Editor's Note: This article was updated on September 19 to include Edward Rivero and Rachel Talbert. 

Jonathan Collins,  Assistant Professor of Politics and Education, assumes his position after several years at Brown University. A visiting fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School in 2021, Collins studies local school boards; African American education; and more.

In addition to his service at Brown, Collins has reviewed several journals and written op-eds for the Washington Post, the Brookings Institute and Education Week. His ongoing grant from the U.S. Department of Education Institute of Education Sciences supports the Connecting Classrooms to Congress project, an initiative to develop and test a social studies curriculum that enables high school students to examine a pressing contemporary issue through a bipartisan lens. Among his numerous publications, Collins’ forthcoming titles include works on how school districts can operate more democratically as well as lessons from the 2016 U.S. presidential election. 

Whitney J. Erby, Assistant Professor of Psychology and Education, joins the TC faculty following her Postdoctoral Clinical Fellowship in Psychology with Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. 

During her fellowship, Erby provided integrative psychotherapy to patients and couples with various presentations and conducted comprehensive psychological assessments.  She was also elected as the diversity and inclusion co-chair for the Massachusetts General  postdoctoral association. Erby’s research interests include career development, personality disorders, and the experiences of people of color. Her recent publications include “Youth Perceptions of Their Futures, Society, and the Work Landscape: A Psychology of Working Perspective” in the Journal of Career Development, and the forthcoming “Incremental Validity of the Alternative Model for Personality Disorders: Borderline Personality Disorder Facets.”

Rajashi Ghosh, Associate Professor of Adult Learning & Leadership, joins the College after 14 years on the faculty at Drexel University, during which time she served as the chair of the Policy, Organization and Leadership Department and directed the Ph.D. program at the School of Education.

Ghosh’s interests include developmental relationships, leader development, and workplace learning. Her publications include articles in high-impact peer-reviewed journals and her books, Connecting and Relating – HRD Perspectives on Developmental Relationships and Indian Women in Leadership. Ghosh has won prestigious awards from AERA, AHRD, and AOM, including the most recent 2023 AHRD Wayne Pace Book of the Year Award for her book on Connecting and Relating. Ghosh’s extensive service to the field includes serving as Editor-in-Chief of Human Resource Development International and two terms as Board member in AHRD. Her recent research focuses on developing an identity-based model of mentoring.

Tamara Handy,  Assistant Professor Disability Studies in Education, assumes her position at the department of curriculum and teaching following her time as a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education.

Handy served children with disabilities in both clinical and school settings, here in the United States and in her home country Sri Lanka. Her research focuses on the intersections of race and disability among children and youth, and their current and future teachers in relation to special education and inclusive education systems in public schools. She was honored by her alma mater, the University of Kansas in 2019 with their Dissertation of the Year Award. Handy has extensive experience working with organizations like UNICEF and GIZ in the development sector, contributing to teacher education and professional development projects in Sri Lanka. Handy’s latest research focuses on the experiences of students of color from refugee and asylum seeking backgrounds.

Kevin Heffernan (M.S. ’03), Associate Professor of Movement Science & Education, returns to the program of which he is an alum after 12 years at Syracuse University, where he served as the Dean’s Associate Professor in the Department of Exercise Science. 

Heffernan’s research focuses on cardiovascular exercise physiology, including vascular aging, health disparities and resistance exercise training. Currently, Heffernan is the co-principal investigator in a study on simulation physiology funded by the National Science Foundation. His numerous publications include forthcoming papers on environmental cardiovascular disruptors experienced by Syracuse children, as well as brachial ankle pulse wave velocity as a biomarker of cardiovascular disease risk. His service to Syracuse University also included more than 10 years on the Institutional Review Board, the past three as the co-chair, as well as committees related to strategy, diversity and teaching. 

Marcia Lyles, Professor of Practice and Co-Director of the Urban Education Leaders Program, has served as an adjunct professor at TC since 2020 in addition to teaching at the College of Staten Island, CUNY, serving on the design team for the New Jersey Network of School Superintendents and consulting with New York City schools.

Lyles previously served as the Superintendent of Jersey City Public Schools. During her seven-year tenure, she implemented research-based and results-driven programs, practices and policies while reducing gaps for underserved students and schools. Under her leadership the district regained local control after nearly 30 years of state oversight. Prior to leading Jersey City Public Schools, Lyles served as Superintendent in Christina School District in Wilmington, Del., and as Deputy Chancellor in the New York City Department of Education.  She previously taught at New York University, Bank Street College and Baruch College

Gemma Moya-Galé (Ph.D. ’16, M.S. ’12), Assistant Professor in the Communication Sciences & Disorders program, joins the Teachers College faculty after teaching at Long Island University since 2018 and TC’s Online Bilingual Institute since 2017. 

