College of Education

Elba Barahona, Ph.D., is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Teacher Education and Administration. She joined the faculty at the University of North Texas in the Fall of 2016. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in bilingual and English as a second language. 

Barahona earned her B.A. in Economics from the Central University of Ecuador, an M.A. in Teaching and an M.B.A. from Louisiana Tech University. Her prior experience includes work as a bilingual teacher at the Dallas Independent School District.

Barahona’s research interest includes bilingual education, curriculum and assessment for English learners, and instructional strategies in classrooms and schools that serve culturally linguistically diverse students. She earned her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology, with specialization in Bilingual/ESL Education, from Texas A&M University at College Station.

Since coming to UNT in 1997, Dr. Bill Camp has contributed actively to the graduate programs in Educational Administration. His research interests include educational law and finance, and he teaches courses on various aspects of educational leadership. He also supervises interns in the public schools and directs doctoral dissertations. His bachelor's and master's degrees are both from Texas Tech University, and his doctorate is from Virginia Tech University. Prior to his work at UNT, he served as professor, chair, and acting associate dean at California State University. He also taught previously at Oklahoma State University and Texas Tech. Other educational experience includes serving as assistant superintendent of schools, high school principal, and high school science teacher.

Dr. Angie D. Cartwright is the Interim Department Chair of Teacher Education and Administration, Assistant Vice Provost of faculty Success, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Counseling and Higher Education at the University of North Texas. Since joining UNT in 2015, she has led several innovative interdisciplinary research collaborations and has made invaluable contributions to student success as director of the undergraduate minor in counseling.

She directed UNT Classic and the Integrated Care and Behavioral Health Project, which were designed to address health disparities by enhancing the delivery of culturally competent mental health services to medically underserved communities. The projects provided over 50,000 hours of free clinical services to underrepresented groups in the Dallas Fort Worth region. In addition to her success receiving multiple awards and honors, $3M in grant funding, and a strong publication record. 

Dr. Cartwright was the Inaugural Presidential Early Career Professor at UNT and is a former President of the Texas Association for Counselor Education and Supervision and the International Association of Addiction and Offender Counseling. In 2022, she earned the Texas Counseling Association’s Research Award. She has been recognized internationally, nationally, and locally for her research and service to the counseling profession.

Dr. Duncan earned an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership with an emphasis in the Urban Superintendency from the University of Southern California. He earned a Master’s in Curriculum and Instruction with an emphasis in Bilingual Education (Spanish/English) from the University of Texas at Austin. He earned a B.A. in Liberal Studies from California State University, Long Beach. Before joining the faculty at UNT, Dr. Duncan served as Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership at Texas A&M University, Central Texas where he taught many of the courses in the Educational Leadership program. He was the primary professor for the principal practicum/internship for the Master’s degree in Educational Leadership with principal certification and also served a term as program coordinator. Prior to his work at A&M Central Texas, he taught as an adjunct professor for Wayland Baptist University and Concordia University teaching in their educational administration programs and the curriculum and instruction programs when needed. Dr. Duncan served as a mentor for teachers in early childhood programs through a state funded grant entitled Texas School Ready Resource Grant through the University of Texas Health Sciences Center. Prior to his work in higher education, Dr. Duncan served in K-12 administration as a middle school principal, elementary school principal and in central office administration as administrator of assessment and accountability and Coordinator of Curriculum Based Assessments. Prior to his work in administration Dr. Duncan served as a bilingual education teacher in grades 1-5.

Dr. Duncan is married to his wife of 39 years and has 2 sons and a daughter. He and his wife currently have their hands full keeping up with their young grandson. Hobbies include bowling and making music whenever the opportunity affords. We also enjoy going to movies as a family and grilling on holidays or other warm summer evenings.

Wesley Edwards is an assistant professor of Educational Leadership in the Department of Teacher Education and Administration at the University of North Texas. His research interests include teacher and school leader career trajectories, school organizational work environments, and the politics and policy of educational leadership. Dr. Edwards has published in journals such as Educational Policy, Teachers College Record, and Education Economics.

Edwards received a Bachelor’s degree in Education from the University of Texas at Austin, an M.A. in the Sociology of Education from New York University, and a Ph.D. in Educational Policy and Planning from the University of Texas at Austin. Prior to pursuing his Ph.D., he was a middle school math and science teacher and teacher leader in New York and Texas. 

