Beverly Troiano, Ph.D.
[email protected]
Dr. Beverly Troiano has extensive experience preparing pre-service and in-service teachers to use action research to study their teaching methods in bilingual and English as a second language (ESL) in classrooms. She began this work over twenty years ago as a high school teacher-researcher in Chicago Public Schools. During her doctoral program and post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Illinois Chicago, she worked on the Department of Education grant Project LSciMAct (Transforming Literacy, Math, and Science through Action Research) collaborating with K-8 in-service teachers on action research projects and curriculum development for English learners. She developed and has directed the ESL/bilingual endorsement program at Elmhurst University for the last nine years. Dr. Troiano has presented at numerous research conferences and invited presentations including the American Educational Research Association, National Council of Teachers of English, Literacy Research Association, and Illinois Teachers of ESOL and Bilingual Education. In 2017 she received a TESOL grant titled, “Teacher candidates using action research: Studying classroom practices with English learners” to identify how teacher candidates integrate, evaluate, and critically analyze ESL/bilingual methods in endorsement coursework. Dr. Troiano was granted a sabbatical during the spring 2021 semester to study the longitudinal influence of teacher preparation action research. She has numerous publications and most recently co-authored a book with Dr. Aria Razfar titled, “Action research in STEM and English language learning: An integrated approach for developing teacher-researchers” published in May 2022 by Routledge.
Simeon Stumme, Ph.D.
[email protected]
Dr. Simeon Stumme’s academic expertise is in the area of bilingual education and second language acquisition. He has extensive experience working with pre-service and in-service teachers interested in serving the needs of Emergent Bilingual students. He taught in bilingual and dual language settings for 11 years. His work on issues that affect the education of emergent bilingual students has focused on academic projects and social and political advocacy. In addition, at Elmhurst University and in previous institutions, he has advocated and taught for the use of Action Research by classroom teachers. Dr. Stumme has presented on issues of bilingual education locally, nationally and internationally. He is a regular presenter at the National Association of Bilingual Education yearly conference and the Illinois Annual Conference for Teachers of Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Students. He is an active member, and former President, of the Illinois Association of Multicultural and Multilingual Educators. Dr. Stumme has co-managed several grants during his career in higher education. The largest was a multiyear project to design a comprehensive set of performance standards for Lutheran parochial schools in the Chicagoland area. The budget was over a million dollars. Dr. Stumme has received grants from The Big Shoulders Fund, Illinois District 219, and Illinois District 65. While at Concordia University Chicago, Dr. Stumme organized 4 yearly mini conferences of action research projects completed by graduating Masters’ students. Each year about 120 students participated. Currently, Dr. Stumme is interested in how to create culturally responsive curriculum at the university level through research on funds of knowledge.
Dean Jensen, Ed.D., MBA
[email protected]
Dr. Dean Jensen has extensive experience in the design, development, and hosting of web and mobile applications. He first began as an intern in 1996 at the Elmhurst based company Synergistic Networks, Inc., taking a full-time position with the company upon his graduation from college in 2000, eventually ending his time as Vice President for Technology in 2010 when the company was sold. During that time, he was responsible for the management of multiple project teams dedicated to the creation of client-focused web applications, as well as overseeing the operation of the company’s internet data center. He then transitioned to the Office of Information Services (OIS) at Elmhurst University in 2010 where he first served as a Web Application and Information Specialist tasked with creating internally focused web-based applications to include the first Campus Portal, an online Admission application, a Field Experience Logging Tool for the Education Department, among several others. He also oversaw the School for Professional Studies’ Online Learning Environment (Desire2Learn), and eventually ended his time in OIS as the Director of Infrastructure and Web Applications when he transitioned to the Computer Science & Information Systems Department as a full-time professional track Assistant Professor in 2017 after having spent 15 years as an adjunct in the Department. His research has focused on the use of web and mobile technologies to form virtual communities in higher education, starting with his dissertation in 2010 titled “Assessing the Impact of Social Technologies and the Viability of Creating a Virtual Community within the Creative Sectors of Chicago” and most recently in the design and development of the Persist mobile app for Olivet Nazarene University (ONU) which was designed to help online students at ONU develop healthy habits and form virtual connections with their peers through the use of mobile and social technologies.