Moya-Galé’s research interests include bilingualism; motor speech, voice and neurogenic language disorders; speech science; and more. Her work includes several projects related to Parkinson’s disease, including an ongoing research grant from the Michael J. Fox Foundation to examine noise-augmented automatic speech recognition to improve intelligibility in PD. In addition to her numerous writings, Moya-Gale supervised TC students on the screening and treatment of children with cleft lips and palates as part of a medical mission in collaboration with Healing the Children and Smile Train. She is the recipient of LIU’s 2023 David Newton Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 2022 ASHA Pathways Fellowship.

Prem Phyak, Associate Professor of International and Comparative Education, joins TC following appointments at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Tribhuvan University in Nepal, his home country. Phyak’s research interests include language policy, multilingual education and translanguaging, in addition to many other topics in the field. 

He is the author of the books Multilingual Education in South Asia: At the Intersection of Policy and Practice; and Innovative Technologies and Pedagogical Shifts in Nepalese Higher Education. In addition to his research and writings, he has advised Nepal’s Ministry of Education and other governing bodies in regards to local education issues. Phyak has also led non-profit initiatives in Nepal, including an arts program for youth, a network to support and mentor teachers, and an awareness program on multilingual education. 

Beth Rubin, Professor of Education in the Social Studies Education program, comes to the TC faculty from Rutgers University.  Rubin is the author of multiple books, including Design Research in Social Studies Education and Making Citizens: Transforming Civic Learning for Diverse Social Studies Classrooms, and her work appears in numerous journals, including the American Educational Research Journal, the Harvard Educational Review, Teachers College Record, and the Anthropology & Education Quarterly.

Rubin investigates young people’s civic understandings and experiences amid the interwoven contexts of classroom, school, and society, with particular attention to the complexities of youth civic learning at the intersection of classroom practice and historical and contemporary injustice. She collaborates with educators to design and study curricular and pedagogical innovations that build upon this critical, sociocultural understanding of youth civic learning, and is principal investigator on the Civically Engaged Districts Project.

Maithri Sivaraman, Assistant Professor of Psychology and Education, is a behavior analyst returning to TC’s Health Studies and Applied Educational Psychology program after serving as a visiting researcher in 2022 and a period at Cardiff University. 

Sivaraman’s applied research interests include exploring new intervention strategies for children with special educational needs across the globe, as well as culturally-adapted evidence-based interventions targeting the unique challenges faced by minority subgroups. She founded the Tendrils Centre for Autism in Chennai, India, and serves as a consultant for various intervention clinics in India and Europe. Sivaraman received funding from the Behavior Analyst Certification Board for disseminating culturally-adapted behavior analytic educational strategies for children. Her honors include an Innovation Award from Ghent University for her masterclasses on research integrity, and the Diversity Paper Award from the Association for Behavior Analysis International.

Kirsten Slungaard Mumma, Assistant Professor of Economics and Education, joins Teachers College following her postdoctoral fellowship at Boston University’s Wheelock Educational Policy Center. 

Within the intersection of economics and education, Mumma’s research interests include immigrants and English learners, politics/political engagement and education, and K-12 school choice. Her recent work includes the working paper “Politics and Children’s Books: Evidence from School Library Collections,” which captured media attention, and “Immigrant Integration in the United States: The Role of English Language Training,” which appeared in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy in August.  In addition to her honors and recognitions, Mumma has served as a reviewer for the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy; Journal of Labor Economics; and Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. She has been selected as a National Academy of Education/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow for the 2023-24 cohort. 

Sonya Troller-Renfree, Assistant Professor of Developmental Psychology, assumes her position after serving as Teachers College Goldberg Postdoctoral Fellow and adjunct.

Troller-Renfree's research examines the impacts of stress and early adversity on cognitive and neural development.  Troller-Renfree specializes in EEG, a child-friendly neuroimaging technique. Troller-Renfree has authored more than 50 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, and has received over $1 million in funding including the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and a K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award from NICHD. In 2023, she was named an Association for Psychological Science’s Rising Star.  As she joins the faculty, Troller-Renfree will conduct research examining the impact of child and parental stress on brain development and cognition as a predictor of socioemotional functioning and school readiness. Troller-Renfree will lead EEG data collection and analysis on the Baby’s First Years study – a randomized control trial of poverty reduction.

