Dr. Lynsey K. Gibbons
Lynsey is Associate Professor of mathematics education at the University of Delaware. She started in education as elementary teacher and mathematics coach in Lexington, KY. She received her M.Ed. in Educational Leadership from the University of Kentucky and her Ph.D. in Mathematics Education from Vanderbilt University. At the University of Delaware, she teaches future elementary teachers and instructional leaders. A deep respect for teachers and students drives Lynsey's work as she seeks to understand how teachers can be provided with rich opportunities to learn how to teach in ways that respond to children's brilliance and position them as capable sensemakers. In her research, Lynsey seeks to explore teacher learning through an organizational and systems perspective with special attention to professional learning routines, the roles of instructional leaders such as principals and coaches, and the role of coherent learning events that occur within the system. Lynsey is excited to work alongside the Teaching, Learning, and Instructional Leadership Collaborative as they support district leaders, principals, and coaches to organize job-embedded professional learning for teachers.
Dr. Nick Johnson
Nick is Associate Professor of teacher education at San Diego State University. A former elementary school teacher, instructional coach, and coordinator with OCDE, Nick is interested in how teachers' understanding of children's mathematical thinking can broaden opportunities for student participation. His current focus is on examining young children's learning over time in early childhood classrooms. Nick received his PhD in Education from UCLA. He is co-author of Young Children’s Mathematics: Cognitively Guided Instruction in Early Childhood Education (Heinemann), The Young Child and Mathematics (3rd ed, NAEYC), and a contributing author to Choral Counting and Counting Collections (Stenhouse). Nick is excited to collaborate with the Teaching, Learning, and Instructional Leadership Collaborative as they engage in the work of CGI and early math learning.
Lauren Weisskirk
Lauren has spent her career in public education as an advocate and a leader in building systems to improve student outcomes through high quality curriculum, professional learning, and support for teachers. She has advanced this work through multiple roles, most recently as a founding member of EdReports.org, a nonprofit that is the most used resource nationwide for curriculum decision makers across the country. As the Chief Strategy Officer, she led strategic planning, fundraising, technical assistance, research, and communications. In addition to her work at the national level, she brings experience as a district leader having led coaching and instructional policy initiatives at the New York City Department of Education through a transition to new standards and new instructional materials.
Lauren has been collaborating with the OCDE team since 2015 to support districts to develop and implement strong curriculum selection and implementation practices. Their collaboration and learning has been documented in multiple outlets, including Beyond Buy-In: Teachers Learn to Evaluate and Adopt Materials in a Southern California School District [learningforward.org] (Learning Forward) and Building Capacity and Consensus Through a Teacher-Led Adoption [cdn.edreports.org] (EdReports.org). She believes that the Teaching, Learning, and Instructional Leadership Collaborative at OCDE is an innovative model for how to support systems to implement coherent instructional practices and is excited to contribute to its success.
Dr. Rossella Santagata
Rossella is Professor of Education at the University of California, Irvine. She is a founding faculty and current director of the Center for Research on Teacher Development and Professional Practice [faculty.sites.uci.edu]. She holds a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from UCLA with a minor in discourse analysis. Rossella studies math and science teaching and learning. She is a leading scholar in the use of video technologies to study learning interactions and to foster teacher professional competence. She works in partnership with schools and local non-profit educational agencies to solve persistent problems of practice, particularly those affecting educational settings that serve minoritized students. Her research aims to identify settings, participation structures, and practices that support ambitious learning experiences for both educators and students, providing equitable spaces for learners to express themselves in ways that feel authentic and meaningful. Her current projects involve close collaborations with school leaders, teachers, teacher educators, families, and community members to foster culturally sustaining and justice-oriented mathematics and science learning. Rossella is excited to continue to work with the Teaching, Learning, and Instructional Leadership Collaborative as they partner with schools and district to engage in system-wide instructional improvement.
Christina Kimmerling
Christina is a doctoral student at the UC Irvine School of Education. She began her career as a middle and high school mathematics teacher and instructional coach in Oregon and Colorado before transitioning to teaching mathematics courses for future educators at CSULB. Throughout her career, Christina has been dedicated to fostering rigorous and meaningful learning experiences for all students. Her research centers on understanding productive teacher learning opportunities around ambitious mathematics instruction. Christina is particularly interested in how collaborative partnerships with districts and schools can facilitate transformative instructional changes across systems. She holds a B.A. in Applied Mathematics from UC Berkeley and an M.Ed. in Teaching and Curriculum from Harvard University. She looks forward to continuing to collaborate with the Teaching, Learning, and Instructional Leadership Collaborative to design, implement, and study coherent professional learning experiences across districts.
Patricia Fuentes Acevedo
Patricia is a Chilean mathematics teacher educator who moved to California in 2021 to start her PhD program in Education at UC Irvine. She is passionate about making mathematics learning an experience where students' full humanity is embraced, elevating and sustaining their cultural heritage, especially in communities that have been historically marginalized and deprived. She earned a Bachelor's in Education and a Master's in Didactics of Mathematics from the Universidad de Concepcion, Chile. Patricia worked as a mathematics teacher at different grade levels in Chile and as a teacher educator at the Universidad de Concepcion. Her experience teaching pre-service and in-service teachers and her time conducting research at UCI led her to her current research interest: mathematics teacher learning, community-engaged research, and sociopolitical approaches to mathematics education. Patricia is grateful for the opportunities to work and learn alongside the Teaching, Learning, and Instructional Leadership Collaborative and looks forward to continuing to engage with the teachers, students, families, and community members in the schools they serve.
