A new cohort of 11 exceptional faculty members is joining the UW–Madison School of Education in 2025-26.
To welcome these newest members of our community — and to reconnect with colleagues and celebrate the start of the new school year — the School is hosting its annual Welcome Back Bash event for faculty and staff on Friday, Aug. 29. Those attending will hear brief remarks from School of Education Dean Marcelle Haddix.
This year, nine School of Education departments will welcome at least one new faculty member. Nine new faculty members will begin teaching during the fall semester; one will start in spring 2026; and one will spend the 2025-26 academic year on an Anna Julia Cooper Postdoctoral Fellowship, which provides an academic year free from teaching for fellows to set up their research.
Following are the incoming faculty members, in alphabetical order:
Amit Bernstein, professor, Department of Counseling Psychology
Bernstein will be a professor of clinical psychological science in the Department of Counseling Psychology at UW–Madison, a core faculty member at the Center for Healthy Minds, and director of the Observing Minds Lab. His research explores how the ways we attend to and engage with our inner mental life contribute to both suffering and healing, with a focus on mindfulness-based theory, methods, and therapeutics. Through the Looking In Project, his lab advances the science of internally-directed cognition, and through the Moments of Refuge Project, it translates this work into trauma-sensitive, mindfulness- and compassion-based interventions for forcibly displaced communities. Bernstein has authored more than 170 publications, received numerous honors and awards, and is dedicated to mentoring the next generation of scientists in pursuit of innovative research with transformative social impact.
Bradford Chin, assistant professor, Dance Department
Bradford Chin (he/they) is a disabled dance artist and methodologist based in Chicago and their native San Francisco. They use choreographic process to explore disability as a generatively innovative lived experience that helps us examine our practices, aesthetics, and culture. A former dancer with AXIS Dance Company, one of the nation’s leading ensembles of disabled and non-disabled dancers, their interests include disability dance and inclusive dance pedagogy. His lineage includes LGBTQIA+ artist-activist Lenore Chinn, photographer Benjamen Chinn, and an emphasis on community-engaged artistic practice as a means of preserving and sharing our community histories toward a more connected future.
Leah Durán, associate professor, Department of Curriculum and Instruction
Durán is joining UW–Madison from the University of Arizona, where she was an associate professor in the Department of Teaching, Learning, and Sociocultural Studies in the College of Education. A former bilingual teacher, her research focuses on bilingual education, (bi)literacy, and early childhood education, with an emphasis on children’s biliterate development and supporting teachers in culturally and linguistically diverse settings. Her work has been widely published in leading academic journals, and she has led numerous community-engaged initiatives. Durán has been recognized with the Literacy Research Association’s Arthur Applebee Award for Excellence in Research on Literacy, a Spencer/National Academy of Education Postdoctoral Fellowship, and the University of Arizona College of Education’s Maria Urquides Laureate Award.
Micha Espinosa, professor, Department of Theatre and Drama
Micha Espinosa is an internationally recognized and multi-hyphenate artist, educator, director, producer, and editor exploring acting, voice, and the craft of performance pedagogy. A performer for over 35 years, she has worked in theatre, film, and television, and coached voice and text on 100+ productions. She has led over 100 masterclasses, trained 325+ Fitzmaurice Voicework® teachers, and serves on international and national boards. Celebrated for illuminating perspectives that reshape the cultural conversation, she is artistic director of the Fitzmaurice Voice Institute®, a professor emerita at Arizona State University, and the award-winning editor of “Monologues for Latino Actors,” “Scenes for Latinx Actors,” and “Latinx Actor Training.”
Eun-Jeong Lee, professor, Department of Rehabilitation Psychology and Special Education
Lee joins UW–Madison from the Illinois Institute of Technology, where she was a core faculty member in the Division of Counseling and Rehabilitation Science. She earned her PhD in rehabilitation psychology from UW–Madison in 2007. Her research centers on the psychosocial adjustment to disability, with a focus on chronic illness, family caregiving, and multicultural issues in help-seeking and service use. Lee has led federally funded projects through NIH, NIDILRR, NSF, and the Department of Defense, developing innovative interventions for underserved individuals with disabilities and their families that have shaped vocational rehabilitation practices nationwide. A recognized leader in advancing women’s and multicultural issues in rehabilitation psychology, she has received multiple national research awards and served in key leadership roles across several national organizations.
