EPS Student Profiles

 

Gabriel Alejandro Cortez (Cohort Fall 2000)

I was born and raised in the West Town neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. I majored in U.S.-Latin American Studies at the U of I at Urbana-Champaign. I am currently working towards my Ph.D. specializing in the History of American Education.  The focus of my dissertation will be based on the 1995 reform of the Chicago Public Schools.

I plan to become a professor in the city of Chicago and conduct research on the culture of predominantly Latino high schools. Using border theory, I include various forms of expressions that cultivate a broader view of culture and history between public schools and community identity. Our department presents a wide spectrum of ideological perspectives and is very supportive to new ideas from students. My goal is to take our classroom conversations to the community and collaborate on efforts that improve public schooling for our youth.

Please feel free to contact Gabriel via e-mail at cortez@uiuc.edu

Shujun Chen (Cohort 2000)

My name is Shujun Chen, coming from Mainland China. I am pursuing Ph.D with specilization in Qualitative Research Methodology and Bilingual Education. My career goal is to be a faculty in the university or locate a job in foundations and organizations. Since I came here in 2000, I have been working with Dr. Pillow as a research assistant, which helps me gain more experience in doing research.

Please feel free to contact Shujun Chen via e-mail at schen8@uiuc.edu  

LaTasha Louise Cain (Cohort Fall 2001)

My acceptance to the Department of Educational Policy Studies (EPS) proved to be more of a blessing than I ever imagined. EPS has been a constant source of support both academically and personally.  I am ultimately working towards a Doctorate in EPS with a concentration on History.  My research interest include history of education for Blacks as well as issues of dropout and its connectedness with issues of incarceration.  Currently, I am collaborating with Professor Wanda Pillow in her research on Sacagawea and the Role of Clark's slave York in during the Lewis & Clark Expedition.

Upon completion, I plan to work at the Community College level in an Urban an Area. My personal and research experience obtained here is definitely preparing me for that road. I recommend this program to anyone who seeks academic freedom as well as those who wish to become equipped as a well-rounded researcher.  My decision to come here is one of the best I've made.

Please feel free to contact LaTasha via e-mail at lcain@uiuc.edu

 

Corinna Crawford Crane (Cohort Fall 2004)

I grew up on the south side of Chicago in a neighborhood called Hyde Park.  I got my undergraduate degree in Psychology at the U of I and worked for 3 years doing survey research before returning to graduate school.  I’m currently in my second semester in EPS working towards my Ph.D. in policy analysis using quantitative methods.  I’m finishing up my early research requirement on ability grouping and I plan to do my dissertation on education funding inequality and its effect on student achievement and other outcomes.  I’m not sure what I plan to do after graduation yet but I probably won’t go into academia.  Fortunately I still have some time to try and figure it out before I graduate. 

 

Gerardo Diaz (Cohort Fall 2003)

Originally from East Los Angeles, California I obtained my B.A. in Sociology & Education at UC Santa Cruz in 1999. Following my undergraduate studies, I pursued my Masters in Higher Education at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Today I am a second year doctoral student in Education Policy Studies, specializing in the History of Education. Within this area of specialization, my academic pursuits involve tracing the ‘interplay’ between urban education and the metropolitan political economy. In specific my research seeks to shed light on the role played by industrialization, Post-Fordist and emerging global economies and how these have historically impacted the educational referenda of Los Angeles. By employing a ‘critical historical analysis’, I aim to capture the dynamics between ‘the urbanization process’ and the ‘role of public schooling’ in the face of economic development and retrenchment at different junctures in time. In coverage of this social-history, I consider the following factors: shifts in state/local economies, migration patterns, changing demographics, de-facto-de-jure segregation, segmentation of labor markets and the role of public education. At this point my future professional aspirations involve engaging work as an academic and education policymaker in aims to better inform policy and teaching pedagogies in the golden state.

If you have any additional questions please contact me directly at gdiaz4@uiuc.edu

 

Laura Engel (Cohort Fall 2003)

I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2001 with a degree in Spanish, and English as a Second Language (ESL).  After teaching Spanish at the community college  level in the Chicago-land area, I came to the University of Illinois to pursue a Master of Education degree, specializing in bilingual, multicultural education.  In the fall of 2003, I transferred over to the doctoral program in EPS and am currently in the division of Global Studies in Education. 

My general area of interest involves the establishment of a growing space for European education and the subsequent reconfiguration of national educational governance, with particular interest in the Spanish education system.  I have been a teaching assistant for EPS 201 since the fall, 2003 and work as a research assistant with Professor Georgia García.  I am currently working on a UNESCO project with Professor Fazal Rizvi and also a part of the European Union Educational Policy Research Group, a graduate student group.  I hope in the future to have an international career, pursuing research and teaching in the area of Global Studies in Education.  

Please feel free to contact Laura via e-mail at lcengel@uiuc.edu

Liz Jackson (Cohort Fall 2004)

I grew up on the Oregon coast before moving to "the big city" of Portland to study teacher education. Upon graduation, I had become far more interested in social and political theory, and accepted the opportunity to study at Cambridge University (Newnham College) for an interdisciplinary MPhil in education. I moved to Urbana in 2004 to study for a PhD in philosophy of education.

I am currently examining disciplinary practices - how students/scholars interact with/within fields of inquiry - and how aspects of poststructuralist and Marxist theories might come to terms with each other. I am working with Dr. Nick Burbules in a Worldwide Universities Network collaboration, "Constructing Knowledge Spaces," and will help teach a course this summer on education and technology in the new Masters in Global Studies in Education program. I hope to continue teaching and learning after I graduate, as a professor, possibly moving abroad.

Please feel free to contact Liz via e-mail at ejackso4@uiuc.edu

Maria Jimenez (Cohort Spring 2005) 

I am currently a Ph.D. student in Educational Policy Studies. I did my undergraduate work at UC Santa Cruz and received a Master's Degree in Politics and Education from Columbia University. My research interests include school choice and school-community partnerships. As part of my early research requirement, I will be exploring the controlled school choice program in Champaign's Unit #4 school district. In addition, I will be working with the Urban League in Champaign. My short-term career goal is to obtain a teaching position at one of the local school districts. Moreover, my long-term career goal is to open up a charter school targeted to low-income African American and Latino students.

Otoniel Jimenez Morfin (Fall of 2000) 

Prior to pursuing my doctoral studies, I earned my masters degree with an emphasis in Administration, Planning and Social Policy from Harvard University. Using social, cultural and economical reproduction as frame of analysis, along with Critical race theory, I am currently inquiring as part of my dissertation on how Chicano/Latino and African American students from a large urban district in the west coast are being denied access to a highly selective western public university in a post affirmative action era. 

In addition to my interest in Higher educational equity issues, I am also interested on how globalization has created multiple opportunities and challenges in higher education in the 21stcentury. My plans after finishing my doctorate, is to pursue a career Academia, in which I can continue my research on access and explore globalization in higher education. One of the main reasons that attracted me to Illinois, is having the opportunity to work with renowned faculty like Dr. Anderson, Dr. Parker, and Dr. Rizvi to name a few.  Not only are these faculty great scholars, but most importantly they are great mentors and take a profound interest in the progress of their students. 

Please feel free to contact Otoniel via e-mail at ojimenez@uiuc.edu

Eliza M. Johannes

I was born in South Africa; but have spent much of my time in the Great Lakes Region of Africa. For my undergrad, I majored in Indigenous Peoples Studies at The Evergreen State College. My M.A. is in African Studies. I focused on African women in development. Currently, I am Ph.D. Candidate in the department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Illinois @ Urbana-Champaign, with a specialization in International and Comparative Education.

In general, I concern my self with African women and access to education. Thus, my research interests have included African women and access to education, obstacles hindering women gaining access to secondary and higher education.  I am also interested in developmental programs such as Structural Adjustment programs (SAPs) and their impact on women access to education in the Grate Lake Region’s rural areas.

Currently, my research centers on nomadic pastoralists women and access to formal education. I look at Turkana pastoralist of Northern Kenya in relation to the normal agriculturalists societies. My future professional goals are to become a member of a team that develops and implements educational policies that advocate and promote African pastoralist women’s access to modern education. I also want to work with these pastoralist peoples governments and take part in the improvement of their performance in education.  

Should you have questions, please contact Eliza Johannes at mjohanne@uiuc.edu

Sandy Jump

Natively from a different world and although I was never really meant for this one, I have had to work through all contingencies that this world presents to me each and every day.  In doing so, however, I have found that between humor and pain lies the heart.  From there it is just such waves that passion the mind from a dream less realized, to a process of becoming.Such are the present drives of my master's degree thesis on freedom of the imagination, and the role emotions and reason play therein.  Recent happenstance has led me to my most recent fascination with social-political philosophy, which has had its culminating point in law and education. 

As such, my PhD goal is to career new visions of law that can be most beneficial in making clear the evasive points of policy making and concerns for educational reform. Links to global matters are assumed as matters of course such that the emergent ideological goals that may arise from it and be of issue at the individual level.  This rounds the focus on thought-structures of a humanitarian dream that can hopefully be a reality for American and non-American education.All such titillations or mere mental fancies are not possible without The support of Advisors and professors that appreciate new ideas, and care enough to make you a strong and wise intellectual that can have the means by which to achieve one's overall educational aim. 

And there is nothing a good professor who is twice hard on you than you are on yourself.  This is particularly important when perhaps such degree of hardness has much to do with lacking the confidence that is required to do well, particularly by my standards.  Thus in brief, this department has been rich with learning experiences for me and although I may feel at times taxed by its richness, I can only in retrospect say "I couldn't ask for more."

Sieglinde Lim de Sánchez

My personal background consists of being one of the first Asian families in Chicago’s North Shore amid a predominantly European American community; I was tracked as an ‘ESL/Special Education’ student due to English being my third language.  I faced a challenging primary and secondary educational arena and eventually earned a dual degree in Chinese History and Statistics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  Upon graduation, I was led to the field of educational history because of my dual formative educational experiences.  As a result, I entered graduate school with a clear purpose; to become involved in the intellectual exchange of ideas between scholars, administrators, and community leaders, in order to challenge existing paradigms and foster a collaborative process that formulates new theories and praxis of minority education.

As a Ph.D. candidate in the department, I have served on several departmental and Asian American Studies search committees as well as advisory committees, alongside received fellowships from the following foundations: Spencer Foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Center on Democracy in a Multiracial Society Program at the University of Illinois, as well as from the US Department of Education Illinois Consortium for Equal Opportunity Program.  In mid-2002, I took a 2-year hiatus from academia to work as a Research Analyst at a Chicago-based hedge fund firm, before returning to my research in the autumn of 2004. 

I work predominantly with Dr. James D. Anderson, and my research focuses on the educational history of Chinese Americans in the South, particularly using US Supreme Court cases from Mississippi to underscore the predilection of academia to view issues of race simply in terms of a Black and White paradigm.

I am particularly interested in the nexus of minority education, law, and public policy.  I hope to research ways to improve the quality of minority educational outcomes and foster policy that supports social and economic justice within the public school system.  I would eventually like to combine my research and educational policy training to work in the academic and political spheres.

Please feel free to contact Sieglinde via e-mail at limdesanchez@gmail.com

Annel Medina (Cohort 2001)

My experience with EPS has been welcoming and supportive.  Beginning in Fall 2001, I completed my work within the Sociology of Education division.  In 2001, I received my Master of Arts degree with a thesis entitled "Latina Parental Leadership and Social Networking in Community-School Settings”.  Under the guidance of Dr. Wanda Pillow (the most phenomenal advisor) my dissertation intersects with my passion for families of color in particular Latino/a and African –American families and how they challenge and supersede financial, citizenship, educational, and socio-economic barriers.  Despite these complexities, I am interested in the unique role between college access and contemporary families of color in the Midwest.  After completing doctoral work in 2006-2007, I hope to attain a postdoctoral fellowship or assistant professorship to conduct research, teaching, and mentorship in educational studies. 

