NYU Steinhardt faculty

Cutting-edge research and personal guidance

The NYU Teacher Residency is designed to meet the needs of teaching in diverse classroom environments. The program infuses cutting-edge research and pedagogical techniques with direct personal guidance and useful feedback from NYU Steinhardt faculty.

Our world-renowned faculty have published on a broad range of urban education issues particularly focused on equity, access, and social justice including school violence, racial segregation, restorative justice, and fiscal inequities between urban and suburban schools. Faculty are also experts in emergent bilinguals, special education, curriculum for the 21st-century classroom, and teacher development in primary, middle, and secondary education. As leaders in their fields, faculty are personally committed to crafting and participating in this transformative teacher preparation program.

Faculty

Diana Turk

Director of Teacher Education/Vice Chair, Department of Teaching and Learning at NYU Steinhardt; Co-Director, NYU Teacher Residency

Diana brings to her work a passion for civic engagement, a commitment to teaching history for democratic change, and a dedication to the fundamental belief that all teachers must be prepared to reach and teach all learners. An active and committed anti-racist who recognizes the need for all students to have teachers who see, know, and understand them, as well as look like them, Diana is passionate about building a highly diverse and effective teacher corps that is anti-racist, culturally sustaining, and rigorously dedicated to teaching and guiding the nation’s children.

Past experience: TESOL and ELA teacher

Frank Pignatosi

Interim Co-Director, NYU Teacher Residency; Clinical Assistant Professor, NYU Teacher Residency

Frank spent over a decade as Director of Clinical Studies at Steinhardt, developing a network of partner schools to support teacher education programs at NYU, and providing professional development to the supervising field faculty in the Department of Teaching and Learning. He has served on different NY State and NYC advisory committees and task forces charged with improving the preparation and retention of teachers for urban education.

Anne Burgunder

Clinical Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education

Anne’s interests include the role of visual images in helping students learn mathematics, and other cultures' methods for teaching mathematics. Before joining NYU, Anne spent the majority of her career as a mathematics teacher and staff developer for middle and high schools. Her work has spanned virtually all school settings, including public and private, urban and rural, religious and secular, and single-sex environments.

Past experience: Middle and high school mathematics teacher

Audrey Trainor

Professor of Special Education; Content Director, Programs in Special Education

Audrey studies equity and diversity in special education, focusing on postsecondary transitions for adolescents with learning and behavioral/emotional disabilities. A central purpose of her work is to improve inclusive transition education and postschool outcomes for adolescents with disabilities who are made vulnerable by limited access to educational opportunities.

Past experience: Special education high school teacher

Robert Wallace

Research Assistant Professor of Science Education

Robert developed curriculum for NYU's Clinically Rich Integrated Science Program for New York City high-needs schools, as well the science content aspect of this NYU Steinhardt Teacher Residency. He was a marine biologist for approximately 15 years. He then established and directed a year-round ecology center, The Harbor Environmental Research Center (HERC).HERC was used by science teachers and their students to conduct environmental research using the woodlands and adjacent ocean as a study area. This work led to his founding and leading a science emphasis elementary school (K - 8) located in East Harlem, New York.

Past experience: Marine biologist

Heather Woodley

Clinical Associate Professor of TESOL, Bilingual Education, and World Language Education

Heather focuses on meeting the academic, linguistic, and social-emotional needs of emergent bilinguals, particularly Muslim immigrant youth who speak less-common languages. Her courses focus on anti-racist, social justice-based, and multilingual education collaboratively together with teachers, communities, families and youth. She is a regional delegate with NYSABE (NY State Association for Bilingual Education), serves on the national planning committee for Free Minds, Free People, a conference for transformative education with the Education for Liberation Network.

Past experience: Middle and high school TESOL and ELA teacher