Dr. Jeannette Ginther is a Principal Lecturer of Literacy Studies and Curriculum and Instruction in the Department of Teacher Education and Administration. She earned her doctorate in Educational Leadership from Dallas Baptist University in 2017, her masters in Literacy Education from the State University of New York at Cortland in 2002, and her bachelors in Elementary Education from the State University of New York at Geneseo in 1999.

Dr. Ginther happily began her career as a middle school English Language Arts and Social Studies teacher in New York. After a decade of classroom teaching in both New York and Texas, she served as a reading instructional specialist, student achievement specialist, professional learning coordinator, educational consultant, field supervisor for student teachers, and an adjunct instructor before officially joining the faculty at UNT in 2017.

Dr. Ginther was the 2019 recipient of the UNT Student Government Association's 'Fessor Graham Award for Outstanding Service to Students, the June 2019 UNT Teaching Excellence Spotlight Award, and the 2022 College of Education Award for Most Outstanding Lecturer. In addition, she was nominated twice for the DSI CLEAR Best Online Course Award.

Dr. Ginther is tenaciously dedicated to her work with undergraduate and graduate students and loves the teaching, mentoring, and service leadership opportunities she gets to experience every day.

Nazia Khan is a senior lecturer in the department of Teacher Education and Administration. She earned her doctorate in science education and concentration in multicultural education from Hofstra University in New York in 2018. Her teaching experience includes Science education, STEM education, and best practices for underrepresented communities. She serves to coordinate optimal student experiences embedded in transformative education in social actions related to science and partnerships with community leaders. 

Khan's research focus is on understanding how to engage and support students and teachers of all communities in science and STEM education with an emphasis on growth mindset. Much of her interests in education are rooted in her experience teaching in New York City for 10 years in a NYC public schools and the City University of New York. Having taught students of all ages in ESL, Black and Latinx communities, Khan promotes and understands the importance of representation in STEM fields, which is a motivating factor of her teaching, research and scholarship.

Daniel G. Krutka, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Social Studies Education in the Department of Teacher Education and Administration. A former high school social studies teacher in Oklahoma City, his research interests concern intersections of technology, education, and democracy. Dr. Krutka has authored over 75 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters in journals such as Harvard Educational Review, Computers & Education, Theory & Research in Social Education, and Teaching & Teacher Education among others. He was the lead editor of the 2018 book, "Keywords in the Social Studies: Concepts and Conversations" published in the Counterpoints: Studies in Criticality series by Peter Lang. He was awarded the 2016 Early Career Award by the Technology as an Agent of Change in Teaching and Learning special interest group (SIG) of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the 2017 Outstanding Research Paper Award from the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), the 2021 McJulien Scholar Award from International Convention of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT), and the 2023 National Technology Leadership Initiative (NTLI) Fellowship Award from the College and University Faculty Assembly (CUFA) of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS). He is past chair of the Social Studies Research SIG of AERA and a past board member for the College and University Faculty Assembly (CUFA) of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS). He also hosts the Visions of Education podcast (VisionsOfEd.com) and founded the Civics of Technology project (CivicsOfTechnology.org). He earned his doctorate from the University of Oklahoma.

Christopher Long is an Assistant Professor of K-12 Science Education at the University of North Texas. 

Dr. Long earned his Bachelor of Science from Texas A&M - Commerce, a Master of Arts in Teaching in Science Education from the University of Texas – Dallas, and a Ph.D. in Science Education from Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia.

Dr. Long’s teaching experience includes 15 years of teaching middle-school science in the public schools and six years of teacher preparation at the collegiate level. Most of his teaching experience has been in diverse, Title I schools.

Dr. Long’s research is focused on studying learning environments and attitudes associated with learning and teaching of science, pre-service teachers’ conceptual understanding of science, and science teacher preparation. Dr. Long serves as an associate editor for the Electronic Journal of Research in Mathematics and Science Education as well as a reviewer for several other science education journals.

In his spare time, Dr. Long is an avid sports fan who can often be found cheering on the A&M-Commerce Lions and UNT Mean Green athletics. He also volunteers with a local non-profit that provides social learning opportunities for young adults with autism.