Trinidad M. Villegas

Prior to coming to the U of I, I fist attended Community College in California, then went on to the University of California, Irvine where I received my bachelors in Sociology. As a third year graduate student pursuing my PhD in History, my experiences have been profusely infused by my interactions with professors, students, and staff from EPS, but also from outside of the department. Through EPS I have developed a great network of professors who have both supported my efforts, and have challenged my thinking. As per the friendships that have developed over time, I can only say that coming to EPS has been by far one of the best decisions of my life.

As a Mexican immigrant who grew up in San Jose, California, my research interests are very much rooted in my personal experiences. Consequently, my research looks at the interstices of immigration, bilingual education, history, higher education, and policy. My research assistantship has provided me the opportunity to be involved in different evaluation projects. Last summer (2004), I received a Graduate Education Diversity Internship through the American Evaluation Association and Duquesne University to conduct an evaluation at a Community College in Chicago. This opportunity has proved to be a great learning experience, especially because it has enabled me to focus on my own research and personal interests.  Tthe lived and learning experiences of Latino immigrant students accessing higher education.

Most recently, I received a grant from the Lumina Foundation for Education to extend my work in Chicago for the next three years. These experiences have been extremely instrumental in my development as a person and as a scholar, but more importantly in providing me with real-life experiences in the field, directly guiding this work towards my dissertation.

I'll be glad to share information about any of the above at tmolina@uiuc.edu.

Nathan (Nate) Raybeck (Cohort Fall 2000) 

I was born and raised in the great state of West Virginia, and I did my undergraduate studies in Philosophy and Political Science at West Virginia Wesleyan College.  After a brief stint studying Church History and Christian Ethics at Yale University, I came to Illinois to purse an Ed.M. in the philosophy of education, and I am now a third year Ph.D. student in Religious Educational Policy. 

My research seeks to elucidate the demands substantive and copious religious diversity place upon American educational theory.  Principally, I am interested in three questions: First, given the richness of religious diversity in America, is it pedagogically (i.e. epistemologically) sound to teach children that particular religious beliefs are correct and that competing religious claims are mistaken?  Secondly, given that we presume one of the central objectives of American education to be the cultivation of future citizens, does the religious diversity of the American landscape stipulate that sectarian schools must relinquish a crucial portion of their educational authority to the state in order to foster the kind of respect for the common good necessary for meaningful civic participation in a pluralistic society? And finally, if we answer the aforementioned question in the affirmative, how is it to be determined which portions of the sectarian curriculum are to be surrendered to the state?              

 I primarily work with Drs. Pradeep Dhillon and Walter Feinberg, but I also receive helpful advice from many of the other professors in EPS.  Professionally speaking, I am interested in teaching at a four-year liberal arts college and living nestled in the foothills of somewhere picturesque with lots of cats and endless supplies of Diet Coke and corndogs :)  If you find any of this remotely interesting, or you just like receiving email, feel free to contact Nate at raybeck@uiuc.edu. 

Angelica Rivera

PhD Candidate in Educational Policy Studies, History of Education 

My name is Angelica Rivera and I was born in Mexico in the state of Morelos in the city of Cuatla. My grandmother raised me in Mexico city since my parents had immigrated to Chicago in 1974 in search of work. At the age of 5 my sister and I came to live with my parents and I attended Chicago’s Public School system and graduated from St. Casimir High School. I grew up in Chicago’s predominantly Mexican community in Little Village and currently live in Pilsen. I did my undergrad at the U of I at Urbana-Champaign and completed the Master of Arts in Educational Policy Studies. As an undergraduate I studied in Barcelona, Spain and in Guadalajara, Mexico. I was actively involved in developing the Latina/o Studies Program at UIUC.  

