EdD in Learning and Leadership Faculty
Dr. Karen Adsit
Ed.D., University of Houston
Director and Professor, Walker Teaching Resource Center
Professor, Graduate Studies Division
Elementary art teacher, biomedical communicator, instructional designer, faculty developer – all professions Dr. Adsit has held through her career. Prior to coming to UTC, Karen worked as an instructional developer in a large teaching hospital in Houston, TX (University of Texas M. D. Cancer Center). The department there included instructional development, video services, graphic services, medical illustration and medical photography. The instructional Development department designed and developed professional and patient education programs. As a faculty developer here at UTC, Dr. Karen Adsit manages the Teaching Resource Center, a campus-wide resource for faculty to help them teach better and to incorporate technology into the classroom.
Dr. Adsit received her Doctorate of Education (Ed.D.) from the University of Houston, researching screen design and user interfaces for multimedia and interactive technology. She also earned a Certificate in Biomedical Communications from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, NE, a Master of Arts in Adult and Continuing Education, from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, and has completed post baccalaureate study at the University of Georgia and the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT. Her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art/Art Education was earned from the University of Georgia.
Dr. Adsit's research interests span a broad spectrum and are focused on the use of technology in the teaching & learning process, copyright and fair use, teaching and learning in higher education, instructional design & development, faculty and professional development, online teaching skills, and problem-based learning. Contact: Karen-Adsit@utc.edu or website: http://www.utc.edu/karen-adsit/
Dr. Eugene Bartoo
Ed.D., State University of New York at Buffalo
Routt Professor, Graduate Studies Division
I have been a professional educator for 44 years. That span includes 10 years experience as a high school math teacher, one year as a central office administrator and the balance in higher education at three different universities, a large state university, a private university, and the last 27 years at UTC. I have worked with teachers, administrators, and state departments of education continuously over my whole career. While at UTC I have been a department head for 18 years and have been a full professor since 1985. In 2000 I was honored to be named one of two Routt Distinguished Teaching professors on the UTC campus.
My research and intellectual interests are now focused on curriculum development and curriculum inquiry. I am presently working on a book which will be an introductory text for teacher-based research. I have recently published book reviews on action research and curriculum mapping. My future writing plans include a book on the intellectual climate in the US during turn of the twentieth century as the schools moved from a concentration on "ivy-league academics" to "state-school public service." Contact: Eugene-Bartoo@utc.edu
Dr. Hinsdale Bernard
Ph.D., Andrews University
Professor, Graduate Studies Division
Prior to joining the faculty in the EdD in Learning and Leadership at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC), Dr. Hinsdale Bernard served as an Associate Professor in the Leadership and Educational Administration Department at Andrews University that followed his tenure as an Associate Professor in the Counseling, Administration, Supervision, and Adult Learning Department at Cleveland State University. Over the last 15 years he taught courses in leadership, educational administration, developmental and learning psychology and educational research. Over the last decade Dr. Bernard has served as chair or methodologist on over 30 doctoral dissertations on a variety of topics utilizing diverse methodologies including quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods and intervention research.
Dr. Bernard graduated from Andrews University with a PhD in educational administration with a cognate in research and statistics. The subject of his dissertation was “Development and Application of a Diligence-Ability Regression Model for Explaining and Predicting Competence among Juniors and Seniors in Selected Michigan High Schools.”
Hinsdale 's main research interests span the areas of diligence (holistic development associated with motivation and persistence), and attribution and expectancy theories geared toward helping people to maximize their potentials. Since completing his dissertation, he has developed diligence inventories for most developmental levels that have spawned dissertations and other studies on an international level. Dr. Bernard believes that a major factor in improving student performance is that of assisting them to make informed choices about their wellbeing and development that could positively impact their future success. This principle may extend to the work place as well. Outside of academia Hinsdale is an avid fan of soccer and cricket and is a budding golfing freshman. He likes the outdoors but also the indoors working on carpentry projects that present themselves with a decent regularity to keep him fairly balanced.
Contact: Hinsdale-Bernard@utc.edu
Dr. Lloyd Davis
Ed.D., University of Tennessee at Knoxville
Guerry Professor, Graduate Studies Division
My academic background consists of a Master's degree in Mathematics at the University of Miami and Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with emphasis on Research and Statistics from the University of Tennessee . My professional experience includes 42 years of college teaching, administering computer centers for 19 years, and the Center of Excellence in Computer Applications for 5 years.
