Published: Aug. 26, 2019

At the CU Boulder School of Education, we are excited to welcome five new faculty members who will immensely enhance our community of educators and learners. Meet them below, and please join us in welcoming them to our school and community.

Arturo Cortez
Arturo Cortez joins us as an assistant professor of teacher learning, research and practice after earning his doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley. His research explores how teachers design transformative and humanizing learning environments that leverage the everyday spatial and cultural practices of nondominant youth in urban settings.
 

What are you excited about this upcoming year?

  • The faculty and students at the School of Education have been thinking very deeply about what learning looks like for an equitable and just world, and I could think of no better place to begin this journey. I am also excited to learn with and from community mobilization efforts already underway in Denver and Boulder, given the role of gentrification and reshaping of these spaces.

What do you like to do on a day off? 

  • What’s a day off? I feel like I am always making sense of the world, but I must say that I do like to dream and I can think of no better stimulant than literature. I absolutely love reading sci-fi! The work of Octavia Butler has been a touchstone for me. I really appreciate recent work that has been inspired by Butler and has taken up the mantle of examining the role of race, hope, and justice in the future.

What’s a fun fact about you?:

  • In a previous life, I wanted to be an astronaut and I spent time working at NASA working on a project that helped us think through what was needed for a long-term mission to Mars. I have a dream of being in the stars!
     

José Ramón Lizárraga
José Ramón Lizárraga is an assistant professor of learning sciences and human development after earning his doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley. Lizárraga uses ethnographic, video and multimodal research methods to examine the role of social networks, television and other media in the learning of teachers and youth. His work examines the collaboration of novice teachers and adolescents at the intersection of virtual and in-person terrains.
 

Why did you choose the CU Boulder School of Education?

  • The learning sciences program here offers a critical approach that I was looking for. That is what encouraged me to apply, but meeting the community of committed scholars, students and staff is what made Boulder a clear choice for the next step in my career.

What do you like to do on a day off? 

  • I don’t really know if I have days off. I do have multiple passions that sometimes intersect. When I’m not engaged in teaching, researching, or writing, I’m handling my pup RuPawl’s social media presence and merch sales. I also enjoy nature hikes (along with Arturo and our pooch), cooking and baking, and hanging out with friends both within the academy and in the queer community.

What’s a fun fact about you?

  • On top of being the dad-ager for a celebrity drag chihuahua? I really enjoy karaoke and do a mean Cher and Prince. I also used to be a soloist in the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus… many years ago. 
     

Kalonji Nzinga
Kalonji Nzinga joins us as an assistant professor of learning sciences and human development after earning his doctorate at Northwestern University. As a cultural psychologist, he explores how millennials and postmillennials develop ethical worldviews. Using methods of validated psychological instruments, clinical interviews and ethnographic observation, he studies how young people come to understand moral concepts like authenticity, loyalty and justice.
 

Why did you choose the CU Boulder School of Education?

  • The CU Boulder School of Education is on the cutting edge of research in education and human development, and has made a concerted effort to lead the way on issues of equity in education and community-based research. I want to be a part of those conversations and grow as a thinker, writer and teacher.

What do you like to do on a day off? 

  • I like to write raps, read books, play squash, water plants, watch Lebron, and hang out with my fiancée Chetna.

What’s a fun fact about you?

  • I believe in open borders.
     

Vandna Sinha
Vandna Sinha is an associate research professor of learning sciences and human development who came from the School of Social Work at McGill University in Montreal. Her research examines the ways that social policy affects the communal capacity to care for children and families. For the past 12 years, she has worked with indigenous organizations in Canada and has documented the overrepresentation of indigenous children in the child welfare system.

What are you excited about this upcoming year?

  • After 13 years in social work, the move to CU Boulder is giving me a chance to return to my roots in a School of Education and the Intermountain West. I’m excited by the engagement with community and social policy that I see here!

What do you like to do on a day off? 

  • Take a long hike or bike ride with my husband and two sons (9 and 11) then cook something delicious for dinner.

What’s a fun fact about you?

  • I can sing the alphabet backwards.
     

Tiera Chantè Tanksley
Tiera Chantè Tanksley will join us in fall 2020 as an assistant professor of educational foundations, policy and practice after completing a postdoctoral appointment at the University of California, Irvine. Her research examines the intersectional effects of race, gender, class and age on the experiences of black girls in media, technology and education.
 

Why did you choose the CU Boulder School of Education?

  • Navigating academia as a woman of color from a working-class background is no easy feat. I have become accustomed to existing within a complicated matrix of silence, oppression and hyper-(in)visibility. [When I visited], I felt warmly welcomed and humanized by nearly every person I encountered. . . . I felt as if I had entered a critical counterspace.

What do you like to do on a day off? 

  • I am an avid thrift shopper. I visit community-oriented thrift shops almost every weekend and make a habit of donating goods to these non-profit organizations every-time I go. I am also a lover of antiques, and enjoy decorating my house with vintage furniture and trinkets whenever I can. 

What’s a fun fact about you?

  • I am a profound lover of animals! In addition to having 2 cats and a dachshund, I recently saved a baby hummingbird that fell out of its nest. The baby bird recovered from the fall in time, and eventually learned to fly. Since the day it flew away, it has made several stops by the house to say a quick hello. I still can’t believe it comes back to visit.
     

Meet the faculty, staff, students and friends who make the School of Education what it is today at colorado.edu/education/people.

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