Nine new full-time teacher-scholars joined the UVM College of Education and Social Services (CESS) this fall. "Our new faculty bring an impressive range of backgrounds, interests, expertise, and talents to the College," said Dean Scott Thomas. "We are proud to welcome these nationally recognized and respected academic authorities as colleagues within the CESS community. Collectively, they will enhance the visibility and stature of the University of Vermont."
Below, you can learn more about their backgrounds, research interests, and academic program areas.
Lee Burdette Williams
Dr. Lee Burdette Williams is the new interim coordinator for the Higher Education and Student Affairs (HESA) program at UVM. She is also the director of higher education training and development for the College Autism Network.
With nearly 30 years of experience in student affairs, she previously served as Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students at Wheaton College, and as Dean of Students at the University of Connecticut. Dr. Burdette Williams is both a frequent contributor to national publications and a speaker and presenter on topics that include student culture, mental health, sexual assault response, and autism in college students. She is a regular contributor to Inside Higher Ed and Chronicle of Higher Education.
Dr. Burdette Williams received her Ph.D. in College Student Personnel Administration from the University of Maryland, College Park. Prior to that, she earned an M.Ed. in Community Counseling from Salem State University, and a B.A. in Sociology from Gordon College. She is a recipient of the Thomas Magoon Award from the University of Maryland, granted annually to an alumnus considered to be an outstanding scholar-practitioner.
Justin D. Garwood
Dr. Justin Garwood joins the Special Education program at UVM following two years as assistant professor at Appalachian State University, and prior experience as a teacher in both general and special education classrooms. His work focuses on supporting children and youth with emotional and behavioral disorders, especially through literacy development and relationship-based supports. His teaching experience includes a variety of graduate and undergraduate special education courses.
In 2018, Dr. Garwood received the Early Career Publication Award from the Council for Exceptional Children, and the Outstanding Early Career Award in Teacher Preparation from the North Carolina Council for Exceptional Children.
His dissertation study, “Classroom Management Affects Literacy Development of Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders,” was published in Exceptional Children in 2017. Dr. Garwood is the author of Project iShine, Interdisciplinary Support of High-Intensity Needs in Education, with grant funding from the Office of Special Education Services within the U.S. Department of Education. He also serves as a member of editorial board for Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders.
Nicholas Lalanne
Nicholas joins the American Sign Language (ASL) program at UVM following two years as an instructor at Holyoke Community College, and several years as adjunct faculty at different colleges in both Massachusetts and Vermont. He has experience teaching a variety of undergraduate ASL and Deaf Studies courses.
Lalanne is a graduate of Gallaudet University, where he earned both his M.A. in Sign Language Education, and his B.S. in Communication Information Systems. He received the Graduate Student Outstanding Achievement Award and the Masters in Sign Language Education Award in 2017. He also delivered a presentation about the design of computer-based testing for ASL courses at the American Sign Language Teachers Association (ASLTA) Conference in 2017.
Winnie Looby
Dr. Looby earned her Ph.D. in Educational Leadership and Policy Studies with a concentration in Special Education, and her M.Ed. in Early Childhood Special Education, both at UVM. She is a program coordinator and lecturer assigned to the Center on Disability and Community Inclusion (CDCI). Her professional interests focus on Interdisciplinary Collaboration, Disability Studies, Early Childhood Special Education, Technology in Education, and Family-School Partnerships.
As a longtime Vermont resident, Winnie’s investment in education and her local community began with her work in the Burlington schools as a parent, volunteer, and educator. She is also an artist trained in multiple disciplines. Her research interests infuse her arts training together with her interdisciplinary interest in supporting diversity and equity broadly, and specifically for students and community members with exceptionalities.
Winnie is a member of the Inaugural Cohort for the UVM Faculty Fellows for Diversity and Inclusion Program. Among her many accomplishments, she was a Holmes Scholar for UVM in the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education (AACTE) from 2013-2017.
Kaitlin Northey
Assistant Professor Kaitlin Northey joins the Early Childhood Education program following her recent work as a research associate and project coordinator at the National Institute for Early Education Research, along with several years of experience as a preschool teacher and arts educator.
Dr. Northey has experience teaching a variety of graduate and undergraduate early childhood education courses. Her work focuses on early education policy and leadership, especially policy implementation, systems, and workforce issues. She earned her Ph.D. in Early Childhood Education from Rutgers University, and her M.A.T. in Elementary Education from Smith College.