My research interests include program evaluation and teacher effectiveness as measured by gain scores. Most problems I deal with involve data reduction and the use of statistical packages. I serve on doctoral committees at UTK and am often the one who is expected to determine statistics to be used and whether inferences were properly made. Contact: Lloyd-Davis@utc.edu
Dr. Rebecca Elliott
Ed.D., University of Memphis
Assistant Professor, Graduate Studies Division
Dr. Rebecca Elliott received her doctorate in Instruction and Curriculum Leadership from the University of Memphis in 1998; with her master's and undergraduate degrees in Education from Arkansas State University . Prior to joining the UTC faculty, Rebecca served as the Associate Director of Instructional Design with the Sam M. Walton Graduate School of Business at the University of Arkansas . There she guided the developed of a hybrid Managerial MBA which expanded into an Executive MBA designed primarily for students currently employed by multinational companies operating in China
In addition to her work as a designer and developer, Rebecca has also served as adjunct professor with Webster University, The University of Memphis, Christian Brothers University, and Rhodes College, teaching in the areas of Managerial Leadership, Strategic Management, Organizational Development and Instructional Technology. Rebecca currently serves as Assistant Professor in the Graduate Studies Division of the College of Health , Education and Professional Studies. Her main areas of interest are leadership, adult learning, ethics, and learning technology. Contact: Rebecca-Elliott@utc.edu
Dr. John Freeman
Ph.D., Louisiana State University
Professor and Head, Graduate Studies Division
Dr. John Freeman joined the faculty of UTC on January 1, 2006, and is now serving as the Department Head of the Graduate Studies Division. For the past eight and a half years he served on the faculty at The University of Alabama as an associate professor of educational leadership and Director of The University of Alabama Superintendents' Academy. During his tenure at UA, Dr. Freeman successfully chaired 22 dissertations and served as a committee member and/or methodologist on over 75 additional dissertations.
Dr. Freeman holds five degrees from LSU, culminating in the Ph.D. in Educational Administration and Educational Research in 1997. With 26 years in education as a classroom social studies teacher, principal, state department administrator, researcher and university professor he brings a diverse background to the Ed.D. program in Learning and Leadership. He utilizes mixed-methods designs in his study of school effectiveness and school improvement, and leadership preparation, having published in such journals as Educational Administration Quarterly and the International Journal of School Effectiveness and School Improvement . He is also a highly experienced program evaluator, holding Level A certification in Louisiana and having conducted program evaluations for numerous agencies such as the Kellogg Foundation, Tufts University, LSU Medical School, The University of Alabama, and nearly a dozen school districts in Louisiana and Alabama. Contact: John-Freeman@utc.edu
Dr. Ted Miller
Ph.D., Indiana University
Professor, Graduate Studies Division
My background is in psychology, including a Masters in Experimental Psychology. My doctorate was granted from Indiana University in Educational Psychology with major areas of concentration in School Psychology and Special Education. I taught for two years at Northern Illinois University and joined UTC in 1978. I have taught online for nearly a decade now and I remain active in the school psychology, special education and EDS Technology Programs as well as the current doctoral program. I am a University of Chattanooga Foundation Professor in the Graduate Studies Division of the College of Education . I have authored or co-authored over forty articles and book chapters and I have co-edited three books.
During the past eight years I have been an external project-evaluator with the Cleveland City , Hamilton County , Walker County and Polk County School systems. I am currently evaluating projects for two of the above systems. Previously I evaluated aspects of the PUSH-EXCEL Program (1985), the Rural Education for Exceptional Teachers Program (1980-1986), and the Southeast Institute for Education in the Visual Arts Program (1986-1992). I have a strong background in behavioral psychology (special education is responsible I suppose) so I am no stranger to objectives driven evaluation. On the other hand, Egon Guba was a professor at Indiana while I was there so I am quite infatuated with participant oriented, naturalistic, qualitative based research. I was recently asked to review the primary text (Fitzpatrick et. al.)we will use in the introduction to evaluation as it moves to fourth edition and I have asked for some changes based upon the responses of the previous cohort. So is that activity an evaluation of an evaluation text conducted by an evaluator and future evaluators :-? Contact: Ted-Miller@utc.edu
Dr. Vicki Petzko
Ph.D., University of Minnesota
UC Foundation Professor, Educational Leadership, Graduate Studies Division
Dr. Petzko came to UTC in 1998 to join the Graduate Studies Division of the College of Education as a faculty member in School Leadership. She had been a middle school principal in suburban Minneapolis (MN) for seven years, where she received a divisional Principal of the Year in 1997 and her school received a National Blue Ribbon School of Excellence award in 1996. She had also been a high school associate principal for seven years, and a teacher for 10 years in the Minneapolis area. Vicki received her Ph.D. in 1990 in Educational Policy and Administration at the University of Minnesota, where her dissertation research focused on the legal limitations and attendance rates associated with excessive absence policies in high schools. Prior to her appointment at UTC, Vicki was awarded a partial sabbatical to study topics related to school law at Hamline University School of Law, and engaged in research that year associated with the identification and recruitment of aspiring principals.
