Speaker Bios
Dr. Harold Abeles, Professor of Music and Music Education, has been at Teachers College for 28 years. Prior to coming to Teachers College, he served on the faculties of the School of Music at Indiana University, and the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and Oklahoma State University. He also served as a general and instrumental music teacher in Ashford, Connecticut, and in Prince Georges County, Maryland. At Teachers College, Professor Abeles has previously served as the Chair of the Arts and Humanities Department and the Director of the Division of Instruction. He received his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Music Education from the University of Connecticut and his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland.
Dr. Abeles has contributed numerous articles, chapters and books to the field of music education. He is the co-author of the Foundations of Music Education and the co-editor, with Professor Lori Custodero, of Critical Issues in Music Education: Contemporary Theory and Practice. Recent chapters by him have appeared in the Handbook of Music Psychology and the New Handbook of Research on Music Teaching and Learning. He was the founding editor of The Music Researchers Exchange, an international music research newsletter begun in 1974. He served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Society for Research in Music Education and has served on the editorial boards of several journals including the Journal of Research in Music Education, Psychomusicology, Dialogue in Instrumental Music Education, and Update.
His research has focused on a variety of topics including, the evaluation of community-based arts organizations, the assessment of instrumental instruction, the sex-stereotyping of music instruments, the evaluation of applied music instructors, the evaluation of ensemble directors, technology-based music instruction, and verbal communication in studio instruction.
Nabeel Ahmad is the mobile learning thought leader for IBM Learning and avid communicator. Nabeel holds a Doctorate in Educational Technology from Teachers College, Columbia University, a Master of Science from Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science, and a Business degree from the University of Oklahoma. He is an Associate Adjunct Professor, teaching a mobile phone learning course at Teachers College. He has published on mobile learning topics and has a keen interest in educational technology for growth markets. And, yes, he has given many (mostly good) presentations and sat in on more bad ones.
Christiane Baker is the Executive Director of Edible Schoolyard NYC, a non-profit organization that partners with public schools to create gardens and kitchen classrooms to engage children in hands-on education that cultivates the knowledge, skills and environment required to change the way they eat for life. Throughout her career Ms. Baker has been dedicated to helping improve the way children eat in the U.S. through media, advocacy and education. As a trained cook, farm owner and manager, and tireless advocate of organic farming and school food reform, Ms. Baker envisions a world where all children have access to fresh, healthy, organically grown food. A graduate of Barnard College, she is currently completing a M.S. in Nutrition and Public Health at Columbia University. Ms. Baker is the proud parent of a NYC public school student and resides in Brooklyn, New York.
Judith Burton is Professor and Director of Art and Art Education, Columbia University Teachers College. Before that she was Chair of Art Education of Boston University and taught at the Massachusetts College of Art. She received her Ed. D. from Harvard University in 1980. Her research focuses on the artistic-aesthetic development of children and adolescents and the implications this has for teaching and learning. In 1995 co-founded the Center for Research in Arts Education at Teachers College, and in 1996, she founded the Heritage School a comprehensive high school featuring the arts, located in Harlem, NYC. She is author of numerous articles and chapters and currently has three books in process of publication: She received the Manuel Barkan Award for excellence in research writing, and the Lowenfeld Award for lifetime achievement in art education from NAEA. Dr, Burton is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts in Great Britain, a Distinguished Fellow of the NAEA, and serves as Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Central Academy of Fine Arts Beijing, China. She is also a Trustee of the Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore, MD.
Margaret Smith Crocco is Coordinator of the Program in Social Studies and Professor of Social Studies and Education. Professor Crocco received her bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Georgetown University and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in American Civilization from the University of Pennsylvania. She has taught American Studies at the University of Maryland, American and Women’s History at Drew, Montclair State, and William Paterson Universities, and within the Texas community college system. She joined the Teachers College faculty in 1993 after having spent eight years teaching and administering at a high school in Summit, New Jersey. Professor Crocco is the recipient of numerous grants related to women’s history, African American history, and inclusive curriculum. Most recently, she has served as editor and project leader for the Teaching The Levees curriculum, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and based on Spike Lee’s award-winning film, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts.
