As a new academic year begins, Teachers College continues its tradition of academic excellence and innovation by announcing the latest faculty members to receive tenure and full professorships. Learn about their critical work and scholarship below.
Newly Tenured
Alexander Eble, Associate Professor of Economics and Education, is passionate about understanding and improving education in the developing world. A recent project of his shows that teacher-focused interventions can dramatically raise literacy and numeracy in very low-income communities in West Africa. Another project, done with researchers at the University of Chicago, was one of Edutopia’s "Ten Most Significant Education Studies of 2021."
Eble’s fieldwork spans the globe, and includes active projects in China, The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, and India. His work has been recognized by invited affiliations with elite organizations outside of the College, including as a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and as a Faculty Affiliate at the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab. At Columbia, he works closely with the Center for Development Economics and Policy, Committee on the Economics of Education, and Population Research Center.
Alexander Eble, Associate Professor of Economics and Education (left) and Patrick Schmidt, Professor of Music and Music Education (right). (Photos: TC Archives)
Through his pedagogy, Patrick Schmidt, Professor of Music and Music Education, investigates urban music education in relation to social theory and policy. Originally from Brazil, Schmidt has earned national and international recognition for his work, which addresses the relationships between social justice, power and policy and how the latter can impact the work and grassroots activism of educators. Schmidt is author and editor of five books, with over 50 articles and chapters published in national and international journals.
Schmidt also serves on several editorial boards, including the Journal of the Council of Research in Music Education and Arts Education Policy Review, to name a few, and has led numerous consulting and evaluative projects, including recent work for the National YoungArts Foundation and the Ministry of Culture and Education in Chile.
Ezekiel Dixon-Román is Professor of Critical Race, Media, and Educational Studies in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching and the newly appointed Director of the College’s Edmund W. Gordon Institute for Urban and Minority Education. His research examines and deconstructs how power and racial logics are reproduced via technologies of quantification. Specifically, he considers quantification in education through cultural and critical theoretical lenses and explores how alternatives to current practices may improve “sociopolitical relations and the movement and flow of social life.”
Ezekiel Dixon-Román, Professor of Critical Race, Media, and Educational Studies and Director of the College’s Edmund W. Gordon Institute for Urban and Minority Education. (Photo: Bruce Gilbert)
Dixon-Román is the author of Inheriting Possibility: Social Reproduction & Quantification in Education, winner of the 2018 Outstanding Book Award from the American Educational Research Association. His contributions also extend to more than forty published articles and book chapters, which span subjects like Black studies, cybernetics, new materialisms, governmentality, and biopolitics.
Full Professorships
Megan Laverty, Professor of Philosophy and Education, is deeply engaged in exploring the ins and outs of philosophy and its significance for educational practice. Laverty joined the TC community in 2005, and received her Master of Arts in Philosophy from the University of Melbourne and her Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of New South Wales. Her research encompasses the intersection of moral philosophy with educational contexts and the history, philosophy, and practice of pre-college philosophy education.
Laverty served as co-editor with TC’s David T. Hansen, John L & Sue Ann Weinberg Professor in Historical & Philosophical Foundations of Education, for the five-volume reference series, A History of Western Philosophy of Education.
Megan Laverty, Professor of Philosophy and Education (left) and Melanie Brewster, Professor of Counseling Psychology (right). (Photos: TC Archives)
Melanie Brewster, Professor of Counseling Psychology, focuses her research and pedagogy on minority stress for marginalized groups in the United States, gender and LGBTQ+ studies, collective action, and more. In 2020, she was awarded the 2020 Fritz & Linn Kuder Early Career Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions to Counseling Psychology.
Brewster has published over 70 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters along with her notable book, Atheists in America, which details experiences of minority stress for non-believing populations in the United States. Her work has been featured in prominent media outlets including CNN, NPR, Vice News, and the CBC. At TC, she co-founded a NY-state approved graduate certificate program, the Sexuality, Women, & Gender Project, with Drs. Aurelie Athan and Riddhi Sandil.
Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, Professor of English Education, has dedicated her research to the exploration of racial literacy within teacher education. She collaborates with K-12 and higher education institutions to elevate racial literacy awareness and cultivate more equitable learning environments for Black and Latinae students. Centering her concept of the Archaeology of Self™, Yolanda’s work addresses race, cultural diversity, and pedagogy, and focuses on transformation in educational practices.
Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz, Professor of English Education. (Photo: courtesy of pictured faculty)
Sealey-Ruiz is known for her robust portfolio of literature, including her book co-authored with TC’s former professor Detra Price-Dennis, Advancing Racial Literacies in Teacher Education: Toward Activism for Equity in Digital Spaces, and for her two collections of poetry, Love from the Vortex & Other Poems and The Peace Chronicles.
Through her critical scholarship, María Paula Ghiso, Professor of Literacy Education, is committed to exploring multilingual literacies, immigrant and intersectional identities, and community-based methodologies. Department Chair of the Curriculum and Teaching program, Ghiso is also a former dual language teacher and has facilitated professional development on language and literacy learning in a range of contexts.
One of her most notable works, Partnering with immigrant communities: Action through Literacy, published by Teachers College Press was recognized with the 2017 Edward Fry Book Award from the Literacy Research Association and the 2018 David H. Russell Award from the National Council of Teachers of English. With colleagues, she received the 2023 Henry T. Trueba Award for Research Leading to the Transformation of the Social Contexts of Education from AERA’s Division G.
María Paula Ghiso, Professor of Literacy Education (left) and Luis Huerta, Professor of Public Policy and Education (right). (Photos: TC Archives)
Luis Huerta, Professor of Public Policy and Education, focuses closely on school choice reforms and school finance policy. His research spans the focus areas of decentralization in education, school choice (vouchers, charter schools, homeschooling and tuition tax credits), privatization in education, virtual learning and more.
Prior to joining the Teachers College in 2002, Huerta served as a Research Associate and Coordinator for K-12 education policy research for Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE). He is the author of numerous articles on school choice and school finance published in Educational Policy, Journal of Education Finance, Peabody Journal of Education, and co-editor of the book, The School Voucher Illusion: Exposing the Pretense of Equity (Teachers College Press, 2023). He has recently served as co-editor of the journal, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis.