New Faculty
Dr. Margaret Berg
Dr. Margaret Berg joins the faculty of the School of Teacher Education to teach reading courses. She received her doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus in Literacy and Linguistics from the University of Kansas. She began her public school teaching career in the former Soviet Union teaching American Culture and the English Language to 9th, 10th and 11th graders for the first Peace Corps English teaching team to Ukraine. She has approximately ten years of experience teaching in American and international secondary schools. She also has worked in teacher education in the northwest region of Russia for the School of International Training, and at Northern Arizona University and the University of Kansas. Her research interests center on adolescent literacy, language maintenance and academic language acquisition. She enjoys spending her free time with her husband Oleg and their one-year-old daughter, Vika.
Dr. Mia Kim Williams
Dr. Mia Kim Williams joins the faculty in the School of Teacher Education where she will teach classes in educational technology and social foundations. She received her doctorate in Curriculum Studies from Arizona State University in 2008 and brings 10 years experience in teacher education. She also has a secondary education background in Earth Science and English. Dr. Williams’ research interests include the use of technology to transform teaching and learning, teacher identities, and innovative and critical pedagogy. She spends spare time with family, including her two young daughters— who keep her very busy. Dr. Williams has always lived in Arizona and enjoys many outdoor activities. She is looking forward to exploring Colorado and having new adventures (like living with snow!).
Dr. Suzette Youngs
Dr. Suzette Youngs also joins the faculty in the School of Teacher Education where she will be teaching classes in reading. She received her doctorate from the University of Nevada, Reno where she also taught undergraduate and graduate courses in reading methods and children's literature. Before pursuing a doctorate, Suzette taught in multiage intermediate classrooms in Pagosa Springs, Colorado and Reno, Nevada. She has also written several books pertaining to reading and writing methods, some of which include: Writing Without Boundaries: What’s Possible When Students Combine Genres with co-author Dr. Diane Barone, Around the Reading Workshop in 180 Days and More Advanced Lessons in Comprehension with Dr. Frank Serafini. Suzette is also a Heinemann speaker and conducts workshops throughout the United Sates and Internationally. Her research interests include visual literacy, integrating literacy and history and children’s responses to picture books. Suzette enjoys camping with her husband Kevin and their two girls Chandler and Morgan.
Dr. Trent Lalonde
Dr. Trent Lalonde joins the faculty in Applied Statistics and Research Methods in the School of Educational Research, Leadership, and Technology where he will teach classes in applied statistics. He received his doctorate from the department of Mathematics and Statistics at Arizona State University in 2009. Dr. Lalonde's research focuses on dispersion models for non-continuous data. In his spare time Dr. Lalonde enjoys hiking and backpacking.
Dr. Elizabeth Pascoe
Dr. Elizabeth Pascoe will teach classes in social psychology for the School of Psychological Sciences. She defended her dissertation at Duke University this past July. Dr. Pascoe enjoys introducing students to the wonders of psychology and hopes they leave her classes excited about the subject matter. Dr. Pascoe's research focuses broadly on the effect of group identity and discrimination on achievement and health-related behaviors. Prior to attending Duke, Dr. Pascoe attended the University of Notre Dame, and thus is both an avid ND football and Duke basketball fan. In her spare time Dr. Pascoe also enjoys ballroom and swing dancing with her husband, Tony, when time allows and walking her small, fluffy white dog, Oscar, who enjoys chasing birds and airplanes.
Dr. Michael Phillips
Dr. Michael Phillips is an educational psychologist who received his doctorate from the Educational Psychology and Educational Technology program at Michigan State University. He will be teaching in the School of Psychological Sciences. Dr. Phillips’ research focuses on student motivation, the psychology of interest and the integration of educational technology in the classroom. Even though he has lived in a number of places over the past decade, he grew up in Omaha and considers it home. Being a Nebraskan, he enjoys the state’s official pastime Husker Football. In his free time Dr. Phillips tends to enjoy the outdoors by hiking, biking, and backpacking.
Dr. Tony Armenta
Dr. Tony Armenta joins the UNC faculty after spending 14 years teaching educational leadership courses at Southeastern Louisiana University. He helped re-design the standards driven, cohort-based master’s degree program in educational leadership and also assisted in course development for the doctoral program. While at Southeastern, he was twice the College of Education’s nominee for the President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. He is a former high school English teacher and coach. Dr. Armenta also has an extensive background in broadcasting and has done radio play-by-play of high school and college sports. His personal background and the locales in which he has lived have provided rich experiences working with many diverse cultures, including sizeable Latino and Native American populations in Arizona. Consequently, he has a deep interest in diversity issues. Dr. Armenta’s research agenda includes school law, the human qualities of school leaders and politics of education. He has published widely in educational journals. Dr. Armenta is “thrilled to be joining the UNC faculty and proud to be part of a College of Education and Behavioral Sciences with such an outstanding reputation for training teachers and school leaders.”
Lindsey Guccione
Lindsey Guccione is a new Early Childhood Education faculty member in the School of Teacher Education with a shared cognate in Reading and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Education. She is a former elementary teacher of linguistically diverse students. Lindsey is currently researching how young bilingual children make sense of text in an inquiry-based classroom.
Dr. Bob Pearson
Bob Pearson earned a Ph.D. in Applied Statistics & Research Methods from UNC in 2008 and an M.S. from ASRM in 2003. He was awarded a B.S. in Mathematics with an emphasis in statistics and a minor in Computer Science in 2000 by the University of Minnesota Duluth. His specialties are factor analysis, multivariate statistical methods, statistical computing (with emphasis in SAS) and simulation, and statistical consulting. He has been the director of the Research Consulting lab since August 2008.
