2017 News Stories

College of Education Welcomes 11 New Faculty Members

TAMPA, Fla. (August 18, 2017) – The USF College of Education is proud to welcome 11 new faculty for the 2017-18 academic year. Our new faculty’s expertise includes various fields and experiences that demonstrate their commitment to high-impact research, student success and innovation in the field of education.   

Alisha Braun, PhD — Assistant Professor, Social Foundations

Alisha Braun joins the College of Education as an assistant professor in the Social Foundations program. She received a PhD in Educational Policy from Michigan State University in 2015. Braun’s research bridges the fields of educational policy, disability studies, psychology and international and comparative education, and her general research interests relate to disparities in access to quality education across multiple categories of marginalization, including gender, home language, socioeconomic status, rural/urban, race and ethnicity, and disability. More specifically, her work focuses on inclusive education policy and practice for students with disabilities in sub-Saharan Africa.

Maureen Chiodini — Visiting Instructor, Exercise Science

Maureen Chiodini joins the College of Education as a visiting instructor in the Exercise Science program. Chiodini has a master’s degree in Public Health and a master’s degree in Exercise Science from USF, and she is currently completing a doctorate in Public Health. She has lived, worked and volunteered in the Tampa Bay area for more than 30 years, and enjoys working on getting the world to understand the value of movement.  

Brian Flores — Visiting Instructor, Elementary Education

Brian Flores joins the College of Education as a visiting instructor in the Elementary Education program. He is also a doctoral candidate in the reading education/literacy studies program. As an elementary school teacher, Flores spent a majority of his career as a first grade teacher where he focused on emergent language acquisition for diverse populations in high needs environments. His research interests include discourse analysis, pre-service teacher literacy, teacher identity, emergent language acquisition and urban education.   

Kimberly Forcino — Visiting Instructor, Elementary Education

Kimberly Forcino joins the College of Education as a visiting instructor in the Elementary Education program. Forcino received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in early childhood education from James Madison University. As part of the College of Education, she is excited to work with pre-service teachers as a mentor, coach, and teacher in preparation for their careers in education.

Tanetha J. Grosland, PhD — Assistant Professor, Educational Leadership & Policy Studies

Tanetha J. Grosland joins the College of Education as an assistant professor in the Educational Leadership & Policy Studies program. She received her PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities in 2010 and most recently was an assistant professor in urban educational leadership/social foundations at Morgan State University. Dr. Grosland’s research interests include instructional leadership, urban education, critical/anti-oppressive pedagogy, social policy and politics, affect theory and school leadership. Her research is interdisciplinary and uses qualitative methods to address the emotional complexities of instructional leadership in relation to cultural competence, racial equity, social justice, and human rights.

Elizabeth Burke Hadley, PhD — Assistant Professor, Reading Education and Literacy Studies

Elizabeth Hadley joins the College of Education as an assistant professor in reading education and literacy studies. She received her Ph.D. in Teaching, Learning, and Diversity from Vanderbilt University in 2017. Hadley’s research focuses on supporting oral language development in preschool classrooms, particularly through building rich vocabulary knowledge. She is interested in understanding the relationship between preschool oral language skills and later reading comprehension. She also works with preschool teachers to foster academic vocabulary growth in children from under-served communities. Her current projects include examining the impact of responsive teaching strategies on vocabulary learning, the role of play in language learning and designing assessments to capture depth of vocabulary knowledge.

Karl G. Jung, PhD — Assistant Professor, Science Education

Karl G. Jung joins the College of Education as an assistant professor in the science education program. He received his PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Minnesota in 2017. His research interests focus on academic language development in elementary science with both in-service and pre-service teachers, supporting teachers in identifying the language demands of their science lessons and developing ways to support that language in their lessons.

Chloe Lancaster, PhD, CSC — Associate Professor and Program Coordinator, School Counseling

Chloe Lancaster joins the College of Education as an associate professor and program coordinator for the School Counseling program. She received a PhD in Counselor Education and a master’s in Special Education from Texas A&M University, Corpus Christi. Prior to her arrival at USF, Lancaster was an assistant professor and school counseling program coordinator at the University of Memphis. Lancaster is a National Certified Counselor with approximately 10 years of K-12 experience as a middle school special education teacher and elementary school counselor. Her research interests include adoptive family issues, transition to higher education for marginalized populations, experiences of minorities in the STEM and law fields, and school counselor identity, efficacy and supervision. 

Nicholas Martinez, PhD — Visiting Professor, Exercise Science

Nicholas Martinez joins the College of Education as a visiting professor in the Exercise Science program. A previous student at USF, Martinez received a master’s degree in Physical Education in 2011 and a master’s degree in Exercise Science in 2013. He received a doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from USF in 2017 and his dissertation focused on worksite wellness evaluation. His research interests include sports nutrition and exercise psychology.

Sara Smith, PhD — Assistant Professor, Foreign Language Education

Sara Smith joins the College of Education as an assistant professor in the Foreign Language Education program. She received her PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Oxford, followed by postdoctoral research in the Brain Experience Education Lab at Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her research interests include within-population variation among bilinguals and the impact of language environment, the role of formulaic language in reading and language comprehension for English Language Learners and the cognitive and educational implications of bilingualism.

Nathaniel von der Embse, PhD — Assistant Professor, School Psychology

Nathaniel von der Embse joins the College of Education as an assistant professor in the School Psychology program. He received his PhD in School Psychology from Michigan State University in 2012. His research interests include population-based mental health, educational policy and high-stakes testing, stress and coping, universal screening to inform prevention, internalizing disorders and social justice. His recent research efforts include serving as co-principal investigator on a grant from the Institute for Education Sciences and Spencer Foundation, and serving as an Associate Editor of the Journal of School Psychology.