FACULTY AND STAFF
KIRSTEN HEXTRUM, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND POLICY STUDIES
Hextrum was featured in The Guardian, the Boston Globe, WOSU radio and NPR discussing the college admissions scandal. Click on the links to learn more.
Hextrum's research examines school sports as social settings that can maintain and/or contest power systems. Her professional career in student athlete academic support services and her personal experience as a Division I athlete inform her research, teaching and activism. Hextrum’s research has appeared or is forthcoming in the Teachers College Record, Berkeley Review of Education, Berkeley Center for Studies in Higher Education Research and Occasional Paper Series, and various edited volumes. Her research has also appeared in public forums, such as a nationally recognized white paper, a brief in the antitrust case O’Bannon v. NCAA, and the 2016 documentary The Business of Amateurs.
COREY PELTIER, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
Peltier was named Assessment for Effective Intervention’s 2018 Reviewer of the Year. His frequent, high-quality and timely reviews have enhanced AEI’s peer-review process.
ANGELA URICK, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND POLICY STUDIES
Urick led the organization of the Education Funding Summit, held March 9 at Oklahoma Memorial Union. Legislators, analysts, educators and community members took part in the summit, concluding with a keynote speech from Nicola A. Alexander. Alexander is an associate professor in the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy and Development at the University of Minnesota. The event was open to the public and included current and former educators, as well as concerned parents.
SABINA VAUGHT, PROFESSOR AND DEPARTMENT CHAIR, EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND POLICY STUDIES
Vaught was selected to lead an OU Presidential Dream Course titled "Rematriation of Indigenous Epistemologies in Education." Teaching alongside Associate Professor Heather Shotton, Vaught's course is divided into four sections that are organized around three primary questions that get at the core considerations of the rematriation of Indigenous knowledges and epistemologies in education: How is rematriation of knowledge grounded in place and Indigenous nation building? How does Indigenous gender knowledge disrupt the settler colonial project? How do you tell the story? The course, offered in fall 2019, will begin by examining settler colonialism and its manifestations in gender, knowledge and educational systems.
STUDENTS AND ALUMNI
SCOTT BECK M.ED. 2007, PH.D. 2015
Beck was named Director of Student Services for Secondary Schools for Norman Public Schools. Beck previously served as principal at Norman High School.
MELISSA BREVETTI B.S ED., 2004; M.ED., 2008; PH.D., 2015 and JAMES ZHI YANG PH.D., 2016
Brevetti and Yang co-authored the book Lighting the Path, a children’s book that serves as an introduction to Chinese language and culture.
MINDIE DIEU PH.D., 2011
Dieu was named associate vice president for community affairs at Lane Community College (Eugene, Oregon). Dieu begins her new role on July 8.
PETE LIESENFELD B.S. 2000; M.ED. 2006; PH.D. 2014
Liesenfeld was named chief technology officer for Norman Public Schools. Liesenfeld previously served as principal at Norman North High School.
VONCELLA McCLEARY-JONES PH.D. 2007
McCleary-Jones was named associate dean, College of Health Professions and chairperson, School of Nursing at Wichita State University.
BRENDA McDANIEL B.S. Ed. 1962
McDaniel was named the 2019 Oklahoma Mother of the Year by American Mothers. The ideals of American Mothers, Inc. began in the heart and mind of Anna Reeves Jarvis as she sought to heal the damage done to families caught in the conflict of the Civil War. By organizing a day of love and friendship across battle lines, this simple observance grew into the national holiday known as Mother’s Day for which American Mothers is the official sponsor. Click here to read more about McDaniel.
RACHEL RENBARGER, B.S. ED 2013
was awarded two doctoral grants. A Ph.D. student in educational psychology at Baylor University, the Baylor Graduate School, School of Education, and Department of Educational Psychology provided her with a $1,200 grant to fund doctoral training and travel. The Southwest Educational Research Association provided Renbarger with a doctoral research grant of $1,000 to pay for such things as the my data analysis program, interview transcriptions and travel to present the findings at the annual SERA conference in Arlington, Texas, in February 2020. SERA provides one grant to a doctoral candidate SERA member each year.