Joan Jeffri is the Director of the Program in Arts Administration at Teachers College, and Director of the Research Center for Arts and Culture. She is the past president of the Association of Art Administration Educators. From 1981-1990, she served as an executive director of The Journal of Arts Management and Law. She is author of Arts Money: Raising It, Saving It, Earning It (1989); The Emerging Arts: Management, Survival and Growth (1990), and editor of Artisthelp: The Artist’s Guide to Work-Related Human and Social Services (1990); and The Actor Speaks, The Painter Speaks, and The Craftsperson Speaks (Greenwood Press, 1994, 1993, 1992), as well as numerous studies on artists, including “Information on Artists I and II” and “The Artists Training and Career Project.” Her first careers were as a poet, with Louis Untermeyer as her mentor, and an actress, appearing in the national tour of The Homecoming, in the Boston Company of The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds and with the Lincoln Center Repertory Company in New York City.
Pamela Koch was a Curriculum Developer for “EarthFriends: the whole story of Food” a supplemental education program that teachers children, teachers and parents about food choices that are both good for them and good for the earth at Teachers College from 1994 to 1997. During the same time she completed her dissertation research. She was a part of the team that evaluated the first version of Cookshop™. Cookshop™ was conceptualized by Dr. Toni Liquori to connect school lunch and classroom education. In the classroom, students prepare and eat the exact vegetable and grain recipes that are being served in the cafeteria. Pam’s dissertation research compared the Cookshop™ lessons with another series of lessons that taught students the importance of eating whole plant foods without direct experiences with these foods. The results of this research showed that classroom cooking and eating experiences are an effective way to increase preferences for and consumption of (measured through cafeteria observations) when novel vegetable and grains are served in school lunch. As of 2008, Cookshop™ is being taught in 500 New York City public school kindergarten – second grade classrooms through the Food Bank of New York City/Food Change.
In 1997, Pam became the Project Coordinator LiFE (Linking Food and the Environment) curriculum project. LiFE is a Curriculum series for upper-elementary and middle school students that is inquiry-based and carefully designed to meet national science education standards. The LiFE Curriculum Series is funded through a Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) from the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Through three SEPA grants, under Principal Investigator Isobel Contento and Co-Principal Investigator Angela Calabrese Barton, three modules of the LiFE Curriculum Series have been published by National Gardening Association, Growing Food (2007), Farm to Table & Beyond (2008) and Choice, Control & Change: Using Science to Make Food and Activity Decisions (early 2009). The results of the evaluations of the LiFE curriculum indicate that it improves students’ conceptual understandings about science and nutrition, their attitudes toward science, health and nature, and their food choices.
In 2007, Pam became the Executive Director of the Center for Food & Environment. The Center for Food & Environment at Teachers College is a national leader in the areas of food, food systems, and the diet-health connection. Its research leads to understanding why people make the food choices they do and what types of interventions facilitate voluntary adoption of more healthful and ecologically sound food choices. This research has many practice-based outcomes.
Kristen Mancinelli is Senior Manager of Policy and Government Relations at City Harvest, where she advocates for programs and policies at the city, state, and federal levels to promote community food security and improve access to healthy and affordable food for low-income New Yorkers. Kristen manages City Harvest’s partnership with the NYC Office of SchoolFood, and participates in city and national networks to advocate for improvements to school meals. From March 2009 to Dec 2010, Kristen led the NYC Alliance for CNR campaign to give New Yorkers a voice in the federal Reauthorization of child nutrition programs.
Kristen is a Registered Dietician and holds a Masters in Nutrition and Public Health from Teachers College, Columbia University. She is proud to say she’s a native New Yorker.
Gary Natriello is the Gottesman Professor of Educational Research and Professor of Sociology and Education in the Department of Human Development at Teachers College, Columbia University. Professor Natriello teaches graduate courses in the social organization of schools and classrooms, the social dimensions of assessment processes, the sociology of online learning, and research methods.
Professor Natriello is the Director of the Teachers College EdLab, a design and development unit devoted to creating new educational possibilities for the information age. Professor Natriello is the executive editor of the Teachers College Record and the Director of the Gottesman Libraries at Teachers College.
Professor Natriello holds an A.B. (English) from Princeton University, an A.M. (sociology) from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. (sociology of education) from Stanford University. He has also been a post-doctoral fellow in the NIMH Program in Structurally Induced Social Problems and Mental Health in the Department of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University.