Since coming to UTC, Dr. Petzko has chaired the revisions of the School Leadership programs to be in line with new state standards, led the development team for the new master's degree concentration in Teacher Leadership and the EDS concentration in Instructional Leadership, and was part of proposal team for the doctorate in Learning and Leadership. She has worked with a number of area schools and agencies on Team Building, Curriculum Alignment and the School Improvement process. She has conducted workshops throughout the State on the Change Process, Implementation of IDEA, and Legal Issues for Teachers. In addition, she developed and secured grant money to initiate an "Instructional Leadership Institute" at UTC for area principals, assistant principals, and supervisors. She was appointed to the State committee on standards for administrative licensure programs and the principal licensure re-design committee.
In 1999, Dr. Petzko was recognized as a “UC Foundation Associate Professor”, and in 2001 she received the “Outstanding Scholar and Researcher” award from the College of Education and Applied Professional Studies. She was named to the NASSP (National Association of Secondary School Principals) Task Force on Principal Preparation in 2002, and served as Co-Editor of NASSP's on-line publication Connections: Journal of Principal Preparation and Development from 2003-2005. She currently is on the Review Board for NASSP's leading research publication, the NASSP Bulletin.
From 1999-2005, Vicki was one of four members of a national research team that conducted the third of three-decade studies on middle level leadership. The National Study of Leadership in Middle Level Schools; Volume I was published in spring of 2002. She has written and published several papers as a follow up to this report. Volume II of the study, Leaders and Leadership in Middle Level Schools, which focused on 98 exemplary middle schools was published in 2004. Several follow up papers were also written from those data. Citations for these and other publications can be found on her website at www.utc.edu/~vpetzko .
Vicki is currently a member of the doctoral faculty of the Ed.D. Program in Learning and Leadership, the faculty for the Ed.S. in Instructional Leadership, and faculty/coordinator of the master's and post-master's certificate program in School Leadership. She received tenure in 2004 and was promoted to full professor in 2006. Her current research agenda continues to focus on leadership development for aspiring school leaders as well as the ongoing professional development of current school leaders. Citations for all publications can be found on her website at
http://www.utc.edu/Academic/SchoolLeadership/
Contact: Vicki-Petzko@utc.edu
Dr. David Rausch
Ph.D., Andrews University
Visiting Associate Professor and Director-Kingsport Initiative
Prior to his arrival at UTC, Dr. Rausch served as the Director for Teaching and Learning at Macomb Community College. He also founded and served as Managing Director of the Austin Winslow Group, Inc., (AWG) a Michigan-based consulting firm. AWG provides leadership and management services including, strategic and organizational assessment, leadership development, and research to businesses and individuals. Prior to this position he served as Academic Dean for six campuses of Davenport University. He has served in a number of senior positions in publicly and privately held companies in the US, the Philippines, Indonesia, Hong Kong, South Africa, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. Specific industry competencies include financial services (banking & insurance), advertising, higher education and wholesale distribution.
Dr. Rausch pursued undergraduate studies at The University of Alabama and holds an MBA from Samford University, and a Ph.D. from Andrews University focusing his research on experience-based learning in adults relating to demonstrable competency, leadership and organizational learning.
Contact: David-Rausch@utc.edu
Dr. M.D. (Peggy) Roblyer
Ph.D., Florida State University
Professor, Graduate Studies Division
Dr. Roblyer has taught, researched, and published extensively in the field of educational technology for 30 years. Her textbooks (published by Pearson Education/Merrill) on integrating technology into teaching, the Internet, and tool software for teachers are widely adopted for undergraduate and graduate instructional technology courses, and some of her publications have been translated into Spanish and Chinese. She serves on the editorial boards of a number of technology and research journals and is Past-President of AERA's Special Interest Group Technology as an Agent of Change in Teaching and Learning (SIG-TACTL).
Her undergraduate work was in English education at the University of Maryland , and she has a Master's Degree in Developmental and Remedial Reading from Pennsylvania State University . While obtaining a Ph. D. in Instructional Systems Design at Florida State University , she worked on courseware development and training projects with one of the earliest major instructional computing systems: Control Data Corporation's PLATO. In 1981-82, she designed one of the early microcomputer software series Grammar Problems for Practice in conjunction with the Milliken Publishing Company.
