The Faculty & Staff Spotlight web page serves to highlight notable accomplishments by UNLV College of Education Faculty & Staff.
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Dr. Robert Ackerman, Educational Leadership
Dr. Robert Ackerman was recommended by the President for promotion to full professor. Robert Ackerman joined the faculty as an associate professor in 2001. He served as an administrator of student services program at different types of institutions during his 29 year career as a practitioner, including a total of 25 years as the chief student affairs administrator at two campuses, 14 years of which were as vice president for student services at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. His extensive experience includes program development, planning, administration, politics, facility building, and student learning. |
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Nancy Brown, Special Education and Early Childhood
Congratulations to Nancy Brown who recently received the CSUN Faculty Excellence Award. Nancy Brown joined the faculty in the Department of Special Education as a part-time instructor in 1992 and was hired as a FIR lecturer in 1999. Nancy is the coordinator of all student teaching and practica courses for the Department of Special Education. In addition, Nancy teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses for the department. She has a consistent record of high quality teaching, and her students are some of the most complimentary of her hard work. Recently, Nancy added to her already heavy workload, the responsibilities for coordinating The Inclusion Project (TIP), a program for the Nevada Partnership for Inclusive Education that is responsible for giving high quality inclusive experiences for undergraduate general education teachers. |
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Dr. Wendy J. Hoskins, Counselor Education
Dr. Wendy J. Hoskins was recommended by the President for tenure and promotion to associate professor. Dr. Wendy Hoskins is in her fourth year serving as an Assistant Professor at UNLV. She received her Ph.D. in Counselor Education and Supervision at Idaho State University. She is currently serving the profession in a variety of ways. Last fall, Dr. Hoskins agreed to serve as the Higher Education Representative for NvSCA. She is currently serving as Co-Chair of the ACES School Counseling Interest Network. In addition, she holds office as the current Treasurer of Western ACES. Dr. Hoskins is also a member of the editorial review board for the Journal of School Counseling. Dr. Hoskins' scholarly interests include the global move of the counseling profession. In her array of travels and meeting with other counseling professionals around the world, she has noticed four emerging trends: advocacy for treatment of mental health issues, professional identity, quality counselor education, and program evaluation. Dr. Hoskins has focused her more recent presentation and publication efforts within this scope. In the last few years, Dr. Hoskins has had the opportunity to present in the following countries: Russia, Ireland, China, and most recently at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India. Most recently, along with Dr. Astramovich and Dr. Kelly Coker, Dr. Hoskins published the text The Accountability Bridge: A Model for Evaluating School Counseling Programs. |
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Dr. Cari Klecka, Curriculum & Instruction
Dr. Cari Klecka was recommended by the President for tenure and promotion to associate professor. She joined the UNLV faculty in 2004 after completing her doctoral work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her dissertation research focused on the nature of participation and knowledge within a distributed community of practice. Her current research focuses on examining communities as contexts for learning to teach, cross-institutional partnerships and the role of mentoring in learning to teach. She currently is working in collaboration with Clark County School District on the Initiative on National Board Certification. This program provides multiple pathways to support for teachers pursuing National Board Certification and teacher leader positions at both the school and district level. Dr. Klecka is an active member in the Association of Teacher Educators (ATE) and belongs to the American Education Research Association (AERA). She is a member of the Commission on the Assessment of the Teacher Educator Standards in which she chairs a subcommittee facilitating a cohort of teacher educators developing their professional portfolios. Dr. Klecka also serves as Associate Editor of the Journal of Teacher Education. |
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Dr. Mario C Martinez, Educational Leadership
Dr. Mario C Martinez was recommended by the President for promotion to full professor. He has been a professor at UNLV since 2003. Prior to that, he spent six years as a professor at New Mexico State University. As a complement to his work at UNLV, he has developed his skills as a public speaker. He has been conducting seminars since 1997. |
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Dr. Dale-Elizabeth Pehrsson, Counselor Education
"Dr. Dale" was recommended by the President for promotion to full professor. She, a native of New York City, came to UNLV from the Pacific Northwest where she was an associate professor at Oregon State University. She taught at Sam Houston State University in Texas and Idaho State University. She has worked as an mental health, school and private practice counselor with a variety of clients but she specializes in work with children using expressive and performative counseling practices (such as Play Therapy, Art in Counseling, Story and Bibliotherapy). Before becoming a counselor, she worked extensively with children as a registered professional nurse. Dr. Dale, an active counselor educator, enjoys learning and teaching in creative and innovative ways. Her research and teaching focuses on Myth, Metaphor and Meaning within therapeutic and educational contexts. Since 1991, she has been researching creative play interventions and fictional therapeutic story work. In 1999, she co-created and became clinical director of the Bibliotherapy Education Project © (http://library.unlv.edu/faculty/research/bibliotherapy/). Dr. Dale presents at state, regional, national and international professional conferences and enjoys presenting with graduate students. She believes in supporting professional organizations because they champion our developmental and professional needs. She is an active leader for the American Counseling Association, the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision and International Association for Play Therapy. Dr. Dale is the co-founder and co-editor for the Journal of International Counselor Education, an open access green online journal that endeavors to promote timely scholarship to all who promote counselor preparation worldwide. Recently, she served as Clinical Editor for Play Therapy™, an international publication for clinicians. Dr. Dale is past president of the Oregon Counseling Association, Oregon Association for Counselor Education and Supervision and the Western Association for Counselor Education and Supervision. She was a charter board member and officer of the Idaho Play Therapy Association. She currently serves as American Counseling Association Governing Counseling Representative for ACES. Dr. Dale developed and chaired the first Preconference Institute for Research Mentorship for the ACES national 2009 conference; she also served as conference program chair. Dr. Dale holds several advanced credentials such as certification and licensure as an Advanced Clinical Licensed Professional Counselor - Supervisor, Advanced Clinical Supervisor, National Certified Counselor, Distance Credentialed Counselor, Registered Play Therapy - Supervisor, and Registered Professional Nurse. Dr. Dale has held executive level administrative positions such as a Healthcare Chief Clinical officer, Chief Nurse Executive, Mental Health Center Executive. She currently serves as department chair. In 2009, Dr. Dale was nominated for and received the National Thelma Duffey Innovation and Creativity Award by the Association for Creativity in Counseling. |