The majority of doctoral degrees in the United States are not obtained by students whose parents did not obtain a college degree (first-generation), who come from a household that is below the poverty threshold (low-income) or are non-white. As such, most of the research on doctoral student success comes from the experiences of white or middle- and upper-class individuals. Renbarger’s dissertation examines how first-generation, low-income and minority students survive and thrive in graduate school to understand the unique and common experiences of these students. Because she comes from a first-generation and low-income background, Renbarger hopes to challenge the deficit model for this population.
Renbarger currently is serving as a quantitative data analyst intern at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in Paris, and one aspect of her job includes helping economists translate the research into feasible changes in education. Before returning to school to pursue a doctorate, Renbarger spent two years teaching English at Purcell High School.
In Memoriam
MARY LOU MILES M.ED. 1955
Miles died on May 26. Miles taught for over three decades in the Georgia and Oklahoma public school systems, as well as serving as an administrator in the Oklahoma State Department of Education before retiring in 1984. Her husband, Charles, also was a graduate of the college (M.Ed., 1954).
MARCO COLUMBUS PH.D., 2006
Columbus died on Jan. 4. Columbus was an associate professor at Cameron University in the Department of Education. He was honored in January with services at Cameron and OU celebrating his life.
NOUMANE RAHOUTI PH.D. 2015
Rahouti was named director of the Language Program at the University of Central Florida.
KELLY ROSS, PH.D. STUDENT, INSTRUCTIONAL PSYCHOLOGY AND TECHNOLOGY
Ross was elected as the Association for Educational Communications and Technology’s Graduate Student Assembly representative for the Distance Education Division. Ross also was selected to serve as the editorial assistant for the Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning to support Professor Xun Ge’s role as the co-editor of the journal. The research assistantship for Ross is supported by the Department of Educational Psychology and the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education.
TRACY SINCLAIR, PH.D. STUDENT, SPECIAL EDUCATION
Sinclair has been selected as chair of the Student and Early Career Committee of the Council for Exceptional Children. Her term runs July 1, 2019, through June 30, 2021.
As chair of the committee, Sinclair will oversee a group that advises the CEC Board of Directors on ways to recruit, mentor and support individuals entering the profession, especially those from diverse backgrounds, as well as advise the Board of Directors on ways to enhance the experience of student and early-career CEC. This committee also oversees CEC Student Awards and is tasked with planning and conducting a Student and Early Career Special Educator Forum at the CEC annual convention.
ANDREA SUK, PH.D. STUDENT, SPECIAL EDUCATION
Suk was a guest lecturer for two undergraduate classes at Purdue University last fall. She presented on “Transition Assessments,” including the Transition Assessment and Goal Generator. For the TAGG, students were given access to the online portal and had an additional credit to utilize the assessment with a student. Suk also presented on “Evidence-Based Practices for Youths with High Support Needs.” In both classes, she was able to reference and show these future teachers the OU Zarrow Center website and the resources available.
MURAT TURK PH.D. STUDENT, INSTRUCTIONAL PSYCHOLOGY AND TECHNOLOGY
Turk had his research proposal accepted at the 2019 AERA Division D Graduate Student Research Gala, which he presented in April at the annual meeting in Toronto, Canada.
MOGE WANG M.ED. 2015
Wang, who is working as an instructional design specialist for Metro Technology Centers in Edmond, recently received the “2018 Oklahoma’s Next Gen Under 30” award.
SHANE ZUMWALT B.S. ED. STUDENT, WORLD LANGUAGES EDUCATION
Zumwalt was honored during the seventh annual Oklahoma Mentor Day, presented at Oklahoma State University by the Oklahoma Foundation for Excellence and its David and Molly Boren Mentoring Initiative. Zumwalt was honored as an outstanding mentor for Norman High School’s Elementary Spanish Mentor Program.
HONOR ROLL
The Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education Honor Roll recognizes our generous donors.