Faculty

Rick Ayers is an associate professor of education and serves as the coordinator of the San Francisco Teacher Residency. He also teaches in the Urban Education and Social Justice cohort in the School of Education at the University of San Francisco. He focuses on curriculum and pedagogy, with particular emphasis on equity, social justice, and decolonial approaches to education. His writing, in blogs as well as publications, is on community-engaged scholarship and community organizing. He is the...

Noah Borrero is a full professor in the Teacher Education Department at USF. He teaches courses in bilingual/bicultural education, teaching for diversity and social justice, critical pedagogy, and action research. Dr. Borrero's scholarship focuses on promoting equity in schools by focusing on students' and teachers' strengths, and in 2011 he received the Distinguished Research award at USF for his research in urban education. He earned his doctorate from Stanford University in 2006 and helped...

Sarah Capitelli came to USF from Stanford where she completed her PhD in Educational Linguistics. Before her work at Stanford, Dr. Capitelli taught elementary school for seven years, two in Venezuela and five in East Oakland in a Spanish-bilingual classroom. She is particularly interested in better understanding and improving conditions for learning and teaching in linguistically segregated schools.

Dr. Geoffrey Dillon, S.J. is the Director of Field Placements (student teachers) and Administrative Coordinator for Teacher Education Department at USF. He is also the founding Director of Project Learn Belize, a partnership between educational and health institutions in Belize and the School of Education at USF. Fr. Dillon served as the USF Teacher Education Dept. Chair from 2005-2013 and served for two years beginning in August 2009 as Interim Director of the Institute of Catholic Educational...

Dr. Cheryl Jones-Walker is an Associate Dean and Associate Professor in the Teacher Education Department. She began her professional career as a fourth grade teacher in the Bronx, NY, and she continued teaching in a Boston area independent school and then internationally in Gabon, Central Africa. Prior to doctoral work at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, she worked at the Center for Collaborative Education (CCE) in Boston, a non-profit organization committed to...

Helen Maniates, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Teacher Education and coordinator of the Master of Arts of Teaching Reading Program in the School of Education at the University of San Francisco. As a community engaged scholar, her work addresses both “schooled” literacy and out-of-school literacy practices. She works in partnership with local community-based organizations to provide an annual summer reading program for K-8 students that addresses summer learning loss. Her research projects...

Judy Pace came to USF after teaching K-12, working on school reform efforts at Project Zero, and studying at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has taught Learning and Teaching, Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice, Curriculum Currents and Controversies, and Curriculum Development and Design, as well as Qualitative Research and Sociology of Education. She aims to prepare educators who will strive for equity, excellence, and democratic values with powerful curriculum and...

Professor Farima Pour-Khorshid is a teacher educator, community organizer, and critical scholar who was born and raised in the Bay Area. After teaching elementary grade levels for over a decade in the Hayward Unified School District, where she also completed her K-12 education, she is now an assistant professor and teacher supervisor at USF. She holds leadership roles in San Francisco’s Teachers 4 Social Justice, the Education for Liberation Network, the Abolitionist Teaching Network, and the...

Professor Ruchi Rangnath received a doctorate degree from Teachers College, Columbia University. She is a Bay Area native and has taught in elementary schools across San Jose and New York City. Her research focuses on critical literacy, humanizing practices, ethnic studies, and social justice teaching and learning in elementary classrooms. Her recent books include, Planting the Seed of Equity: Ethnic Studies and Social Justice in the K-2 Classroom, Preparing to Teach Social Studies for Social...