The College of Education is honored to recognize our faculty members who have recently been promoted, as well as those appointed to endowed professorships or fellowships.
These promotions and endowed appointments recognize the college faculty’s dedication to creating a dynamic academic environment and highlight the field-leading expertise and scholarly impact that our talented faculty members bring to our community. Please join the college in congratulating the following individuals on their outstanding accomplishments:
Faculty Promotion and Tenure
Department of Educational Leadership and Policy
Dr. Joshua Childs has been promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure.
Dr. Denisa Gándara has been promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure.
Dr. David DeMatthews has been promoted to Full Professor.
Dr. Stella Flores, who also holds an appointment in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, has been promoted to Full Professor.
Dr. Sarah Woulfin has been promoted to Full Professor.
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
Dr. Denise Dávila has been promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure.
Dr. Carlos Nicolas Gómez Marchant has been promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure.
Department of Educational Psychology
Dr. Hyeon-Ah Kang has been promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure.
Dr. Katherine Muenks has been promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure.
Department of Special Education
Dr. Peng Peng has been promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure.
Dr. Natasha Strassfeld has been promoted to Associate Professor with Tenure.
Dr. Sarah Powell has been promoted to Full Professor.
Endowed Professorships
Dr. Liliana M. Garces, Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy, has been appointed as the Ken McIntyre Professor for Excellence in School Leadership.She previously held the W. K. Kellogg Professorship of Community College Leadership. Dr. Garces’ scholarship examines how the legal and education systems shape educational opportunity while creating inequality for historically marginalized student populations. Her work uses quantitative, qualitative and legal research methods to explore widespread issues of race, equity, diversity and social inequality within education. Dr. Garces holds affiliate faculty appointments at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Law, the Center for Mexican American Studies and the Texas Center for Equity Promotion. Dr. Garces has represented the education community in the filing of legal briefs in U.S. Supreme Court cases concerning race-conscious policies in education.
Dr. Luis Urrieta, Jr., Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, has been reappointed to the Charles H. Spence, Sr. Centennial Professorship in Education. Dr. Urrieta’s research focuses on cultural and racial identities; agency as social and cultural practices; social movements and collective action related to education; and learning in family and community contexts. His specific interests include Chicanx, Latinx and Indigenous (P’urhépecha) cultures, as well as identities and activism as a social practice within educational spaces. He is also the author of the award-winning book, Working from Within: Chicana and Chicano Activist Educators in Whitestream Schools. In 2014, Dr. Urrieta was honored as a César E. Chávez Champion of Change by the White House.
Dr. Cinthia Salinas, Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, has been reappointed to the Ruben E. Hinojosa Regents Professorship in Education.Dr. Salinas, an expert and practitioner in social studies education, focuses on issues related to elementary, bilingual and secondary education, as well as ESL classroom settings. In her work and research, she examines social studies curriculum through a variety of narratives and lenses, including civic identities, citizenship, agency and membership. Dr. Salinas is an affiliate faculty member in both the Bilingual/Bicultural and Cultural Studies in Education program areas.
Dr. Melissa Wetzel, Professor and Department Chair of Curriculum and Instruction, has been appointed to the Priscilla Pond Flawn Regents Professorship in Early Childhood Education.Her scholarship focuses on the preparation of teachers in literacy for equity-focused practices and the development of justice-focused coaching and mentoring in preservice and in-service settings. Dr. Wetzel’s work explores culturally sustaining pedagogy frameworks to successfully prepare teachers within field-based literacy teaching experiences. She teaches courses in elementary literacy methods, reading development, coaching and mentoring, literacy leadership, sociolinguistics, teacher inquiry, and critical approaches to studying classroom discourse.
Dr. Stephanie Cawthon, Professor and Graduate Advisor in the Department of Educational Psychology, has been appointed to the Catherine Mae Parker Centennial Professorship in Education.Dr. Cawthon holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Special Education. She is the Founding Director of the National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Outcomes (NDC), which is based in the college’s Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk. For the NDC, she serves on the Board of Directors and as Director of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Institute. In 2007, she delivered the University’s first commencement address in American Sign Language and is an internationally renowned expert on factors that affect how deaf and disabled people succeed in classrooms and workplaces.
Dr. David DeMatthews, Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy, has been appointed to the W. K. Kellogg Professorship of Community College Leadership.Dr. DeMatthews holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Special Education. He is the founder of the Texas Education Leadership Lab and Director of the Cooperative Superintendency Program. His research focuses on how districts and schools create equitable and inclusive environments, exploring the intersections of race, social class, language and other markers of identity, with a special emphasis on school leadership and policy.
Dr. Sarah Powell, Professor in the Department of Special Education, has been appointed to the Audrey Rogers Myers Centennial Professorship in Education.Dr. Powell is the Associate Director of the Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk. Among several projects, she is the principal investigator of an Institute of Education Sciences (IES) efficacy grant related to word-problem-solving at Grade 4, and of another IES grant which works collaboratively with fourth and fifth grade teachers who provide math instruction to students who have difficulty with the subject. Dr. Powell is also principal investigator on a doctoral leadership grant funded by the Office of Special Education Programs to help form the next generation of mathematics researchers. In 2019, she was awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.
Dean’s Distinguished Faculty Fellows
Dr. Grace MyHyun Kim, Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction
Dr. Carlos Nicolas Gómez Marchant, Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction
Dr. Min Liu, Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction
Dr. María González-Howard, Associate Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction
Dr. Sylvia Celedón-Pattichis, Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction
Dr. Catherine Riegle-Crumb, Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction
Dr. Erin Rodriguez, Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology
Dr. Hyeon-Ah Kang, Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology
Dr. Chris Doabler, Associate Professor in the Department of Special Education
Dr. Natasha Strassfeld, Associate Professor in the Department of Special Education
Dr. Brian Mills, Associate Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education
Dr. Seth Schwartz, Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education
Dr. Deborah Salvo, Associate Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education
Dr. Jan Todd, Department Chair and Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education
Dr. Denisa Gándara, Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy
Dr. Rachel White, Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy
Inaugural Professional Track Faculty Fellows
Dr. Debra Cantú, Associate Professor of Practice in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy
Dr. Jane Grey, Associate Professor of Practice in the Department of Educational Psychology
Dr. Katie Tackett, Director of Education Services for the College of Education and Associate Professor of Practice in the Department of Special Education
Dr. Lara Latimer, Assistant Professor of Instruction in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Education
