Keri Brondo, Visiting Professor in the Department of International and Transcultural Studies, is an applied environmental anthropologist whose work focuses on the intersection of development policy, local livelihoods and environmental change, particularly in Honduras’ Caribbean coastal and island communities. Past projects explored the gendered impacts of Garifuna territorial dispossession and land rights activism, conservation voluntourism, the sociocultural impacts of protected area legislation, and culturally-appropriate environmental education.
Brondo has published five books and over 80 journal articles, book chapters, reviews and commentaries. She is a National Geographic Explorer and the recipient of several distinguished awards, including the Presidential Award from the American Anthropological Association. A former Fulbright scholar and Title VI FLAS recipient, she received her Ph.D. in Sociocultural Anthropology from Michigan State University.
Mykelle S. Coleman, Assistant Professor of Teaching in the School Psychology program, focuses on advancing social justice in the field of psychology and promoting change through increased knowledge. At TC, she will serve as the program’s Ed.M. director.
A widely recognized school psychologist, Coleman has worked with individuals and families across life stages in numerous settings, including state agencies, Head Start programs, schools, community-wide trauma response and more. With a passion for uplifting the voices of communities, Coleman holds a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology, with a specialization in school psychology and school law, from the University of Connecticut.
Avery Dakin (Ph.D. ’24), Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Department of Biobehavioral Studies, is a clinical researcher and speech-language pathologist working in the assessment and rehabilitation of disordered airway protection (coughing and swallowing). She strives to improve clinical outcomes and quality of life for individuals living with airway protective dysfunction.
Prior to joining the faculty, she served as a postdoctoral research fellow at New York University, where she worked toward the development of novel assessment methods of swallowing function in older adults. As a graduate of TC’s Ph.D. program in Communication Sciences & Disorders, her studies and publications focused on understanding the physiologic impact of a behavioral rehabilitation exercise, expiratory muscle strength training.
Kimberly Kissoon, Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Department of Counseling & Clinical Psychology, is a clinical psychologist who has supported individuals across the lifespan with a special emphasis in working with emerging adults.
Prior to joining the faculty, Kissoon recently served as a postdoctoral fellow at Weill Cornell Medicine/New YorkPresbyterian, where she worked with graduate students and conducted research centered around crafting and modifying a virtual comprehensive DBT program for high-risk graduate and medical school students. Her field experience includes work at Northwell Health, Hofstra University, Long Island Reach, and more. Her dissertation, completed during doctoral work at Adelphi University, was titled, “When Parents Hover: The Cultural and Psychological Impact on College Students.”
George Nitzburg (Ph.D. ’12), Assistant Professor of Teaching in the Department of Counseling & Clinical Psychology, researches and teaches about how to marshal technological advances to improve our understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of mental illness. He has conducted psychotherapy and psychological testing with patients from a wide range of ages and backgrounds.
Nitzburg has served as an adjunct faculty member at Teachers College for over 12 years, during which he has led the Clinical Psychology and Technology Laboratory, studying the impact of technology on mental health and the benefits and limitations of turning to online platforms for peer support, telepsychology interventions, and continuing care. In addition to scholarly journals, Nitzburg’s insight has appeared on CNN and O: The Oprah Magazine.
Giulia Ripani, Assistant Professor of Music & Music Education in the Department of Arts & Humanities, conducts interdisciplinary and multi-method research on musical identities, with a focus on how individuals use music to express non-musical aspects of themselves. More recently, her research has expanded to explore professional identity development in music and its impact on mental health outcomes.
In addition to presenting her work around the world, Ripani has published her research in numerous journals, most recently the Journal of Research in Music Education. Before joining the College, she served as a postdoctoral research fellow at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, and earned her Ph.D. in music education at the University of Miami, where she was awarded the University of Miami Graduate Dissertation Fellowship.
Juliana Ronderos, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biobehavioral Studies, focuses on the intersection of the neurological bases of typical and atypical language development and bilingualism. She is interested in effective identification and assessment of bilingual children with language-based learning disorders, and the environmental and neurocognitive factors impacting language and literacy development for culturally and linguistically diverse populations.
Ronderos’s most recent publications include “The Dimensionality of Language in Spanish–English Bilingual Children.” She previously served as a Postdoctoral fellow in the Communication and Neurodevelopment Lab at Boston University, and earned her Ph.D. from the University of Houston.
Rachel Talbert, Research Assistant Professor in the Gordon Institute for Advanced Study, Her research centers curriculum design and implementation for all students that supports Indigenous, self-determination and sovereignty.
Her work at Teachers College began in 2021 as a Minority Postdoctoral Fellow at the Gordon Institute, and later as the NAEd/Spencer Postdoctoral Fellow in the Curriculum and Teaching department. During her time at the College, Talbert was asked to work with Lenape Center to develop an open-source PK-12 curriculum that centers Lenape presence and futurity. Talbert’s ongoing Spencer postdoctoral work supports additional curriculum development and assesses the curriculum’s efficacy.
Lauren Vogelstein, Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics, Science and Technology, focuses on integrating embodied learning theories with STEM education, drawing on the expressive practices of dancers and choreographers as technologies alongside digital tools to reimagine learning processes in STEAM environments. She looks forward to building on the caring and expansive potential of choreographic STEAM learning environments to advance critical theories of design for embodied, technologically-mediated learning environments.
Vogelstein has extended this research as a co-principal investigator on the NSF-funded Choreographing Science Project. She joins the faculty after serving as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Dance Education Program at TC. Previously, she held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education and NYU. She received her Ph.D. in Learning & Design from Vanderbilt University.