The Â鶹ÊÓƵ (USF) College of Education is proud to announce that several of the college’s professors are recipients of USF internal grant awards: assistant professor Mandie Dunn, associate professor John Liontas, assistant professor Alexandra Panos and associate professor Charles Vanover.
Assistant professor Dunn was awarded the New Research Grant Internal Award. As an English Education professor, Dunn is motivated by an interest in teacher wellness. In particular, she has been studying how teachers who were grieving a death managed their emotions in the context of reading, writing, and thinking with students. Her published scholarship addresses the challenges grieving teachers face as well as the supports that will help sustain them following the death of a loved one.
Associate professor Liontas was awarded the Creative Scholarship Grant Internal Award. Liontas is a tenured associate professor of ESOL and SLA specialist, performing research and development in second language teaching methodology, figurative competence, curriculum and program design, and multimedia-based learning. Liontas has previously held several academic faculty positions in higher education and has taught a wide range of language and content courses in different languages such as, English, German, ESL and Spanish, as well as graduate seminars.
Assistant professor Panos was awarded the New Research Grant Internal Award. She is an assistant professor of Literacy Studies and an affiliate faculty in Measurement and Research in the College of Education. Panos centers her scholarship on the reality that, to quote Octavia Butler, "there is no end to what a living world demands of you." For Panos, this means prioritizing place-based, community-engaged and postcritical activities that examine the ecological and geographic dimensions of education for equity and justice.
Associate professor Vanover was awarded ResearchOne funding to support the Interdisciplinary Symposium of Qualitative Methodologies (ISQM). He teaches graduate courses on qualitative data analysis and the action planning skills necessary to lead improvements in K-12 schools. He has helped design more than 100 action plans for students in the college's educational leadership program, many whom now hold positions of leadership in a variety of educational settings.
The College of Education congratulates professors Dunn, Liontas, Panos and Vanover for their commitment to research and looks forward to their future initiatives funded by these grants.