School of Education celebrates recently promoted faculty
Several School of Education faculty members were recently honored with promotions in recognition of their continued excellence in teaching, scholarship, and service across UW–Madison and in their scholarly communities.
The promotions were celebrated at an event hosted by Interim Chancellor Eric Wilcots. The School of Education faculty recognized at the event were:
Promoted to associate professor
Gigi An, associate professor, Rehabilitation Psychology & Special Education
An’s scholarship focuses on supporting young children’s social emotional development and meaningful inclusion. Her research interests include early childhood expulsion and suspension practices, social-emotional development of young children with disabilities, family-professional partnerships in the context of early childhood special education and early intervention, and inclusive education theories and practice in the global context.
Susan Andreae, associate professor, Kinesiology
Andreae is trained as a behavioral scientist and has experience in developing and evaluating culturally responsive behavioral interventions that engage and motivate adults with diabetes to become actively involved in their disease management with the goal of improving health outcomes and quality of life. Currently, she is developing the physical activity component of a family-centered diabetes prevention/self-management program.
Jina Chun, associate professor, Rehabilitation Psychology & Special Education
With a clinical background as a certified rehabilitation counselor, Chun brings expertise from her experience working with transition-aged youth to working-age adults with disabilities, along with their families, in vocational contexts at community rehabilitation agencies in both Korea and Madison, Wisconsin. Her research focuses on career development and engagement processes and their impact on the quality of life for transition-aged youth with disabilities.
Peter McDonald, associate professor, Curriculum & Instruction
McDonald’s research explores the ways people interpret play and playful behavior as meaning-making activities, the design practices that can support critical engagement through play, and the historical contexts of playfulness. He uses practice-based design research to build and study experimental forms of play, including alternate reality games, augmented reality games, and roleplaying games.
Jacob Meyer, associate professor, Kinesiology
Meyer is an expert on the neurobiological effects of exercise on depression and his research is designed to capitalize on the psychological effects of exercise for major depressive disorder and other mood disorders. This research examines the biology that is associated with the mood-enhancing effects of acute and chronic exercise with the goal of using that to both prevent serious mental health concerns and treat those suffering from mental illness.
Promoted to full professor
Lisa Cadmus-Bertram, professor, Kinesiology
Cadmus-Bertram’s research focuses on energetics and cancer. Areas of special interest in her work include physical activity and sedentary behavior, mobile technologies to promote health, rural health, and the integration of health behavior promotion with clinical care.
Darcy Padilla, professor, Art
Padilla is a documentary photographer and photojournalist. Known for her narrative photography, Padilla focuses on long-term projects that explore themes of struggle and the trans-generational effects of socio-economic issues. Padilla’s work has been exhibited internationally, with solo exhibitions at Cortona On The Move (Italy), DOCfield Festival (Spain), Festival Nicéphore (France), and Visa pour l’Image (France).
James Pustejovsky, professor, Educational Psychology
Pustejovsky is an applied statistician, whose research aims to solve problems in how quantitative methods are employed in education and social science research. His work involves developing new statistical methodology, building computing tools, and providing guidance about how to use statistical methods in specific research contexts.
Rosemary Russ, professor, Curriculum & Instruction
Russ has focused her research on examining who and what counts as knowledge in different contexts and with different populations. She uses the lens of epistemology, and specifically the constructs of epistemic authority and epistemic injustice, to theorize about how participants interact around knowledge and knowledge claims. She works with the statewide community organization EXPO (Ex-Incarcerated People Organizing) and is the coordinator for the tutoring program in the Dane County Jail.
Brittany Travers, professor, Kinesiology
Travers’ research program, housed at the Waisman Center, combines neuroimaging measures with quantitative measures of motor function, cognition, and daily living skills in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Her work is inherently interdisciplinary, as Travers is a trained cognitive psychologist who received interdisciplinary postdoctoral training in developmental disorders and biomedical physics.
Erica Turner, professor, Educational Policy Studies
Turner’s research examines racism and inequity—and efforts to challenge those—in education policy and practice. She uses sociocultural and critical race theories to understand educational policymaking and practice, and the consequences of educational inequity for students, families, communities, schools, and policymakers.