An advocate of using research to guide practice with technology, Dr. Roblyer's current r esearch focuses on identifying factors that contribute to virtual school student success and on exploring ways to increase interactive qualities in virtual courses. In addition to teaching distance courses in various course delivery systems, she has designed distance courses for U. S. and international organizations and has worked with virtual K-12 schools across the U. S. She has researched and developed materials to improve students' performance in virtual school courses, including a success-prediction instrument and an online preparation course for virtual high school students. She has also served as external evaluator for virtual schools projects, including Iowa State University's federally funded project to develop a preservice program to prepare virtual school teachers, and the pilot of the Alabama Access Virtual Schools Project, coordinated by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). Contact: Margaret-Roblyer@utc.edu
Dr. Valerie Rutledge
Ed.D., University of Tennessee at Knoxville
Head, Teacher Preparation Academy; UC Foundation Professor
Dr. Valerie Rutledge joined the faculty of the Teacher Preparation Academy at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 1995. Prior to that time, she taught English, Latin, and Drama at Ooltewah Middle and Ooltewah High schools from 1974-1995. In 1986, Dr. Rutledge was recognized as Hamilton County Teacher of the Year, Southeast Tennessee Teacher of the Year, and Tennessee High School Teacher of the year. Since becoming a part of the Teacher Preparation Academy , Dr. Rutledge has served as Director of the Governor's School for Prospective Teachers, Director of the Teacher Education Program, and NCATE 2005 Chair. In addition to teaching a range of graduate and undergraduate licensure program courses, Dr. Rutledge is active in numerous professional organizations. She has been president of the Tennessee Reading Association and the Tennessee Council of Teacher of English and is currently in the seventh year of a nine-year term as the 3rd Congressional District appointee to the State Board of Education.
Dr. Rutledge's research interests focus on Professional Development Schools and teacher training. As a member of the UTC Reading First Cadre, she presents professional development related to literacy to elementary schools throughout Tennessee . She also participates in Reading First national training meetings and directors' updates on an annual basis. A graduate of UTC with a B.S. in Secondary Education English and an M.Ed. in Secondary Education English, Dr. Rutledge received her Ed.D. in Higher Education Leadership Studies from the University of Tennessee at Knox ville in 1997. Her collaboration with Dr. Lucien Ellington as they have worked with several area Core Knowledge schools has been possible through a series of grants they have received from the Maclellan Foundation which have provided travel, training, and materials support for these institutions. Each of the three original Core Knowledge schools with which they worked have been named Official Core Knowledge schools.
Dr. Rutledge also teaches in the ESL and Occupational Licensure programs at UTC, programs of study providing courses leading to add-on licensure in each of these areas. Her publications have appeared in Education, The International Journal of Social Education, Tennessee Educational Leadership, and Education Journal. In addition to membership in the Mid-South Education Research Association, National Council of Teachers of English, Phi Delta Kappa, and other professional organizations, Dr. Rutledge is involved in Free dom's Foundation at Valley Forge, Alpha Delta Kappa Honorary Sorority for Women Educators, the Hamilton County Republican Party, and a range of other community, civic, and political activities. Contact: Valerie-Rutledge@utc.edu
Dr. Jim Tucker
Ph.D., University of Texas
McKee Chair of Excellence, Professor, Graduate Studies Division
Jim Tucker, who earned his doctorate in educational psychology at the University of Texas at Austin , is Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga . Jim is also founder and chairman of the board of the Foundation for Leadership and Learning, a global network of resources for the advancement of leadership development. Formerly Jim was Director of the graduate programs in Leadership and Professor of Educational Psychology at Andrews University . Formerly, he served as Director of the Bureau of Special Education, Pennsylvania Dept. of Education., President of Educational Directions Incorporated, an educational consulting firm in Austin , Texas , Director of Programs for the Texas Education Agency, and a Research Associate with the R&D Center for Teacher Education, University of Texas.
Having taught at all levels from elementary through graduate school, Jim is intimately familiar with instruction. He is perhaps most widely known for his contribution to the development of curriculum-based assessment. And he is one of the leading authorities in America on the subject of integrated educational program-development for students with disabilities. Jim has provided consultative and training services to hundreds of school systems--public, private, and parochial--in more than 40 states as well as Brazil , Canada , Japan , Lithuania , Norway , and the Virgin Islands . His publications have appeared in such journals as the Journal of Special Education, Exceptional Children, the Journal of Learning Disabilities, the School Psychology Review, Measurement and Evaluation in Guidance, and the American Journal of Sociology, as well as in a number of professional texts. Contact: Jim-Tucker@utc.edu