My research interests deal with Mexican/Latina/o education history as well as Mexican/Latina/o access to quality education. I have had a great experience with faculty in the E.P.S. Department. I was a Teaching Assistant for Dr. James D. Anderson for 3 years for the course on Race, Class and Diversity. I have taught a TOEFL class at Chicago’s West Side Technical Institute for nurses. I currently teach English as a Second Language for Adults in Chicago’s Northwest Side, I am actively involved in immigrant rights issues and would like to teach at the university level in Chicago. 

If you would like to contact me you can write me via e-mail at arivera7@uiuc.edu

Rashid V. Robinson  (Fall 2000 Cohort) 

As a result of my experiences as a writing instructor for both traditional four-year and community colleges, I became preoccupied with the following questions: What does it mean to be a “competent” writer at the collegiate level? How do we as educators decide on the methodologies of measurement used to evaluate particular competencies? And how do these questions of competency intersect with other issues of raced, classed, and gendered forms of oral and written expression within the academy? 

These issues (and others similar) led me to pursue my Ph.D. in Educational Policy Studies at UIUC, where currently my work centers on interrogating popular representations of higher education in American media. Using discourse analysis, critical theory, and other qualitative analytic approaches conversant with Cultural Studies, I seek to examine how the social and political expansion of neoliberalist ideology has influenced the questions (and answers) regarding the purpose and potential of higher education in the United States. 

I would say that one of the many benefits of attending this program is its openness to interdisciplinary approaches to research; while here I have worked extensively with faculty and students in both Writing Studies (affiliated with the Department of English) and the Institute for Communications Research (affiliated with the Department of Communications). The encouragement and support gained though intellectual and social exchange with members of these groups has been invaluable to my development as an emerging scholar. 

Please feel free to contact Rashid via e-mail at robinson@uiuc.edu  

Jeffrey R. Thibert (Cohort Fall 2004)

A Midwesterner by birth, but a Floridian in my heart, I was born and raised in a suburb of Detroit until I was nearly 10, when I moved to Tampa, a place I still consider home. I received my BS at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, where I majored in Cognitive Science and minored in Religious Studies. I then attended the University of South Florida in Tampa, where I received a MA in Religious Studies  I am a first year PhD student in Religious Educational Policy, a joint program between EPS and the Program for the Study of Religion. 

I am currently working with Profs. Walter Feinberg (EPS) and Robert McKim (Study of Religion) on issues surrounding the feasibility of world religions education in public schools. Other interests of mine include philosophical and religious responses to religious diversity; dialogical theory and method, especially as it pertains to religion; and how varying ideologies can be negotiated in a liberal democratic society.  Next year, I'll be working as a TA in the Program for the Study of Religion. I hope to become a sort of expert on world religions education while I launch a career as a professor, researching the above issues (and whatever others arise) and teaching in religious studies and educational foundations.  

Feel free to contact me at thibert2@uiuc.edu with any questions about any of the above.

Mirelsie (Melli) Velazquez

Hi, my name is Mirelsie (Melli) Velazquez and this is my first year in EPS. I am currently an M.A student, with every intention on completing my PhD within this department as well.  I was born in Caguas, Puerto Rico, but completed the majority of my schooling in Chicago. My B.A is in Political Science and Latina/o Studies from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I am very interested in researching the issues affecting Puerto Rican youth in the city of Chicago and how it pertains to their educational opportunities. Currently I am revisiting the history of the "Operation Bootstrap" program in the first half of the 20th century, and how its affects can still be seen today in the city of Chicago, with Chicago's current issues surrounding gentrification. I try to link my own involvement in local social justice issues with my research, in the hopes of building better coalitions between groups and their issues. This is something that will still be part of my "work" when I return to Chicago, hopefully as a faculty member at a local university.

Please feel free to contact Melli via e-mail at velazqu1@uiuc.edu  

Terah Talei Venzant (Cohort Fall 2000)

I grew up in Minnesota and received my bachelor’s degree in Family Social Science from the University of Minnesota—Twin Cities in May 2000.  In August 2002 I received my master’s degree in Educational Policy Studies, specializing in Sociology of Education, with a master’s thesis entitled, “The Either/Or Racial Fallacy: The Multidimensionality of Racial Identity(ies) Among Black/White Multiracial College Students”.  I then served as a Congressional Fellow with the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF) in the class of 2002-2003 and served in the Office of Congresswoman Diane E. Watson.  I continued this appointment into the summer as a Legal Fellow with the Office for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education. 

