UAB Experts Available to Discuss K-12 School Topics

The following is an extensive list of top experts in the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Education, the School of Business, the Comprehensive Youth Violence Center and the Center for the Advancement of Youth Health who will be available throughout the K-12 school year to answer questions on everything from No Child Left Behind and bullying to standardized testing and reading.

Posted on August 3, 2004 at 2:10 p.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — The following is an extensive list of top experts in the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Education, the School of Business, the Comprehensive Youth Violence Center and the Center for the Advancement of Youth Health who will be available throughout the K-12 school year to answer questions on everything from No Child Left Behind and bullying to standardized testing and reading.

For interviews, contact the UAB Office of Media Relations at (205) 934-3884 or 1-800-UAB-9091.

 

Accountability

Scott Snyder, Ph.D. — associate professor of education
Expertise: accountability in education, state accountability assessment models and early intervention and statistics
Credentials: directs the UAB School of Education’s Center for Educational Accountability, which promotes improvement in educational outcomes of students, schools and agencies

 

Bullying

Loucrecia Collins, Ed.D. — assistant professor of educational leadership
Expertise: bullying, conflict resolution
Credentials: coordinator of the “Don’t Laugh at Me” Birmingham Consortium, a program that uses songs, games, videos and classroom activities to teach children about respecting others

 

Child Abuse/Child Sexual Abuse

Renitta Goldman, Ph.D. — professor of special education
Expertise: signs and effects of physical, emotional and sexual abuse
Credentials: teaches in the Department of Leadership, Special Education and Foundations; author of An Interdisciplinary Approach to Child Abuse & Neglect, Silent Shame: The Sexual Abuse of Children and Youth and co-editor of the book Current Issues and Trends in Education

 

Child Health

Michael Windle, Ph.D. — professor of psychology
Expertise: predictors of substance abuse, smoking, depression, health risks and health behaviors among children and teens
Credentials: director of the UAB Department of Psychology’s Center for the Advancement of Youth Health and the UAB Comprehensive Youth Violence Center

 

Child Injuries/Pedestrian Safety

David Schwebel, Ph.D. — assistant professor of psychology
Expertise: child safety, pedestrian accidents involving children, psychological causes of childhood injuries
Credentials: director of the UAB Department of Psychology’s Youth Safety Lab, where he conducts laboratory-based studies of factors that lead to child and adolescent injuries. He has published articles in Child Development, Journal of Safety Research and the Journal of Pediatric Psychology.

 

Credit Advice For College Students

Lance Nail, Ph.D. — associate professor of finance
Expertise: personal finance
Credentials: chair of the Department of Finance, Economics and Quantitative Methods; Nail’s articles have been published in the Journal of Financial Economics, and the Journal of Applied Corporate Finance

 

Education/State of Public School Education

Michael J. Froning, Ed.D. — dean of the UAB School of Education
Expertise: taught courses examining critical issues in high school education and “American Schools in Crisis”
Credentials: member of the National Advisory Board of the Mathematics Education Collaborative, the Council of Great City Colleges of Education and the Urban Educator Corps of the Great Cities Universities

 

English as a Second Language (ESL)

Julia Austin, Ph.D. — director and principal investigator for the School of Education’s Office of English as a Second Language
Expertise: ESL education
Credentials: principal investigator Project EQUAL and other ongoing programs that are training teachers and school personnel how to work with children who are learning English as their second language

 

First Day of School Jitters

Jerry Aldridge, Ed.D. — professor of early childhood education
Expertise: child development, early childhood education, personality development, self-esteem, separation anxiety and first day of school jitters
Credentials: teaches in the School of Education’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction; author and co-author of more than 100 journal articles and eight books, including Self Esteem: Loving Yourself at Every Age; He is project director of the Ready to Learn in School Preschool Preparation Project at UAB. Aldridge also is former president of the U.S. National Committee for the World Organization for Early Childhood Education.

James T. Cullinan, M.D. — assistant professor of psychiatry
Expertise: mental health, first day of school jitters, medications and school, teen depression
Credentials: teaches in the Department of Psychiatry, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

 

Grade Retention

Jerry Aldridge, Ed.D. — professor of education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction
Expertise: early childhood education, early literacy and intervention/special education
Credentials: a nationally renowned expert on early childhood education. He is the author and co-author of eight books. He is co-editor of the book Current Issues and Trends in Education, which contains a chapter devoted to the topic of grade retention. He also has written more than 100 journal articles.

 

Health Education

Brian Geiger, Ed.D. — associate professor of health education
Expertise: personal health, health education, human sexuality and school health programs
Credentials: teaches in the School of Education’s Department of Human Studies, assistant director of the Center for Educational Accountability and faculty member in the Center for Health Promotion; project evaluator on government funded grants aimed at increasing effective substance abuse and violence prevention programs, diversity training, detection of diabetes risk factors and student mentoring initiatives; He is a member of the editorial board for AIDS Education and Prevention and a reviewer for other journals, including the Journal of Health Education, Medical Science Monitor and Health Promotion Practice.

