Faculty

Rick Ayers is an associate professor of education focusing on English language arts and secondary education, and a faculty member of the urban education and social justice cohort. Professor Ayers 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. Professor Ayers is the author or co-author of five books,...

Noah Borrero is a professor in the teacher education department, with a focus in urban education and social justice. He teaches courses in bilingual/bicultural education, teaching for diversity and social justice, critical pedagogy, and action research. Professor Borrero's scholarship focuses on promoting equity in schools through focusing on students' and teachers' cultural assets. After earning a doctorate from Stanford University in 2006, that same year Professor Borrero helped develop the...

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 PBL, portfolio assessment, teaching for understanding, and school reform at Project Zero; and earning her doctorate at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. In TED her courses include Learning and Teaching, Teaching for Diversity and Social Justice, Curriculum Currents and Controversies, and Curriculum Development and Design. She has also taught Qualitative Research and Sociology of Education in the EdD program in the School of Education...

Farima Pour-Khorshid is a proud Bay Area educator-organizer-scholar. She taught at the elementary grade levels in her community for over a decade, and supported educators locally, nationally, and internationally through her roles as a university professor, teacher supervisor, educational consultant, and community organizer. She is deeply committed to bridging abolition- and healing-centered engagement in education. Much of her work is rooted in grassroots organizing as she serves in leadership...

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...