This fall, the University of Delaware College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) welcomes nine new faculty members in CEHD’s School of Education (SOE). This growth bolsters CEHD’s strengths in the areas of educational leadership, educational technology, equity and diversity, disability and inclusion, school psychology, literacy and language, special education and evaluation and measurement, deepening the college’s scholarship and expanding its programs through excellence in research, teaching and service. 

Each of these new colleagues also bring a commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion, which is embedded into their research programs and teaching practices. Many of these new colleagues investigate and work to address educational and social inequities faced by historically marginalized communities in Delaware and beyond. 

These new colleagues—who include tenure-track/tenured (TT) and continuing track (CT) colleagues—are James C. Bridgeforth (TT), Stephanie Budhai (CT), Joy Esboldt (CT), Kathryn Fialkowski (CT), Nicole W. Garrity (CT), Jarett D. Haley (TT), Benjamin M. James (CT), Nicole Kendall (CT) and Ethan McCormick (TT). They also contribute to the important areas of scholarship and teaching identified by U.S. News and World Report. This year, CEHD ranked 34th among colleges and universities, placing the college in the top 13% of education colleges across the nation. 

Educational Leadership 

James. C. Bridgeforth joins CEHD as an assistant professor specializing in educational leadership. His research and teaching focus on community voices in education policy and governance, as well as the politics of educational leadership. His work specifically attends to manifestations of racism and anti-blackness in schools.

His research, recognized by the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, has been published in academic journals such as the Journal of School Leadership, Education Policy Analysis Archives, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis and Educational Administration Quarterly. Bridgeforth has also shared his work in national media outlets including Education Week and The Washington Post. 

Bridgeforth began his professional experience in education as a college admissions officer and later transitioned to a career in K-12 education as an elementary school teacher and leader. 

Jarret D. Haley also joins CEHD as an assistant professor in this area, specializing in student experiences in higher education. His research centers on understanding undergraduate and graduate students’ experiences in student affairs and other co-curricular higher education contexts with an emphasis on the experiences of Black men. His scholarship employs qualitative research methodology and is largely informed by critical epistemological perspectives and social justice-centered theories. 

His work has been published in journals such as Studies in Graduate and Postdoctoral Education, the Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice and The Journal of Higher Education.

Prior to his career in higher education, Haley was a college student affairs educator working to support student learning, development and belonging, particularly for racially and ethnically minoritized students. This experience informs his research interests, which are also shaped by his positive experiences interacting with staff members as an undergraduate student.

Together, Bridgeforth and Haley build upon CEHD’s strengths in educational leadership and administration, joining colleagues Lauren Bailes (TT), Elizabeth Farley-Ripple (TT), Lynsey Gibbons (TT), Gary T. Henry (TT), Beth Mineo (TT) and Bryan A. VanGronigen (TT).

Educational Technology 

Stephanie Smith Budhai joins CEHD as assistant professor specializing in educational technology. Budhai holds expertise in learning technologies and online learning in K-16 settings.

Budhai has published eight books in her area of expertise, two of which have been translated into Arabic. They include The IMPACT of the Scholarly Practitioner Doctorate: Exercising Socially Just Leadership and Making Equitable Change, Culturally Responsive Teaching Online and In Person Settings: An Action Planner for Dynamic Equitable Learning Environments and Leveraging Digital Tools to Assess Student Learning, among others. 

Budhai brings over a decade of college teaching experience to UD, as well as her experience as a former K-12 educator. She currently holds two national education technology leadership positions on the Information Technology Council and the Culture and Climate Committee for the Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education. 

Budhai builds upon CEHD’s strengths in educational technology, joining colleagues Fred Hofstetter (TT), Rachel Karchmer-Klein (TT) and Teomara Rutherford (TT).