Francesca López, Jim and Georgia Thompson Distinguished Professor of Education, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis
López comes to us from Pennsylvania State University, where she was the Waterbury Chair in Equity Pedagogy in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. At UW–Madison her home will be in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis, where she will serve as the Jim and Georgia Thompson Distinguished Professor of Education. López began her career in education as a bilingual (Spanish/English) elementary teacher, and later as a high school counselor, in El Paso, Texas. She has received numerous grants, awards, and fellowships for her research, which is focused on the ways educational settings promote achievement for Latino youth. López is also a co-editor of National Education Policy Center publications and the Review of Educational Research.
Jaydan Moore, assistant professor, Art Department
Moore hails from a family of fourth-generation tombstone makers in Northern California. Through his experiences growing up, he learned to value the heirlooms and objects that become markers for significant moments in people’s lives. Moore, who earned his MA/MFA from UW–Madison, has exhibited internationally, and his work is held in major museum collections, including SF MOMA, the National Gallery of Victoria, and the Museum of Fine Arts-Houston. He has been an artist-in-residence at Penland School of Crafts, the Kohler Arts/Industry Program, Virginia Commonwealth University, and Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, and has taught at Rhode Island School of Design, VCU, University of Georgia, Old Dominion University, Penland, and Haystack Mountain School of Craft.
Larissa Niec, professor, Department of Counseling Psychology
Niec comes to UW–Madison from Central Michigan University, where she was a professor of psychology and director of the Center for Children, Families, and Communities. She earned her PhD in clinical psychology from Case Western Reserve University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Her NIH-funded research focuses on expanding access to evidence-based interventions for underserved families, with an emphasis on health equity. A global trainer in parent-child interaction therapy, Niec has published extensively and has authored, among other books, “Strengthening the Parent-Child Relationship in Therapy” and “Telemental Health Care for Children and Families.” She is part of UW–Madison’s RISE-THRIVE initiative, and her work has been featured in outlets such as the Washington Post and NBC Today.
Douglas Ready, professor, Department of Educational Policy Studies
Ready comes to UW–Madison from Teachers College, Columbia University, where he was a professor of education and public policy and director of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education. He earned his PhD in educational foundations and public policy from the University of Michigan. Ready will begin his appointment in spring 2026. His research, receiving over $21 million in external funding, explores the influences of education and social policies on student opportunities and outcomes, with work on school segregation and stratification, curricular and instructional reforms, and alternative teacher-training models. He has published extensively in leading academic journals, and has served on the editorial boards of Sociology of Education, Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, and the American Educational Research Journal.
Joelle Taknint, assistant professor, Department of Counseling Psychology
Taknint joins UW–Madison from Boston University, where she was an assistant professor in the School of Medicine and served as director of behavioral health for the Immigrant & Refugee Health Center at Boston Medical Center. She earned her MSc and PhD in clinical psychology (Lifespan Development Focus) from the University of Victoria, BC, in Canada. Taknint’s research focuses on mental health equity for and with migrant communities through a) community-engaged work that looks to evaluate and sustain community grown mental health promotion practices and b) system-engaged work focused on addressing structural barriers to mental health and healthcare system redesign. She is part of UW–Madison’s RISE-THRIVE initiative, which works to advance mental health interventions and improve health equity.
Lingbo Tong, Anna Julia Cooper Fellow (2025-26) and assistant professor (starting in fall 2026), Department of Educational Psychology
Tong earned a joint PhD in quantitative psychology and computer science from the University of Notre Dame in 2025 and a bachelor’s degree in computer science and technology from Sichuan University in 2020. Her research integrates natural language processing and machine learning with psychometric methods to study human cognition and behavior. She develops computational approaches that synthesize quantitative and qualitative data to uncover new insights in education, psychology, and health. She also analyzes large-scale social media data to examine topics such as social biases and digital feminism. Tong will spend 2025-26 on an Anna Julia Cooper Postdoctoral Fellowship.