Professor Mansfield, an award-winning teacher and researcher, currently serves as The Mike Moses Endowed Chair in Educational Leadership. A first-generation college graduate, Mansfield has over 30 years’ experience as a teacher and administrator across the preschool to post-secondary pipeline. Mansfield completed her Ph.D. in Educational Policy and Planning at The University of Texas at Austin where she also earned additional graduate credentials in Women’s and Gender Studies. Mansfield’s research spans across primary, secondary, and tertiary education sectors (P-16) and centers on the intersection of social identities, politics, policy, and practice. For example, she has studied the disproportionality in school discipline, gifted education, and STEM as it relates to gender, race/ethnicity, class, and other identity complexities in schools. Mansfield has also studied the importance of mentoring women graduate students, especially those studying in historically male-dominated fields such as educational leadership and STEM. Mansfield is passionate about student voice and the importance of including students as educational leaders and policy actors in local, state, national, and global arenas. This work has been featured on National Public Radio and has taken her to 10 countries across 6 continents.

Doricka L. Menefee, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Teacher Education and Administration at the University of North Texas. She earned her doctorate degree from Ohio State University with a concentration in Adolescent and Post-Secondary Community Literacies. Dr. Menefee’s research focuses on Black girls’ Literacies including aspects of Black girls’ development of self through their engagement in literacy practices and events and their representation in young adult literature and media. She believes that literacy is more than reading and writing; it is an act and reflection of self.

Dr. Karisma Morton is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education. Her research explores racial inequity in STEM education with a focus on mathematics education and has two strands of inquiry. In the first, she explores factors influencing racially minoritized students’ opportunities to learn rigorous mathematics through quantitative analyses of large-scale district and national datasets. In the second, she explores elementary preservice teachers’ ability to teach mathematics in equitable ways, particularly through the development of their critical racial consciousness. Findings from her research have been published in the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education and Educational Researcher.

Dr. Tiffany Newsome earned her Ed.D in Educational Leadership with a concentration in cultural foundations from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in English with double minors in Education and American Ethnic Studies from Wake Forest University. Additionally, she earned her Master's in School Administration from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Before coming to UNT, she was an elementary school principal at Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools in North Carolina. She has also served as an elementary assistant principal, a middle school administrative intern, and a high school English teacher. Her passion is to help educators develop in their leadership capacity and lead as their authentic selves in whatever context they find themselves. She wholeheartedly believes that leadership is about people's lives! At UNT, she serves as a lecturer in the Teacher Education & Administration department in the College of Education. Her research interests include Educational Leadership Preparation, Principal Preparation, Social Justice Education, Faith & Sprituality, Black School Leadership, Career Preparation, and School Administration. When she is not teaching or coaching leaders, Dr. Newsome enjoys watching movies, playing board/card games, traveling internationally, and spending time with her friends and family. 

Dr. Michelle Salazar Pérez is the Velma E. Schmidt Endowed Chair for Early Childhood Education & Professor of Early Childhood Studies at the University of North Texas. She uses women of color feminisms to inform her community collaborations, research, and pedagogy. These perspectives not only critically orient her work, but they also foreground the urgency to re-envision the field to support culturally sustaining praxis and programs for minoritized young children.

Dr. Pérez’s past and current scholarship addresses early childhood policy reform, historical and contemporary constructions of childhood/s, teacher education, and critical qualitative methodologies. Her work has been published in Teachers College Record, Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, Equity & Excellence in Education, the Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, Qualitative Inquiry, and Review of Research in Education. She has co-edited several special issues and books, including The SAGE Handbook of Global Childhoods.
 
Dr. Pérez earned her Ph.D. from Arizona State University and her master's and undergraduate degrees from Texas A&M University in College Station. Prior to her appointment at the University of North Texas, she was a tenured Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education at The University of Texas at Austin and New Mexico State University.

Angela M. Randall earned her Ph.D. in Reading Education at Auburn University. Dr. Randall's research interests include teachers' and students' knowledge of current high-quality children's books and the influence of teachers' attitudes toward reading on their students' attitudes. She has a profound love for children's books and is enthusiastic about exposing her students to the wonderful children's books available. Her elementary teaching experience includes teaching in grades 1 through 3 in Virginia, Texas, and Belgium.