Equity and Diversity

In January 2025, Joy Esboldt will join CEHD as an assistant professor specializing in critical theories of race and learning. Her interdisciplinary research leverages critical theories of race and learning to examine how teachers, leaders and organizations learn about race, power and equity within local and sociopolitical contexts. She is particularly interested in interactional and organizational processes of teacher learning that lead to social transformation and/or social reproduction. Esboldt employs a range of qualitative methods, grounded in partnerships with educators and educational leaders with shared commitments to cultivating more democratic and liberatory learning environments.

Esboldt’s research has received grants and fellowships from the graduate division of the University of California Berkeley, The Hass Center for Equity, Gender and Leadership and the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation. 

Prior to her career in higher education, Esboldt worked as a public school teacher and teacher coach. 

Together, Esboldt, Bridgeforth and Haley build upon CEHD’s strengths in equity and diversity, joining colleagues Ann M. Aviles (TT), Dominique Baker (TT), Tia N. Barnes (TT), Martha Buell (TT), Roderick L. Carey (TT), Valerie Earnshaw (TT), Laura Eisenman (TT), Heather Farmer (TT), Mellissa Gordon (TT), Soo Bin Jang (TT), Eric Layland (TT), Erica Litke (TT), Leigh McLean (TT), Rosalie Rolón-Dow (TT), Elizabeth Soslau (CT), Rosalyn Washington (CT), Carol Wong (TT), Lynn Worden (CT) and Brittany Zakszeski (TT), among many others. 

Disability and Inclusion 

Kathyrn (Kate) Fialkowski joins CEHD as an assistant professor specializing in disability studies. Fialkowski situates disability in cultural contexts, including disability culture which emphasizes DuBois’ theory of double consciousness. Through her research, she has developed a taxonomy of disability genres by which to explore and select disability narratives used in pre-professional educational programs. As an educator in the field, she created and taught original courses about disability ethics and has served as guest-lecturer in other courses. 

Fialkowski is a lifelong disability advocate and has held policy and advocacy positions including executive director of The Arc Maryland and Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Public Policy Fellow at the Administration on Developmental Disabilities in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. She has presented her work across the region at invited presentations and conferences. 

Prior to earning her graduate degrees, Fialkowski was a business executive, serving as president of Pinova Division Hercules and senior vice president at Bank of America’s Credit Card Division, where she was also an executive-in-residence at MIT Media Labs Center for Future Banking.

Fialkowski builds upon CEHD’s strengths in disability and inclusion and joins colleagues Tia N. Barnes (TT), Al Cavalier (emeritus), Sarah Curtiss (TT), Laura Eisenmen (TT), Stephanie Del Tufo (TT), Allison Jackson (CT), Nancy C. Jordan (TT), Sarah B. Mallory (CT), Jessica Namkung (TT), Beth Mineo (TT), Kristen D. Ritchey (TT) and the many faculty, researchers and staff in CEHD’s Center for Disabilities Studies (CDS).

School Psychology

Nicole W. Garrity joins CEHD as an assistant professor specializing in school psychology. Garrity works to train and empower future and current school psychologist practitioners to use a comprehensive practice model with an emphasis on leadership and advocacy. She also works to enable school psychologists to provide equitable, inclusive and accessible academic and social-emotional and behavioral health services and support to all children, youth, families and communities. Garrity is also interested in developing and advocating for innovative solutions to address local and national school psychology shortages across the profession.

Garrity is a nationally-certified school psychologist and began her career as a practitioner in public schools in Pennsylvania, California and Delaware. In her school-based practice, she worked with students of all ages, primarily supporting autistic students and others with disabilities. 

Later, Garrity worked as a training coach for the Delaware Network for Excellence in Autism (DNEA), housed in CDS. During her time at the DNEA, Garitty developed resources and provided training, coaching and technical assistance to professionals, stakeholders and organizations. Her work focused on teaching evidenced-based practices and neurodiversity-affirming supports to facilitate inclusion, equity and access for autistic individuals. 

