Our Trustees

Our Trustees
Judy Abbott, Jo Worthy, Carmen Gonzales, Sarah McCarthey, Phil Wilder, Mark Dressman, Kip Tellez, Carolyn Schubach, Patrick Scott, Mike Borish

SARAH McCARTHEY

FOUNDATION FOUNDER
PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

Sarah McCarthey is Department Head and Sheila M. Miller Professor of Education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She served as Director of Teacher Education for all licensure programs from 2013-2016. Her research focuses on professional development in writing and writing instruction; during her sabbatical she focused on teacher education and professional development in writing in global contexts—Greece, Hong Kong and Singapore. She has worked with researchers and teachers to study the impact of an online writing environment, Scholar, on teachers’ instruction. Before completing her Ph.D. at Michigan State University, she taught in the Salt Lake City School District for eight years. Sarah is Co-Director (with Scott Filkins) of the University of Illinois Writing Project and was co-editor (with Mark Dressman and Paul Prior) of the journal, Research in the Teaching of English. She served on the Board of Trustees at the Emma Willard School in Troy, NY from 2011-2019.

MARK DRESSMAN

FOUNDATION FOUNDER
PROFESSOR EMERITUS, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

Mark Dressman is Professor and Chair of English at Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi, UAE, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he taught courses in the secondary education program and graduate courses in qualitative research. He has studied school libraries, the multiple causes of school failure, the teaching of poetry, the use of social theory in educational research, and is currently focusing on how students around the world are learning English informally through digital media.

JUDY A. ABBOTT

DEAN AND PROFESSOR, JAMES I. PERKINS COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AT STEPHEN F. AUSTIN STATE UNIVERSITY

Currently the Dean of the Perkins College of Education, Judy is committed to nurturing partnerships with regional public schools. These partnerships are accomplished through grants and external contracts, through professional development, through educator preparation, and through work on advisory councils. Dr. Abbott has provided leadership of national organizations, such as Teacher Education Council of State Colleges and Universities (TECSCU), and of state organizations, such as Texas Association of Colleges of Teacher Education (TACTE). She comes to SFASU after serving 15 years as faculty at West Virginia University. Before completing her Ph.D. at the University of Texas at Austin, Judy taught in the San Antonio Independent School District for four years.

PHIL WILDER

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ADOLESCENT LITERACIES AT CLEMSON UNIVERSITY, CLEMSON, SOUTH CAROLINA

Dr. Phillip M. Wilder is an associate professor of literacy at Clemson University in Clemson, South Carolina. A former secondary teacher and literacy coach, Phillip spent seventeen years as a practitioner including seven years partnering with teachers on responsive literacy instruction while working in the Center for Education in Small Urban Communities at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Whether in his work with schools desiring to support youth literacies in academic disciplines, in his role as the Senior Education Advisor to Mwangaza Education for Partnership in Arusha, Tanzania which supports critically conscious schools or as a RYT-200 yoga and meditation teacher, Phillip prioritizes partnerships where literacy is a tool for conscious, connection, and community. His current research explores how youth use writing to create self-compassion, interrogate culturally-conditioned identities and offer compassion to self and others.

MICHAEL BORISH

CONSULTANT, INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, OTTAWA, CANADA

Michael Borish is a consultant to development banks with a focus on financial sector reform and private sector development in emerging markets. President of the firm that bears his name (www.borish.com) and author of more than 15 publications in internationally recognized journals, Michael earned his Master’s of Business Administration at the University of Chicago (1985) and his PhD at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada (2020).

CARMEN GONZALES

VICE PRESIDENT EMERITUS, NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY

In January 2011 she retired from New Mexico State University (NMSU) where she served as Vice-President for Student Success, Dean of the College of Extended Learning and faculty in the College of Education. During her tenure at NMSU, Dr. Gonzales was Project Director for the Regional Education Technology Assistance program a US Department of Education grant. Dr. Gonzales was involved in a number of significant projects with the US Department of Education, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Agriculture. Her areas of expertise included higher education administration, technology integration and distributed learning.
On October 1, 2012, Carmen took a position as Vice-President for Student Success at Santa Fe Community College and retired from there in 2017. In November 2019, Carmen was elected to the School Board for Santa Fe Public Schools. She is currently a consultant for the Learning Policy Institute.

CAROLYN SCHUBACH

DIRECTOR, DUAL LANGUAGE IMMERSION; UTAH STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION

Carolyn Schubach is currently working with dual language immersion schools throughout Utah. Previously, Carolyn was the Associate Director of Dual Immersion and Advanced Learning Programs in the Granite School District in Salt Lake City, Utah. She has served as teacher and coordinator of the gifted programs and as an elementary and secondary principal, as well as curriculum director. Carolyn was director of Utah’s Principals’ Academy and president of Utah’s Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, or ASCD.

PATRICK (RICK) SCOTT

PROFESSOR EMERITUS, BILINGUAL MATHEMATICS EDUCATION, NEW MEXICO STATE UNIVERSITY

Patrick (Rick) Scott is Professor Emeritus of Bilingual Mathematics Education from the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at New Mexico State University. After that first retirement he then served four years in New Mexico State government: first at the Public Education Department and then at the Higher Education Department. He has since retired from the Los Alamos National Lab Foundation where he directed an inquiry science education program. Past Chair of the U.S. Commission on Mathematical Instruction and past Vice Chair of the Board of International Scientific Organizations of the National Academy of Sciences, Rick serves as the International Representative of National Council of Teachers of Math, and Vice President of the Inter-American Math Education Committee.

KIP TELLEZ

PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA CRUZ

Kip Téllez, Professor and former Chair in the Education Department at UC Santa Cruz, taught elementary and high school English Language Development (ELD) teacher in La Puente, California. He now teaches courses in ELD methods to graduate students earning their teaching credential. His research interests include second language education, teacher education, and the intersection of the two. He is currently administering a large grant from the Office of English Language Acquisition (USDOE) and co-directing an evaluation center (Center for Research on Equity and Collaborative Evaluation).

JO WORTHY

PROFESSOR EMERITA, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

A former middle and elementary school teacher, Jo Worthy was professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Texas at Austin. She specialized in language and literacy education and research, teaching graduate research and methods courses in the teacher preparation program.

in memorium

JANE L. ABE

RETIRED TEACHER, SALT LAKE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT, UTAH

Jane Abe taught for many years in the Extended Learning Program in the Salt Lake City School District. She served as curriculum coordinator for the program, and trained hundreds of teachers in the Talents Unlimited model of creative/critical thinking. Jane served as President of the Utah Association of Gifted Children, and taught Creativity Seminars through both Utah State University and the University of Utah.