She is the co-author a number of peer-reviewed journal articles, including “What Guides a Program?,” Teachers College Record, 2018. Dr. Northey also co-authored a Center on Enhancing Early Learning Outcomes (CEELO) policy brief, Building Capacity to Enact Change for Classroom Quality Improvement in New Jersey, 2018.
Dana Riger
Following one year as a postdoctoral fellow in Marriage and Family Therapy at Antioch University, Dana Riger joins UVM as a lecturer in the Human Development and Family Studies (HDFS) program. She earned her Ph.D. in Human Development from Virginia Tech, and her master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Hofstra University.
Dr. Riger has experience teaching a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses in human development, family studies, and couple and family therapy. Her clinical work focuses on couple and family conflict, and her research focuses on the role of technology in couple and family relationships, largely through online dating and social media.
In 2017, she received a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Marriage and Family Therapy at Antioch University. During that same year, she presented at the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) conference in Atlanta. In 2016, Dr. Riger received the Graduate Student Teaching Excellence Award at the Graduate School of Virginia Tech. Prior to that, she co-authored “What Marriage and Family Therapists Tell us about Improving Couple Relationships through Technology” in Family Communication in an Age of Digital and Social Media, 2015.
Lacey Sloan
Lacey Sloan joins the Department of Social Work as an associate professor after spending a semester teaching diversity in the Social Work program at the University of Mississippi, where she received her B.S. in Social Work 40 years ago. Dr. Sloan earned her M.S. in Social Work and her Ph.D. in Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin. Her area of scholarship is two-fold: sexual rights (sexual violence, sex work and sex workers, LGBTQI issues, early and forced marriage) and international social work education and practice (social work curriculum development in Islamic countries, international student exchanges, environmental education).
Prior to academia, Dr. Sloan worked in several Texas rape crisis centers, and served on both state and national coalitions against sexual assault. Her legislative advocacy on sexual violence led to her interest in policy practice. She is passionate about teaching policy practice, community organizing/development, critical multiculturalism, and research. She is concerned about the absence of human sexuality courses in American universities, another area she loves to teach.
Dr. Sloan is the co-author of Critical Multiculturalism and Intersectionality in a Complex World, 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press, 2018. She is also a consultant with UNICEF, developing social work education curriculum for six universities in Somalia. She also does curriculum development in Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States, leading the successful development, accreditation, and implementation of B.S.W. programs, M.S.W. programs, and certificate programs.
Larry Stephen
Joining UVM as new lecturer in the American Sign Language (ASL) program, Larry Stephen is originally from the southernmost Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago.
Traveling extensively throughout the world, he is involved with state, regional, national and international conferences such as the World Congress of the World Federation of the Deaf and Deaflympics (Deaf Olympics). In 2015 he was the keynote speaker at the American Society of Deaf Children Conference in Indianapolis.
Larry is a co-author of Courage in our Hearts, the story of how a Deaf immigrant discovered his newly adopted land in America with his family members, and blossomed into a scholar and athlete with family support.
He holds an M.S. from McDaniel College (formerly known as Western Maryland College), and a B.A. from California State University, Northridge. Larry is also an alumnus of Marie Philip School at the Learning Center of the Deaf in Framingham, Massachusetts.
Christine Velez
Dr. Christine Velez joins the Social Work Department as an associate professor. Her research focuses on reproductive justice issues impacting women of color. She also has a background in substance use intervention and treatment research with marginalized communities. Her experience includes a variety of research methodologies, including anti-oppressive and feminist methods. She has taught a range of undergraduate and graduate courses in Social Work, including theory, research and policy. She is interested in research to improve Social Work education by critically evaluating and strengthening the application of theory and research to practice.
Her study, “It's been an Experience, a Life Learning Experience: A Qualitative Study of Hospitalized Patients with Substance Use Disorders" was published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine in 2016. Dr. Velez has presented at a number of national events including the Society of Social Work Research (SSWR) Annual Conference and the Latino Social Work Conference.
Velez earned her Ph.D. in Social Work and Social Research from Portland State University. She holds an M.S.W. in Social Work from SUNY Buffalo, and a B.A. in Spanish from Bates College.