Professor Natriello’s research interests include school organization, evaluation, at-risk youth, and the sociology of online learning. Professor Natriello is the author of several books, including Schooling Disadvantaged Children: Racing Against Catastrophe (with E.L. McDill and A.M. Pallas) and From Cashbox to Classroom (with W. Firestone and M. Goertz). Recent articles include: The History and Promise of Assessment and Accountability in Title I (with E.L. McDill), Vouchers, Privatization and the Poor, Title I: From Funding Mechanism to Educational Program (with E.L. McDill), The Development and Impact of High Stakes Testing (with A.M. Pallas), Bridging the Second Digital Divide: What Can Sociologists of Education Contribute?, Data Mining Journals and Books: Using the Science of Networks to Uncover the Structure of the Educational Research Community, and Modest Changes, Revolutionary Possibilities: Distance Learning and the Future of Education.
David P. Rivera, M.S., is a doctoral candidate in counseling psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University. He holds degrees in psychology and counseling from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Wyoming. His research focuses on issues impacting the marginalization and health of people of color and sexual minorities. David’s research has been published in The Counseling Psychologist, Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, and The Journal of Counseling and Development. His rtherapeutic interests include working with college students and people with substance abuse issues. Along with his advisor, Derald Wing Sue, PhD, he hosts a blog on Psychology Today’s website entitled, “Microaggressions in Everyday Life.” He has received multiple recognitions for his work, including national honors from the American Psychological Association and the American College Counseling Association.
Laura Smith, Assistant Professor of Psychology and Education at Teachers College, was trained as a counseling psychologist and spent the first part of her career in college counseling centers, first as an internship taining director at Pace University and then as the Director of Counseling Services at Barnard College. Focusing on her interest in working at the community level, she then became the director of psychological services at the West Farms Career Center in the Bronx, when it was a multifaceted community-based organization offering a wide array of services to Bronx residents. There she came to realize how her conventional psychological training had not prepared her for work in a poor urban community and became interested in studying the field’s general neglect of issues of poverty, social class and classism. Smith now teaches a teaching a variety of applied and experiential courses within the counseling psychology curriculum, including Group Counseling, Consultation to Community Agencies, Racial-Cultural Counseling Lab, the Basic Doctoral Counseling Practicum and School Counseling. In the fall of 2010, Smith published Psychology, poverty, and the end of social exclusion: Putting our practice to work in book and DVD formats.
Laurie M. Tisch joined the TC Board of Trustees in 1998 and, is Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees at Teachers College.
Tisch is the Founder and President of the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund. The foundation was established in 2007 to advance a broad mission of increasing access and opportunity for all New Yorkers.
Tisch was the founding chair of the Center for Arts Education and led the Children’sMuseum of Manhattan for many years. In addition, Tisch is a Vice Chair of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and a Trustee of the Whitney Museum of American Art .
Tisch is also a member of the Board of Directors of the New York Football Giants,the NFL team co-owned by her family. Tisch is a recognized leader and has received numerous public service awards.
Tisch earned a B.A. in Elementary Education with honors from the University of Michigan in 1973.
Samuel Totten earned a master’s degree and a doctoral degree at Teachers College, Columbia University, where he studied under Dr. Maxine Greene, Dr. Ann Lieberman, Dr. Dwayne Huebner, Dr. Lawrence Cremin, and Dr. Karen Zumwalt. Since 1987, Totten has taught at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, where he co-developed the Middle Level Master of Arts Program (MAT) and founded the Northwest Arkansas Writing Project (NWAWP). Totten is also being recognized with a Distinguished Alumni Award during this year’s Academic Festival.
Totten’s passion in life and the primary focus of his research is the prevention and intervention of genocide. During the summer of 2004, Totten served as one of the 24 investigators with the U.S. State Department’s Atrocities Documentation Project interviewing black African refugees along the Chad/Sudan border in order to collect data for the express purpose of ascertaining whether genocide had been perpetrated in Darfur.
Totten was a Fulbright Scholar in Rwanda at the National University of Rwanda from January 2008 to July 2008. As a Fulbright Scholar, he developed the first master’s degree in genocide studies to be offered on the continent of Africa, which is currently offered by the National University of Rwanda.