Edward Rivero, Visiting Associate Professor in Bilingual/Bicultural Education, joins the College following his time as a postdoctoral fellow at the CU Boulder School of Education. His research interests include the sociocultural, ethical and political dimensions of learning; critical media literacies; everyday technologies and play.

Rivero also served as a postdoctoral fellow at the Learning Policy Institute. He has served the American Education Research Association as the Communications Chair for the Cultural-Historical Special Interest Group. His publications include “Children Learning by Observing and Pitching In to Community Endeavors in Online Gaming Environments,” in the Journal for the Study of Education and Development as well as a forthcoming collaborative piece entitled “Sociopolitical gaming literacies: Developing tactical responses to power through collaborative digital composing,” which is currently under review with the journal English Teaching: Practice & Critique. 

New Lecturers 

Matt Blanchard (Ph.D. ’17, M. Phil. ’15, M.S. ’14) returns to teach in the Clinical Psychology program, from which he graduated. He is currently on the faculty and the Director of Student Affairs at New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. At NYU, Blanchard has also provided psychological services at their Student Health Center and the Counseling and Wellness Services & the Gallatin School. 

Manuel Enrique Cardoso (Ph.D. ’22) returns to teach in the International and Comparative Education program, from which he graduated. He currently aids the Council of Ministers of Education of Canada (CMEC) as the coordinator of their Learning Assessment Programs. He also worked for UNICEF for nearly 10 years as an education specialist, during which time he developed the Foundational Learning Skills module for the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys. 

Jie Gao (Ph.D. ’13, M.S. ’11) returns to teach in the Measurement, Evaluation, & Statistics program, from which she graduated, after serving as an adjunct since 2021. She previously worked at the Columbia Business School and the Educational Testing Service. Her key areas of interest include judgment and decision making, applied statistics, educational data mining, experimental design and quantitative research methods. 

Jacqueline Jenkins (M.A. ’19) returns to teach in the Social Organizational Psychology program, from which she graduated, after numerous years in senior roles at organizations like the New School and United Way of New York City. She provides coaching and consultation to senior executives and organizations through Earthseed, which she founded in 2020, and The Leadership Consortium. With TC’s Debra Noumair, she co-authored “X-Ray Vision: A Research Tool for Uncovering Systems Psychodynamics” in the Handbook of Research Methods in Organizational Change. 

Mario Khreiche joins the Communication, Media, & Learning Technologies Design program following three years as a visiting assistant professor in NYU’s Department of Media, Culture, and Communication. Previously, he held a Mellon Sawyer Seminar Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh. His research interests include education technologies, platforms, and computing histories. Among his publications, he is the author of “Modularity, Labor, and Ideology in Edtech Platforms” in Fast Capitalism.

Kiara Manosalvas (Ph.D. ’23) joins the Counseling Psychology program faculty as a full time lecturer and coordinator of the Bilingual Latinx Mental Health concentration. Her dissertation was titled “Moving Beyond Multicultural Competence: Curricula to Facilitate the Development of Social Justice-Oriented Psychologists.” During her doctoral studies, she completed numerous internships at organizations such as the Veterans Affairs Hospital, TC’s Dean Hope Center, New York State Transgender Identity Program and more. 

Daniela Romero-Amaya (Ph.D. ’21, M.A. ’15), a graduate of the Social Studies Education and International Education Development programs, has served as a Bruce S. Goldberg Research Fellow in the International & Transcultural Studies department since 2021 and will teach in that department. Her research interests include social studies education, human rights and social justice approaches to teaching and learning, among other topics. She’s completed teacher education initiatives across the world, including in her home nation of Colombia, the topic of much of her research. 

Sian Zelbo (Ph.D. ’20, M.A. ’10) joins the Mathematics Education program, from which she graduated. Her research centers on the history of American mathematics education. She previously taught at the Brearley School and Stern College. Her work also included service to underserved students through Bridge to Enter Advanced Mathematics and the Center for Mathematical Talent at New York University, of which she served as Associate Director.

Rachel Talbert joins the Early Childhood Education program after serving as the Minority Postdoctoral Fellow at TC’s Edmund W. Gordon Institute for Urban and Minority Education since 2021. Her community engaged scholarship focuses on curriculum development with the Lenape Center in NYC and research to better understand how curriculum supports teachers in unsettling as meaningful decolonial praxis. Her research with urban Indigenous youth in public schools focuses on civic identity negotiation and its relationship to tribal sovereignty and self-determination. Talbert’s previous work includes research at her alma mater, George Washington University, as well as curriculum development for the civics-focused Close Up Foundation.