 

Mathematics Education

Michael Froning, Ed.D. — dean of the UAB School of Education
Expertise: the state of high school mathematics education
Credentials: member of the National Advisory Board of the Mathematics Education Collaborative, Council of Great City Colleges of Education and Urban Educator Corps of the Great Cities Universities

Constance Kamii, Ph.D. — professor of math education
Expertise: math instruction, math phobia
Credentials: expert in general mathematics, Piaget’s theory of constructivism, author of books and journal articles on math education

Charles Calhoun, Ph.D. — associate professor of mathematics education
Expertise: elementary school mathematics; dealing with math anxiety
Credentials: chair of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the School of Education

Tommy Smith, Ed.D. — associate professor of math education
Expertise: high school mathematics education, technology in mathematics teaching
Credentials: teaches in the School of Education’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction; Smith was part of a team that coordinated the EdGrid program for education students. The program teaches students how to use computers and Internet-based investigative techniques to solve real-world problems through computer simulation.

 

No Child Left Behind

Scott Snyder, Ph.D. — associate professor of education
Expertise: accountability in education, evaluation of teacher education programs and training programs, state accountability assessment, early intervention and statistics
Credentials: directs the UAB Center for Educational Accountability, which promotes improvement in educational outcomes of students, schools and agencies through data based decisions focused on reform

 

Nutrition

Suzanne Henson, MS, RD — registered dietitian
Expertise: nutrition, obesity
Credentials: assistant professor in the School of Health Related Professions’ Department of Nutrition Sciences; director of UAB’s EatRight Weight Management Program

 

Obesity/Body Image

Retta Evans, Ph.D. — associate professor of health education
Expertise: health education, health behaviors, obesity, eating disorders and exercise
Credentials: published articles in the Journal of the Georgia Association of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance and the Indiana AHPRED Journal; teaches in the Department of Human Studies

 

Physical Education

Donna Hester, Ph.D. — associate professor of physical education
Expertise: elementary and middle school physical education, fitness activities physical education requirements in Alabama
Credentials: executive director of the Alabama Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance; teaches in the Department of Human Studies

 

Reading/Literacy

Kathleen Martin, Ph.D. — assistant professor of education
Expertise: reading, literacy, encouraging the reluctant reader
Credentials: directs the Early Reading First Program, which provides curricula, books and other materials to pre-school children in Bessemer, Alabama. In addition, the program provides advanced training and education to 28 Bessemer pre-school teachers. Martin teaches in the School of Education’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction.

 

School Administration/Leadership

Zack Kelehear, Ph.D. — associate professor of educational leadership
Expertise: school law, school management, communication issues involving e-mail
Credentials: published 14 journal articles and book reviews on mentoring, personnel management, staff development and technology; teaches in the Department of Leadership, Special Education and Foundations

Jerry Patterson, Ph.D. — associate professor of educational leadership
Expertise: education leadership, organizational change
Credentials: former school superintendent, assistant superintendent, elementary school principal, and high school teacher; author of five nationally recognized books, including The Anguish of Leadership (2000), in which he profiled 14 school veteran school superintendents around the nation about the problems and challenges they face as school leaders. In his book Coming Even Cleaner About Organizational Change (2003) Patterson discusses new ways to think about organizational change, leadership and resilience. Patterson teaches in the Department of Leadership, Special Education and Foundations.

 

School Counseling

Larry Tyson, Ph.D. — associate professor of counseling education
Expertise: school counseling, peer mediation, cinematherapy for group counseling, legal issues in school counseling, preparing for college
Credentials: program coordinator of the Department of Human Studies’ school counseling program

 

Science Education

Lee Meadows, Ph.D. — associate professor of education
Expertise: science education, science reform, professional development for science teachers
Credentials: directs the Alabama Leadership and Assistance for Science Education Reform (LASER), a project focused on implementing inquiry-based science teaching in Alabama’s school systems

Joan Dawson — education director for the UAB School of Education’s Hands on Activity Science Program (ALAHASP)
Expertise: hands-on-science activities in schools
Credentials: ALAHASP is a consortium of state school districts and three universities and is headquartered at UAB. Since 1995, ALAHASP has provided professional development opportunities for more than 6,000 schoolteachers, serving more than 114,000 K-6 school children.

 

Special Education/Inclusion

Karen Dahle, Ph.D. — assistant professor of special education
Expertise: inclusion of students with moderate to severe disabilities in the general classroom, autism, developmental disorders
Credentials: published articles on autism and inclusion in national, refereed journals; teaches in the Department of Leadership, Special Education and Foundations

Renitta Goldman, Ph.D. — professor of special education
Expertise: special education, child abuse
Credentials: coordinator of the UAB School of Education’s special education programs; project director of a federally supported program to designed to help teachers earn a master’s degree in special education and ESL certification; co-author of book Current Issues and Trends in Education and Teaching Children to Read; teaches in the Department of Leadership, Special Education and Foundations

 

Standardized Testing

Scott Snyder, Ph.D. — associate professor of education
Expertise: state accountability assessment models, applied statistics
Credentials: directs the UAB Center for Educational Accountability, which promotes improvement in educational outcomes of students, schools and agencies

 

Urban Education

Tondra Loder — assistant professor of educational foundations
Expertise: race and ethnicity in American education, urban education, education and urban policy, the social development of urban youth
Credentials: Loder is author of several articles on inner city youth development organizations. She teaches in the Department of Leadership, Special Education and Foundations.

 

Youth Violence

Michael Windle, Ph.D. — professor of psychology
Expertise: predictors of substance abuse, depression, anxiety disorders and violence among children and teens
Credentials: director of the Department of Psychology’s Comprehensive Youth Violence Center; directing the Birmingham Youth Violence Study, which examines the effects of exposure to violence and violent behavior on pre-teen school children.