from Pennsylvania State University in 2005. While at Penn State, Dr. Geertz González was a research fellow at the Center for the Study of Higher Education, where he assisted higher education research faculty on various nationally and state-funded grants. Some of the issues included how state policies affect higher education teaching and learning; the finance and governance of Pennsylvania’s community colleges; welfare-to-work policies and college access for women; and state merit-aid programs and minority college access.
His current research on American colleges and universities includes college student ethnic identity, language, and spirituality among Latinas/os and Non-Hispanic Whites at an urban, Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI); civic engagement and development at HSI’s and Tribal College Institutions (TCI’s); the history of governance, students, and curricular innovations at HSI’s and TCI’s; American Indian college access; and the need for urban colleges and universities to provide relevant programming for American Indian college students.

He also does research on comparative and international higher education issues such as comparing indigenous and minority college student access around the world; the historical development of college rankings in the US and Europe and its institutional policy effects on indigenous and minority college students; the development of governmental, indigenous higher education policies in Australia, Canada and New Zealand; U.S. immigration policy and the role of urban higher education institutions in assimilation/socialization of college students in the US (Cuban Americans) and Germany (Turkish Germans); and the effects of globalization policies on indigenous and minority college students in North America and Latin America.

Louie F. Rodríguez

Dr. Louie F. Rodríguez is an assistant professor in Urban Education and Social Foundations at Florida International University. An education researcher by training, Louie is committed to transforming the educational conditions for low-income minority students in urban contexts. While at Harvard, Louie taught and worked with various elementary, middle and high schools and communities in the Northeast as a teacher, consultant, and researcher.  Louie also led several research initiatives examining high school reform, school culture, educational policy, and school dropouts.  Louie's dissertation examined the intersection between school reform, educational policy and the social context in various urban high schools. 

Louie's research interests include issues of equity in education that span race and race relations in schools, alternative education, Latina/o education, school dropouts, youth culture, student voice, action research, program evaluation, school leadership and teacher empowerment.  Louie is currently creating an initiative that focuses on student engagement and school dropout in Miami’s public schools.   

Louie is author of “Yo, Mister!  An Alternative Urban High School Offers Lessons on Respect,” in Educational Leadership (2005) and “Latinos and School Reform:  Voice, Action, and Agency,” in ReVista:  Harvard Review of Latin America (2004).  Louie is also co-author of a forthcoming book on school culture in urban high schools (with G. Conchas) published by Corwin Press (2007).  Louie has presented his work at several national conferences. 

Teaching Fellows

Carlos Gonzalez

Carlos Gonzalez is an English Professor at the InterAmerian Campus of Miami Dade College, where he was awarded an Endowed Teaching Chair in 2006. He is a maverick, a trickster with a down-to-Earth smile. He works with words and images, but his real calling is to invite others to share with him the joy of searching within and finding the strength and courage to walk toward wholeness. In a way, Carlos is a spell caster, an educational shaman whose core mission is to transform the human spirit.

At the Center, Carlos led the effort to launch the Earth Ethics, Social Justice and Intercultural Literacy Certificate in the Spring of 2006. In a way rarely seen in education, the Certificate fuses environmentalism and social justice issues. He is reaching out to faculty at Miami Dade College, who represent the base of the new program.

In addition, with friend, MDC colleague and fellow Center Teaching Fellow Alex Salinas, Carlos is creating an educational garden at Phillis Wheatley Elementary in Overtown, Miami’s original black community. The project is for elementray school students in the I Have a Dream Program, which provides tutoring and mentoring for students through high school and scholarships for college. Carlos is helping design a curriculum that integrates biology, writing and the arts. College students work on the garden to complete service-learning and field experience projects that explore education, racism, poverty and environmentalism.

Click here to see website for educational garden

Alex Salinas

Since 2002, Salinas has been teaching writing at Miami Dade College’s InterAmerican Campus in Little Havana. His first answer to the question what do you teach is “I  teach who I am.”  He brings both what he is in love with and what he suffers with into the classroom. He hopes that part of the text for every class is passion—joy toward the beauty of the world as well as rage at its injustices. Through whatever passion he can offer, he hopes students can tap into their own passion for learning and living. He wants to engage students as a human being, as a co-facilitator and co-learner in a process of intellectual inquiry and relationship-building. He tries to create spaces in which students feel like they are in community with him, with each other, and with the village outside the school. Further, because he feels a part of the global village and the cosmic unity, he invites students to explore those connections as well.

Much of what Salinas teaches has to do with community. Raised in Miami, he grew up with an awareness of the invisible walls of fear that separate latinos, blacks and anglos—that seperate immigrant from newcomer, rich from poor, Spanglish from Ebonics. The InterAmerican Campus lies in a dynamic, sometimes tense American borderland—an ideal place to practice service-learning. Since 2004, he has attempted to participate in the building of bridges and the connecting of hearts and minds as co-coordinator of the campus’ service-learning program.

With friend, MDC colleague and fellow Center Teaching Fellow Carlos Morales Gonzalez, he is creating an educational garden at Phillis Wheatley Elementary in Overtown, Miami’s original black community. The project is for elementray school students in the I Have a Dream Program, which provides tutoring and mentoring for students through high school and scholarships for college. Salinas is helping design a curriculum that integrates biology, writing and the arts. College students work on the garden to complete service-learning and field experience projects that explore education, racism, poverty and environmentalism.