DR. GARDIN recently received his Ph.D. in Physical Education, with an emphasis in Developmental Foundations and Athletic Training at the University of South Carolina.  He has been an athletic trainer for a number of school and community athletic programs and was a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of South Carolina for three years.  His scholarly agenda focuses on athletic training education—particularly the acquisition of expertise in athletic training and athletic training socialization.  He was a Doctoral Scholar in the University of South Carolina African American Professors Program from 2006 through 2009.

DR. LEE comes to Montclair State University having been a Post-Doctoral Research Associate for one year at Virginia Tech and an assistant professor for two years at the University of New Mexico.  Her scholarship focuses on the impact of community factors on family adjustment across gender and types of acculturation strategies, particularly among Korean immigrants.  She has published a number of journal articles and book chapters from her research on these issues.

DR. LIEBERMAN brings considerable research and program evaluation experience to her faculty position in Public Health at Montclair State.  After four years in a tenure-track position at NYU, she decided to devote her energies for a number of years to engaging in collaborative research with a wide variety of government, not-for-profit, and community-based agencies and educational organizations.  She has conducted research on such issues as teen sexuality and prevention, health risk behaviors, and maternal/child health in tribal communities in South Dakota.

DR. MAHADEVAN, who received her Ph.D. in Nutritional Sciences from Penn State, has been a Postdoctoral Fellow at Fordham University for the past three years.  Her research has examined the nutritional status and body composition of drug abusers with HIV; and lifestyle, environmental, psychological, and sociocultural factors influencing food choices of HIV-positive drug users in NYC.  Prior to her postdoctoral fellowship, she was the Senior Program Office for The CookShop® Programs, where she oversaw the planning, implementation and evaluation of a community nutrition education program in NYC.

Notes:

DR. SCHWARZER, who is the new Chair of the Curriculum and Teaching Department, has held faculty positions at the University of Texas, Austin, and the University of Alabama, Birmingham, and has held various leadership positions in higher education and K-12 schools.  His scholarship focuses on language and literacy learning, particularly the education of second-language learners.  His current work focuses on the development of multi- and trans-literacies.  He has published two books as well as numerous articles and book chapters.

 

Notes:

DR. URBAN joins the faculty in Family and Child Studies after a year as a Science and Technology Fellow at the Society for Research in Child Development/American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, MD.  She is the co-Principal Investigator of a five-year $2.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation examining the Systems Evaluation Protocol for Assessing and Improving STEM Education Evaluation.  Her research interests also include the study of youth development programs.

DR. ZAAL recently completed her doctorate at CUNY, where her dissertation examined the education of Dutch-born Moroccan youth in the Netherlands.  She plans to conduct similar research on immigrant-origin youth in the U.S., including how community-based programs support these learners.  She is engaged in a study of the feasibility of new high school requirements planned in NJ, working with other scholars as well as youth researchers and community activists.  She has had a variety of professional positions in education, including six years as a teacher in grades 5-8 in NJ schools.