I returned to Champaign for my Ph.D. in 2003 and am currently a Doctoral Candidate in Educational Policy Studies, specializing in Educational Policy Analysis.  I expect to graduate in May 2006. 

My current research interests include school tracking policies and the relative disparate placements of African American students in low- versus high-track environments, as well as intersections and complexities of tracking policies with current de/resegregation trends.  The title of my dissertation is, “Tracking Segregation: Experiences of African American High School Students in Low- and High-Track Math and English Classes”.  Positively influencing the educational achievements of African American students is a central component of my future goals and I plan to accomplish this by shaping key educational policies as a policy analyst and/or through a career in academe.  During my tenure at the U of I, I have served as Organizational Chair for Graduate and Professional Students of Color (GPSOC), as a Graduate Mentor for the POSSE Foundation, a Graduate Research Team Leader for the McNair Scholars Program and as a Teaching Assistant for Dr. James Anderson’s course, “Race and Cultural Diversity in American Life” (EPS 310).

Please feel free to contact Terah via e-mail at venzant@uiuc.edu

Bryan R. Warnick (Cohort 2000) 

I was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. I spent my undergraduate years studying Philosophy and Psychology at the University of Utah (go Utes!) and then worked for a year as a research associate in Medical Ethics at the University of Utah School of Medicine.  I am currently a PhD candidate in Philosophy of Education and my soon-to-be-completed dissertation (entitled "Learning from the Lives of Others") is a philosophical examination of human exemplarity in education. I have done a lot of work in Ethics and Education, and I recently completed a graduate specialization in the Technology Studies in Education program. My work has been enriched by many faculty here in the EPS deparment, including Nick Burbules (my advisor), Walter Feinberg, Pradeep Dhillon, Ralph Page, as well as many of my fellow students. I've also done a bit of teaching. After spending three years teaching classical literature in the Classics Department here at the University of Illinois, I am now a teaching assistant in our Foundations of American Education course (EPS 201). I recently accepted a teaching job at The Ohio State University, starting Fall 2005.

Please feel free to contact Bryan via e-mail at bwarnick@uiuc.edu

 

Andrea Wilson

I grew up in Dolton, IL which is a south suburb of Chicago.  I entered the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1993 to pursue what I thought my dream was, and that was to become a pediactrician.  As I evolved and learned more about myself, I realized that although I had a love for children, the medical field was not the capacity in which I was called to impact their lives.In 1997, which was my final year as an undergraduate student, I had the opportunity to take a course in Educational Policy Studies and absolutely loved it.  I immediately applied to the program and was accepted within a few months.  I received my Masters of Education in 1999 in EPS and immediately proceeded to pursue the doctorate of Philosophy.
As I enter the final year of my doctoral program, I am reassured that the Department of Educational Policy Studies was the best place for me, considering my long-term personal
and professional goals.  My research focuses on the impact of relocation on families that formerly resided in the Robert Taylor Homes (a low income housing development in Chicago).  I am specifically conducting seven case studies on adolescents that relocated from the Robert Taylor Homes to Central Illinois.  I am examining the ways that these young people were impacted personally, academically and socially after relocating to a dramatically different type of community (more rural/suburban).
In the future, I am open to being employed as a professor at community college or Historically Black College or University (HBCU) as well as working as a researcher, policy analyst and/or in the government sector.  Since I have been at the University of Illinois, I've had varied experiences and undergone many changes, which all have contributed to me becoming the God-fearing woman that I am today.

When someone asks me (as many often do)....
"What are you going to do when you complete your doctorate?"
I simply answer...."Whatever God wants me to do!"
If you would like to contact me, feel free to email me at aswilson@uiuc.edu.