The Dean's Office announced this summer that 13 new faculty members will begin teaching this fall, and at least two more will join the ranks in January. Additionally, two minority postdoctoral fellows will arrive in September.

Of the 13, one appointment involves an existing member of the TC Community. Patricia Sweeting, who has been Director of the Edward D. Mysak Speech and Language Center for 11 years, was named Associate Professor of Practice in Speech and Language Pathology in the Department of Biobehavioral Studies. Prior to this appointment, Sweeting was adjunct Associate Professor of Practice in Speech and Language Pathology. She will continue to teach courses in diagnostics, speech and language pathology and voice disorders. Her appointment to the faculty allows her to participate on faculty committees.

As Director of the Mysak Speech and Language Center, Sweeting oversees the work of advanced students in the Speech and Language Pathology and Audiology master's program as they gain experience in a professional setting. In the early 1970s as a doctoral student at TC, Sweeting served as a supervisor in the clinic before being hired by Mount St. Ursula Speech Center in the Bronx. She returned to the Mysak Center in 1989 as Director.

Kevin Dougherty joins the Department of Organization and Leadership as an Associate Professor of Higher Education. Dougherty's most recent teaching and research positions have been with Manhattan College in the Department of Sociology where his focus was on political sociology, white-collar crime, and work and occupations. He has also been a senior research associate and project director at the Community College Research Center at TC directing a project on "The New Economic Role of the Community College."

Dougherty, who received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from Harvard University, has as his special scholarly interests the community college, the economic development role of higher education, higher education policymaking, K-12 educational reform and the sociology of education.

Beth A. Ferri is an Assistant Professor of Education for the Department of Curriculum and Teaching. Ferri is currently involved in studies on learning disabilities, inclusive education, women with disabilities and the social foundations of education. She comes to TC from Texas Woman's University where she was an Assistant Professor of Special Education. As a graduate student at the University of Georgia, Ferri also held positions as a Graduate Assistant/Learning Disability Specialist and a part-time Assistant Professor of Special Education. She received her M.A. from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania in Special Education/Early Childhood, and her Ph.D. from University of Georgia in Special Education/Learning Disabilities.

George V. Gushue is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Education in the Department of Counseling and Clinical Psychology. Gushue received his Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from Teachers College in 1996. He has most recently been an instructor in Clinical Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry at the college of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, and an instructor in the Psychology Internship Program at Kings County Hospital Center in Brooklyn. For three years, Gushue was an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychology and Education at TC. Gushue's clinical experience includes a position as staff psychologist at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. A good part of his work has been in areas of multicultural psychology and with individuals with HIV/AIDS.

Sharon Lynn Kagan comes to TC as the second Virginia and Leonard Marx Professor of Early Childhood and Family Policy. Kagan, named a Distinguished TC alumna in 1996, has been serving as a Senior Associate at The Bush Center in Child Development and Social Policy and Senior Research Scientist at Yale Child Study Center at Yale University. She has also served as Executive Director of The Office of Early Childhood Education in New York City. Her most recent research has been the assessment of the change in young children's learning environments as a result of welfare reform. Kagan's extensive research also includes the functioning of public schools in the delivery of human services, service integration, family support systems, child care, collaboration among private and public sectors in the delivery of services to young children and their families, and applying research to the formation and implementation of public policy. After receiving her Master of Liberal Arts from Johns Hopkins University, Kagan received an Ed.D. in Curriculum and Teaching from Teachers College.

Janet Miller is Professor of English Education with the Department of Arts and Humanities who came to TC from National College of Education at National-Louis University in Wisconsin, where she was Professor of Foundations and Research and Co-Director of the Curriculum and Social Inquiry Doctoral Program. Prior to that position, Miller served as Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching at the Hofstra University School of Education. Miller's areas of interests include gender equity in teacher-research, women as teacher/researchers, feminist curriculum theory, teaching of writing, and curriculum assessment. She received her M.A. in English Education from the University of Rochester, and her Ph.D. in Humanities Education-English and Curriculum Theory from the Ohio State University.

Anna Neumann joins the Department of Organization and Leadership as a Professor of Education. Neuman's most recent position as Associate Professor in Educational Psychology in Learning and Development at Michigan State University followed her Assistant Professorship at MSU in Higher Adult and Lifelong Education that began in 1990. Neumann received her Ph.D. in Education from University of Michigan and her M.A. in English at Pan American University in Edinburg. She is not new to Teachers College. From 1986 to 1990, Neuman was Assistant Director and Research Associate for the Institutional Leadership Project in the National Center for Postsecondary Governance and Finance. She was also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Higher and Adult Education.

