CAST is pleased to announce the selection of the first UDL Faculty Cadre.
We were delighted with the overwhelming response to this program and were very impressed with the high level of expertise of the applicants. The following applicants were selected:
Phyllis Anderson
Phyllis Anderson taught high school and middle school science for fifteen years before becoming a school improvement consultant. She has facilitated professional development opportunities in science and gifted education for teachers, administrators, and college students. Her recent efforts have involved supporting districts as they begin to implement the new Iowa Core initiative.
Michelle Arneson
Michelle Arneson has been employed in the field of education for the last 18 years. During this time, her work has emphasized the delivery of services for students with special needs in the general education classroom. Currently, she works for Prairie Lakes Area Education Agency as a School Improvement/Professional Development Consultant. She believes that educators have a strong moral obligation to help ALL children learn and grow as learners regardless of their exceptionalities.
Liz Berquist
Liz Berquist is currently a faculty member in the Department of Special Education at Towson University in Towson, Maryland, where she works with pre-service and in-service educators. She has a variety of experience in special education, social studies education, and professional development in the K-12 setting. Liz is completing her doctoral studies in Instructional Technology at Towson University; her area of interest is changing pre-service teacher beliefs and understandings about teaching, learning, technology, and UDL in order to meet the needs of all learners in inclusive settings.
Elfreda Blue
Elfreda Blue is an associate professor of the department of counseling, research, special education, and rehabilitation at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. She teaches technology and curriculum methods courses for pre-service teachers in elementary and secondary special education graduate programs. Her research interests and publications focus on technology and curricular resources to support the literacy needs of diverse learners.
Margie Boudreau
Margaret (Margie) Boudreau studied neuroscience research and its role in learning disabilities as part of her doctoral program at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. While at Rutgers, she created a module on special education for general education pre-service teachers that focused on UDL. She was a frequent guest lecturer in educational technology classes. Since receiving her Ed.D., Margie has pursued her research interests in the role of UDL in meeting diverse student needs in writing. She continues to focus on preparing educators for teaching in inclusive classrooms. One of the courses she has developed in teacher education focuses on the application of the tenets of UDL in general education classrooms.
EJ Chun
Eul Jung (EJ) Chun, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in Educational Psychology at Miami University. She teaches special education courses to pre-service students focusing on instructional methods for educating students with learning and behavioral challenges in general education settings. One of her primary areas of research is in the area of using service learning as a teaching method to provide students with access to the general curriculum in authentic contexts. She is also interested in using technology in education to meet the diverse needs of students and to realize UDL.
Anne Denham
Anne Denham has over 20 years experience in the education field serving in various capacities from classroom teacher and administrative positions to consultant at a state and national level. Although Anne has worked with students with a variety of learning needs, her knowledge and experience with assistive technology has provided a solid base for working with students with significant cognitive disabilities in accessing the general curriculum, facilitating inclusion, and in design, development, and implementation of large scale assessment using alternate academic achievement standards. This combination of experience and interests has led to her commitment to Universal Design for Learning (UDL). She is presently working with the National Alternate Assessment Center and CAST on a project looking at the presence of UDL in alternate assessment which will culminate in a web-based resource modeling the principles of UDL.
Melissa Hartman
Melissa Hartman is a special education supervisor for Loudoun County Public Schools in Virginia. She coordinates the county's transition program and is responsible for the special education programs in 7 schools. Melissa is an adjunct professor at Shennandoah University and has been conducting trainings, working on the integration of technology and UDL, and spreading the word about UDL since 2008!
Janet Peters
Janet Peters is the Project Coordinator on Educational and Assistive Technology for the Great Lakes ADA Center. She has 20 years of experience with assistive and accessible technologies for individuals with disabilities and technology implementation in classrooms. Her academic background is computer science and she is obtaining a Masters of Education in Learning Technologies from the University of Minnesota.
Susan Silverman
Susan Silverman began her career as a professional educator in 1970. Before retiring in 2004 from the Comsewogue School District, Port Jefferson Station, NY, she worked as a classroom teacher for thirty years and as an Instructional Technology Integration Specialist for four years. She is currently an adjunct professor at New York Institute of Technology and a member of the Tom Snyder Professional Development Team. When she's not giving workshops, she spends her time enjoying life in St. John, Virgin Islands.
George Van Horn
George Van Horn received his Doctor of Education degree from Indiana University with a concentration in the areas of school administration and special education. George has been a general education teacher and a teacher of students with emotional disabilities and has served as a principal, school superintendent, and director of special education. George has also been an adjunct assistant professor at Manhattan College in New York and an adjunct faculty member with Northern Illinois University and Indiana University Purdue University Columbus (IUPUC). George has consulted with school districts throughout the country in the areas of inclusion, services for students with emotional disabilities, and collaboration/teaming. In addition, he has led the development and implementation of a district plan to adopt Universal Design for Learning as the framework for curriculum and instruction, as well as a positive behavior support system for all students in his current position as the director of special education for the Bartholomew Special Services Cooperative in Columbus, Indiana.
