NYU Steinhardt faculty

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. She is a 2022 Dean’s for Impact Fellow, a group of 20 outstanding leaders of educator-preparation programs (EPP) committed to making pedagogy a priority within their programs and advocating for more equitable systems of teaching and learning.

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. He earned his doctorate in English Education from New York University in 2005, with a study on narrative traditions and their impact on early literacy. He has since shifted his focus towards coaching and mentoring in pre-service clinical experiences and the early induction of new teachers.

Annaly’s research is focused on anti-racist, culturally sustaining, and humanizing pedagogy in the field of social studies and civic education. Her work has appeared in Teachers College Record and she has presented at conferences throughout the United States on topics ranging from anti-oppressive social studies pedagogy and curriculum to fostering political open-mindedness and interest through project-based learning.

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

Christine’s research explores the intersection of identity development and community in the urban public school classroom. Christine currently serves on the Advisory Committee on Government Relations and Advocacy and co-chairs the LGBTQ+ Advocacy and Inclusion Topical Action Group for the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. She holds a B.A. from Baylor University, an Ed.M. from Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a Ph.D. from Columbia University.

Katie is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Teaching and Learning in the NYU Teacher Residency and on campus programs. Katie began her career working as a special education classroom teacher for middle and high school students. Her fields of study include disability studies in education, DisCrit, and critical spatial theory. She was recently named co-program chair for the Disability Studies in Education special interest group of the American Education Research Association (2022-2024).

Alisha is Clinical Assistant Professor and Residency Director in the Inclusive Childhood Education program. Alisha’s areas of expertise include early childhood education, bilingual education, language and literacy, and family engagement. Her scholarship mostly focuses on the intersectionality of language, power, race, class, and gender across educational settings and aims to foster racial, gender, and linguistic justice. She has been working closely with immigrant families, grassroots and community-based organizations, and school districts to advocate for anti-bias inclusive education and equitable family engagement.

Tamara is passionate about collaborative, responsive, and iterative teacher preparation program design. She studies special education teacher preparation practices in early childhood through secondary education. She has served as a special education teacher, program director, IFSP/IEP service coordinator, teacher educator, and mentor. Her scholarship is focused on program design and ethical and meaningful standards of practice.

Shane’s expertise includes teacher preparation and educating students with learning and behavioral disabilities. As a former math and science teacher. Shane applies his K-12 experience to engage his pre-service teachers in a problem-solving, reflective discourse to understand the educational challenges and opportunities critical to educating students with special needs. At the core of Dr. Smith’s research is the success of youth with disabilities. His research interests include postsecondary transition and mathematics education for students with high-incidence disabilities. He has also conducted research that explores pre-service teacher education and preparation to work in diverse settings, inclusive of students with unique learning challenges, interests, and opportunities.

Andrew completed his doctoral program in 2021 at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst where he was a College of Education Fellow and Research Enhancement and Leadership Fellow. Dr. Torres has featured and performed at historical venues such as the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, the Bowery Poetry Club, and El Museo del Barrio. Most recently he was the keynote speaker of the 6th Annual Computer Science Summit at Rutgers University. He holds multiple publications including chapters in HipHopEd: The Compilation on Hip Hop Education Volume 3 and Critical Race Theory in Education: Informing Classroom Culture and Practice. His dissertation research centered on looking at the ways in which embodied arts, such as spoken word, might address raciocultural trauma within racially minoritized youth.

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

Karoline is a Clinical Assistant Professor of English Education, Residency Director, and English Content Mentor in the Teacher Residency Program. Informed by her previous work as a teacher in the Bronx, NY and Oakland, CA, Karoline strives to support teachers to develop a critical lens on curriculum and pedagogy and to design more expansive, culturally sustaining possibilities for teaching and learning in ELA classrooms and beyond.

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 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