Included in her areas of scholarly interest are professors and their intellectual careers, learning and teaching in higher education, women's scholarly development, academic cultures, and the learning of research.

Cheri Ostroff also joins the Department of Organization and Leadership as an Associate Professor of Psychology and Education. Ostroff comes to TC from Arizona State University where she has been an Associate Professor in the Department of Management since 1995. Prior to that position, she held Assistant and Associate Professorships at the Industrial Relations Center in the School of Management at the University of Minnesota. Her areas of interest include human resource management systems and firm performance, person-organization fit, socialization of newcomers, and levels of analysis issues.
She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Industrial/Organization Psychology from Michigan State University.

Aaron M. Pallas is Professor of Sociology and Education in the Department of Human Development. He most recently has been Professor of Education and Affiliate Professor of Sociology at Michigan State University, where he began as an Associate Professor of Educational Administration and Affiliate Associate Professor of Sociology in 1990. Prior to that, Pallas was an assistant to Associate Professor of Sociology and Education at TC for four years. At that time, Pallas co-authored several journal articles with Professor Gary Natriello on school dropouts and school reform.

His scholarly interests include the social organization of schools, school effects and effectiveness, educational stratification and sociology of the life course. Pallas Was a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow and received his Ph.D. in Sociology from The Johns Hopkins University.

Anne Sabatini joins TC as Assistant Professor of Practice in Education in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching. Sabatini has been a lecturer in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching at TC, an evaluator for the school-to-work curriculum project for NYC Board of Education Manhattan High School Division, and an evaluator for a camp counselor development and training program for special education youngsters. She has also been a researcher for the Leading Edge PDS Network at the National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools and Teaching (NCREST) at TC. Her research interests include professional development schools, teacher development, teacher education, and qualitative methodologies. Sabatini received an M.S. from Hunter College in the Elementary School Division, an M.S. with distinction from Pace University in Elementary Education, professional development courses at Harvard University Graduate School of Education, and an Ed.D. from Teachers College in Curriculum and Teaching.

Keith Sheppard joins the Department of Mathematics, Science and Technology as an Assistant Professor of Science Education. Not only did Sheppard receive his Ed.D. in Secondary Science Education from TC, but he has been an Adjunct Instructor/Professor at TC and a student advisor for eight years. In addition to teaching at the graduate school level, he has taught high school science in New York, Tanzania, and the U.K. He is particularly interested in student scientific understandings and conceptual change learning as well as the role of computers and technology in science and science teacher education. Prior to his graduate studies at TC, Sheppard received a Post Graduate Certificate of Education from Christ's College in Liverpool, U.K.

Frances Vavrus is Assistant Professor of Education in the Department of International and Transcultural Studies. She comes to TC from the University of Wisconsin-Madison where she was a lecturer in the International Studies Program and a researcher for the Project on Academic Language Socialization at the Wisconsin Center for Educational Research. Vavrus also taught secondary school in Tanzania as well as in Minnesota public schools. Her areas of special interest include development theory and history, gender issues in education, education and demographic change, and educational reform in Africa. She received her Master's Degree with Distinction in Teaching English as a Second Language from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and her Ph.D. from the Department of Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Randi Wolf joins the Department of Health and Behavior Studies as a Research Assistant Professor of Health Education. Wolf has been Project Coordinator for "Tailored Communications for Colorectal Cancer Screening" in the TC Department of Health and Behavior Studies since March. Prior to that, she was a National Institutes of Health postdoctoral trainee in the Department of Epidemiology at the Graduate School of Public Health at University of Pittsburgh. Wolf's other areas of interest include calcium absorption, osteoporosis, and menopausal changes. She attended the University of Pittsburgh for her graduate education, receiving a master's in Public Health in nutrition epidemiology and a Ph.D. in epidemiology from the Graduate School of Public Health.

The two new faculty members who will join TC in the spring are Rupal Patel, who will be Assistant Professor of Speech and Language Pathology, and Madhabi Chatterji, who will be Associate Professor of Measurement, Evaluation and Education.

Two Minority Postdoctoral Fellows will also work with the faculty. They are Detris Honora, in the Department of Counseling and clinical Psychology, and Joya Carter in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching. (Inside TC will report on the Minority Postdoctoral Fellows in more detail in a future issue.)

Published Tuesday, Sep. 18, 2001