Dr. Brenda Rubio’s research and policy agenda focuses on the development of critically conscious educational leadership and community-district-university partnerships. Among her current research, she examines learning spaces that promote the curricular recognition of alternative epistemologies and the development of pedagogies that foster students’ culture, language, and funds of knowledge. Her research explores the impact of community-anchored, ethnic studies curriculum on the educators themselves, their classroom practices, and their leadership development.

Her experience in educational research and program evaluation is primarily focused on K-12 but extends into higher education. She has conducted research with schools and providers that serve diverse student populations, including schools located in rural border towns and Indigenous pueblos as well as urban, Title 1 schools that primarily serve immigrant and refugee student populations. An essential part of her work as a participatory action researcher focuses on establishing collaborative partnerships across institutions and disciplines to leverage the existing knowledge and expertise found within these communities. Dr. Rubio is a first-generation immigrant and college graduate who proudly continues to serve diverse communities.

Victoria (Tori) Davis Smith is a Lecturer in Social Studies Education at the University of North Texas. She teaches undergraduate courses in elementary social studies methods. She works with preservice teachers to envision how the social studies classroom can exist as a context to empower youth to identify as vital contributors to their communities. She conducts qualitative research on humanizing education and student agency. Specifically, her research explores action civics pedagogy, antiracism, and classroom labor relations. Tori has presented at NCSS/CUFA and AERA, and she is a member of both organizations. She has published in journals such as Theory and Research in Social Education, Educational Studies, The Journal of Social Studies Research, Democracy & Education, and Citizenship Teaching & Learning. She received her M.Ed. + certification at the University of Texas at Austin and her Ph.D. from Baylor University. Before joining the faculty at the University of North Texas, Tori was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Alabama. Tori is from Texas and is passionate about serving teachers and students in her home state. 

Linda Stromberg, Ph.D., is the Program Chair of the Educational Administration Program, and she serves as Lead Advisor for the Master's In Educational Administration and the Principal Certification Programs. She teaches Introduction to Educational Administration, Instructional Leadership, and Professional Development and Supervision. Her interests include developing and implementing online and hybrid/blended courses. She is a certified trainer for Instructional Leadership Development (ILD) and Professional Development and Appraisal System of Texas (PDAS) appraiser training. She works with area Regional Service Centers and School Districts to coordinate off-campus courses for the doctoral and master's program. She serves on the advisory council for the Region 11 Ne Principals' Academy. Her prior experience includes work as a teacher, reading specialist, and instructional facilitator in the Dallas Independent School District and as a curriculum coordinator, and principal in the Carrollton Farmers Branch Independent School District. Her bachelor's degree is from West Texas State University (now Texas A & M University at Canyon), and her master's and doctoral degrees are from the University of North Texas.

Amanda E. Vickery is the Associate Dean for Educator Preparation at the University of North Texas. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in elementary social studies methods. Her research focuses on how Black women teachers utilize experiential and community knowledge to reconceptualize the construct of citizenship. Additionally, she explores Black women as critical citizens within the U.S. civic narrative. Her scholarship has been published in Theory and Research in Social Education, Urban Education, Race, Ethnicity and Education, Curriculum Inquiry, Journal of Social Studies Research, Multicultural Perspectives, Gender and Education, The High School Journal, Social Studies Research and Practice, and The International Journal of Multicultural Education. Dr. Vickery is active in the social studies community serving on the Executive Board of the College and University Faculty Assembly (CUFA) of the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) as the Social Justice Chair and board liaison to the Scholars of Color Faculty Forum of CUFA. She is also an Affiliate Faculty Board Member for the K-12 Black History Research Consortium for the Carter Center for K-12 Black History Education. Dr. Vickery is a former middle school social studies teacher.

Dr. Stephen Waddell, a former superintendent at Lewisville ISD, is a visiting professor in the Teacher Education and Administration Department.

Dr. Lok-Sze Wong studies system reform policies as attempts to address systemic inequities. Drawing on education, sociocultural, and organization theories and mixed methods, her research unpacks how systems (re)produce inequities and how to humanely reform schools and districts as complex social systems. She focuses on professional learning opportunities that support teachers and administrators as they shift their practices while redesigning the very organizations in which they work. Dr. Wong began her career in education as an elementary school teacher in Los Angeles. Dr. Wong has a Ph.D. in Educational Administration and Policy from the University of Michigan.