Garrity builds upon CEHD’s strength in school psychology and joins colleagues Marika Ginsburg-Block (TT), Kristin Scardamalia (CT) and Brittany Zakszeski (TT).

Literacy and Language 

Benjamin M. James joins CEHD as an assistant professor specializing in language and literacy education and teacher preparation for those working with multilingual learners in K-12 schools. James’ research focuses on preparing teachers to work with linguistically-marginalized students, including English learners and multilingual learners more broadly. He also explores video-embedded teacher learning to support novice teachers in incorporating more collaborative, action-based orientations to language and literacy instruction for multilingual learners across the curriculum.

His work has been published in the Social Studies Review and has received multiple awards such as the 2023-2024 California State University Chancellor’s Doctoral Incentive Program dissertation fellowship, the Educating Teacher Educators Doctoral Fellowship from the California Teacher Education Research and Improvement Network and the Quality in Nordic Teaching Ph.D. fellowship from the University of Oslo. He has also presented his work at domestic and international conferences. 

Outside of his career in higher education, James has 17 years of experience in the United States and abroad as a teacher and program coordinator in bilingual and English-medium K-12 and English as a Foreign Language contexts.

James builds upon CEHD’s strengths in language and literacy and joins colleagues Steve Amendum (TT), Martha Buell (TT), Christina M. Budde (CT), David Coker (TT), Stephanie Del Tufo (TT), Ralph Ferretti (emeritus), Roberta M. Golinkoff (TT), Myae Han (TT), Rachel Karchmer-Klein (TT), William Lewis (CT), Charles MacArthur (emeritus), Adrian Pasquarella (TT), Kristen D. Ritchey (TT), Carol Vukelich (emeritus), Sharon Walpole (TT) and Joshua Wilson (TT).

Special Education

Nicole (Niki) Kendall joins CEHD as an assistant professor specializing in special education. In her research, teaching and service, Kendall is passionate about helping educators identify and tackle obstacles that prevent equitable educational outcomes for all students.

Prior to her work in higher education, Kendall served as an multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) specialist at the Delaware MTSS Technical Assistance Center, a school psychologist and an early childhood educator. She has expertise in coaching large-scale implementation of positive behavioral interventions and supports and in preparing educators to support the social, emotional and behavioral needs of their students. 

Kendall builds on CEHD’s strengths in special education and joins colleagues Tia N. Barnes (TT), Al Cavalier (emeritus), Laura Eisenman (TT), Allison Jackson (CT), Jessica Namkung (TT) and Kristen D. Ritchey (TT), in addition to those studying disability and inclusion more broadly. 

Evaluation and Measurement 

Ethan McCormick joins CEHD as an assistant professor specializing in longitudinal and psychometric modeling. McCormick’s research focuses primarily on the measurement and modeling of short-term dynamics and long-term growth in behavior and cognition across the lifespan through the development of longitudinal and time series models. 

His research has been published in methodological outlets such as Psychological Methods and Psychometrika, as well as applied journals such as Journal of Neuroscience and Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. His current projects include work with large-scale, intensive education data to hybridize short- and long-term longitudinal models, new approaches for estimating nonlinear random effects models and methods for predicting downstream consequences of change over time.

Before joining UD, McCormick worked as an assistant professor of methodology and statistics at Leiden University in the Netherlands. He is also a resident faculty member of the Data Science Institute.

McCormick builds on CEHD’s strengths in evaluation and measurement, joining colleagues Lauren Bailes (TT), Christina Barbieri (TT), Laura Desimone (TT), Elizabeth Farley-Ripple (TT), Gary T. Henry (TT), Henry May (TT), Allison Karpyn (TT), Florence Xiaotao Ran (TT), Kenneth A. Shores (TT), Sanford R. Student (TT), Joshua Wilson (TT) and the researchers within CEHD’s Center for Research in Education and Social Policy, including Sue Giancola, program director of UD’s M.S. in interdisciplinary evaluation science.

Article by Jessica Henderson.