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Dr. LeAnn Putney, Educational Psychology
Dr. LeAnn Putney was recommended by the President for promotion to full professor. She earned her B.A. in Spanish and English from Indiana State University, her M.A. in Multicultural/Multilingual Education from California State University, Stanislaus, and her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology with an emphasis in Language, Culture, and Literacy from the University of California, Santa Barbara. LeAnn specializes in teaching courses in qualitative research. Her most recent research has focused on how teachers and students construct responsible communities for academic success in elementary school. She is now extending this line of research to examine how responsible community construction can be implemented at the secondary level as well. LeAnn has co-authored a supplemental educational psychology textbook on the research of Lev Vygotsky as it applies to teaching and learning. |
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Dr. Sterling Saddler, Educational Leadership
Dr. Sterling Saddler was recommended by the President for promotion to full professor. Dr. Saddler received a B. S. in Accounting from Tuskegee University, M.S. in Vocational Education from SUNY Oswego, and a Ph.D. in Workforce Education & Development from The Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Saddler is currently the Founder and Director of the Center for Workforce Development & Occupational Research at UNLV.The Center is committed to providing comprehensive workforce related resource services, professional development opportunities and research-based information, services and products, to the workforce and education communities. The Center has two main divisions of concentration; Training and Research . The following are several projects Dr. Saddler has been involved with that pertain to training and research: * Instrumental in developing and disseminating the Workplace Basic Skills Modules Curriculum (WBS) to be use for training sessions of business/education. * Developed Occupational Skills Standards (OSS) in conjunction with the Nevada Department of Education for the entire State of Nevada. * Conducted a research study with Pahrump Valley High School involving the use of Workplace Basic Skills Modules which involves pretest/posttest of students performance. * National Research project which surveyed four thousand administrators and teachers across U.S. involving Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS). * Contracted with Desert Autos' 11 local Dealerships to provide research, training, and retention of their employees. * Planned and provided a displaced worker training for locals whose jobs were affected by the events of September eleventh, in conjunction with Nevada Partners. * Provides professional education services to Vontoble Middle School through a colloborative gear-up grant, which attempts to help at-risk youth.Dr. Saddler has also administered and secured several Grants which involve research studies such as: * Nevada Department of Education grant to provide leadership for the Nevada Adult High School and Alternative Education Programs. * Nevada Department of Education grant to help the state develop Occupational Skills Standards that will cross reference with academic standards. * An approved grant to coordinate a system of training programs for incumbent workers and employers within the Southern Nevada area. The training program will be based on Workplace Basic Skills Modules developed through the Center from SCANS based research study among businesses in Southern Nevada. * School-to-Careers grant for activities such as quarterly newsletter, Best Practices Mini Conference, and an externship for school teachers. * Nevada Department of Education grant, (through Workforce Education Team) to provide travel for five graduate students to attend the Association for Career and Technical Education conference.As a junior faculty at UNLV Dr. Saddler has been awarded over 1.5 million dollars in grants.In addition to other mini grants, Dr. Saddler has presented and published in areas related to the field of workforce education & development, curriculum, instruction, and diversity in the workforce. He has presented internationally through International Vocational educational & training Association (IVETA) in Sidney Australia 99', Hong Kong 00'.Dr. Saddler was a recipient of the prestigious Fulbright Hayes scholarship, where he had the opportunity to travel to and learn about South Koreas vocational/special education system. He also presented a presentation titled "Incorporating Workforce Education into the Transition Plan of All Students with/without Disabilities" while in South Korea. |
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Dr. Nancy Sileo, Special Education and Early Childhood
Dr. Nancy Sileo was recommended by the President for promotion to full professor. She has worked as a professor of early childhood special education at the University of Nevada Las Vegas and has worked in the field of ECSE for more 17 years. Her current interests include early intervention, family involvement in special education, HIV/AIDS prevention education, and ethical issues in HIV/AIDS prevention education and special education teacher education. Dr. Sileo has been involved with teacher education special education for 12 years and currently serves as Interim Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Education at UNLV. In addition, she has been a member of CEC for over 16 years and is actively involved in TED and DEC. Dr. Sileo is author and co-author of myriad publications related to HIV/AIDS prevention education and research, as well as numerous publications in the field of special education teacher education. |
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Dr. Elizabeth Spalding, Curriculum & Instruction
Dr. Elizabeth Spalding was recommended by the President for promotion to full professor. She is a currently a professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the UNLV where she teaches courses in English education and general secondary education. She is an editor of the Journal of Teacher Education. Currently, she serves as a member of the Executive Committee of NCTE's Conference on English Education and is a past Trustee of the Research Foundation of the National Council of Teachers of English. Previously, she was Project Manager for Standards at the NCTE in Urbana, Illinois where she assisted in the development of national standards for the English language arts and a portfolio assessment system for the New Standards Project. For fourteen years, she was a classroom teacher in public schools in West Virginia and for the Department of Defense Dependents' Schools in Korea and the Philippines. Dr. Spalding's research interests include performance and portfolio assessment, learning communities in teacher education, and secondary English teaching and teachers. |
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