Totten is co-founding editor of Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal (University of Toronto Press), and has served as a co-editor from 2005 to the present.
Among Totten’s publications are: An Oral and Historical Documentation of the Darfur Genocide (Praeger Security International, 2010); Century of Genocide: Critical Essays and Eyewitness Accounts (Praeger, 2009); Teaching About Genocide (Information Age Publishers, 2004); Genocide in Darfur: Investigating Atrocities in the Sudan (Routledge, 2006).
Totten is also dedicated to the teaching and studying of social (and controversial) social issues. Among the books he has co-edited on social issues are: Educating About Social Issues in the 20th and 21st Centuries: A Critical Annotated Bibliography (forthcoming, Information Age Publishers); Teaching and Studying Social Issues: Major Programs and Approaches (Information Age Publishers, 2010); Addressing Social Issues in the Classroom and Beyond. The Pedagogical Efforts of Pioneers in the Field of Education (Information Age Publishers, 2007); Researching and Teaching Social Issues: The Personal Stories and Pedagogical Efforts of Professors of Education (Roman and Littlefield, 2006); Social Issues and Service at the Middle Level (Allyn and Bacon Publishers, 1997); and Addressing Social Issues in the English Classroom (National Council of Teachers of English, 1992).
Nicole Watkins is a multicultural researcher, therapist, academic advisor, graduate hall director, and doctoral candidate in the psychological counseling program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She has earned degrees from the Pennsylvania State University and New York University. Her emphasis is in student development, academic advisement, and multicultural psychology.
Dr. Ruth Westheimer is a psychosexual therapist who helped pioneer the field of Media Psychology with her radio program “Sexually Speaking” which began in September, 1980 as a 15 minute taped show that aired in New York.
Today, “Sexually Speaking” can be heard across the country and is part of a communications network that distributes Dr. Ruth Westheimer’s expertise via television, books, newspapers, games, home video and computer software.
Born in Germany in 1928, Dr. Ruth Westheimer was sent to a school in Switzerland at the age of 10 which became an orphanage for most of the German-Jewish students sent there. At 16 she went to Israel where she fought for that country’s independence as member of the Haganah. She then moved to Paris where she studied psychology at the Sorbonne and taught kindergarten.
Ruth Westheimer immigrated to the U.S. in 1956 where she obtained her Masters degree in Sociology and her Ph.D. in Education from Columbia University. She studied human sexuality with Dr. Helen Singer Kaplan at New York Hospital Cornell University Medical Center.
Dr. Ruth Westheimer is a pioneer in spreading what she has labeled “sexual literacy.” She has been twice named “College Lecturer of the Year.” Her television program, “The Dr. Ruth Show,” aired on Lifetime has been syndicated nationally and internationally. The National Mother’s Day Committee has honored Dr. Westheimer as “Mother of the Year.”
Dr. Ruth Westheimer has two children and resides with her husband in New York City.
Sharon Wong has over 10 years of experience leading programs in non-profit organizations that focus on positive youth development and environmental justice. While in graduate school, her experience of traveling to Nicaragua, as a delegate for Witness for Peace, then later to Cuba, developed her interest in justice issues and policies affecting poor and marginalized communities in the U.S. and abroad. In 2003, Sharon began working in the South Bronx leading New Settlement Apartment’s Bronx Helpers Program, an award winning afterschool, youth leadership and community service program. During this time, Sharon began taking teens to upstate farms in New York to learn what foods are local to the region and basic farming practices and enrolling teens in volunteer opportunities on urban farms and community gardens in the city to foster their interest in growing food. Currently, Sharon is NYC Food and Fitness Partnership’s (NYCFAF) new Community Development Manager and is working with community organizations and agencies to develop policy and system changes in accessing healthy food and creating safe environments. Sharon partners with residents and community groups to develop initiatives that will improve the quality of food in Central Brooklyn and create opportunities for residents to engage in more outdoor physical activities. In addition to working with NYCFAF, Sharon is the project director of Turf, an Open Space Institute Project focused on improving the quality of food available in Parkchester. Sharon is a graduate of Smith College, Union Theological Seminary, and Coro Leadership New York and currently a member of Food Systems Network NYC’s Leadership Committee and Black Urban Growers.