College of Education

Undergraduate mentors in the fields of education:

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Dr. Carlton Fong - Curriculum and Instruction

Email: carltonfong@txstate.edu

Phone: 512-245-5042

Research interests: Psychosocial, motivational, and self-regulatory factors for student success, meta-analysis and research synthesis, instructional strategies and feedback, community college students and developmental math, program evaluation and intervention effectiveness, school-to-work transitions and post-secondary pathways.

Bio: Dr. Carlton J. Fong is an Assistant Professor in the Graduate Program in Developmental Education within the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. He completed his Ph.D. and M.A. in Educational Psychology at The University of Texas at Austin and his B.A. in Cognitive Science from the University of California, Berkeley. He also finished a postdoctoral research fellowship in higher education and teaching development. Dr. Fong examines the motivational, psychological, and instructional factors that influence success, achievement, and persistence in postsecondary education, primarily using research synthesis and meta-analytic techniques. http://www.education.txstate.edu/ci/dev-ed/people/de-program-faculty/Fong
Dr. Rubén Garza - Curriculum and Instruction

Email: rg26@txstate.edu

Phone: 512-245-8492

Research Interests: Mentoring, Feedback, Latinos and Caring, Cultural Responsiveness.

Bio: Dr. Rubén Garza is a Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Texas State University, where he teaches graduate classes. Dr. Garza received his undergraduate degree, B.A., from Texas State University, and his graduate degrees, M.A. & Ph.D., from the University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Garza has served as Program Chair and Chair of the Mentorship and Mentoring Practices Special Interest Group, Program Chair for Section 7, Division K, of the American Educational Research Association, and member of the Executive Board of the American Association for Teaching and Curriculum. He also serves on international journal editorial boards and frequently reviews for various educational journals. Dr. Garza’s publications on youth and teacher mentoring, feedback, teacher residency programs, culturally responsive teaching, and Latino education, have been published in national and international journals. His education career has spanned close to 40 years that incudes teaching high school and community college students, and preparing teachers enrolled in an alternative certification program. Dr. Garza is a nationally recognized Spanish teacher and well known consultant for his fast-paced, highly interactive, and energized presentation style. He has shared his expertise of practical strategies for motivating students, actively engaging students, creating a culture for learning, and culturally responsive teaching, with district, state, national, and international audiences.
Dr. Mary Esther Huerta - Curriculum and Instruction

Email: mehuerta@txstate.edu

Phone: 512-245-3099

Research Interests: Biliteracy development of language minority Latino students living in the US majority culture; educational equity in schooling for language minority Latino students; multilingual, multicultural development in schooling; teacher preparation in the field of Bilingual Education.

Bio: Mary Esther Huerta is an Associate Professor at Texas State University, San Marcos. She completed doctoral studies in Culture, Literacy, and Language, and currently serves as Program Coordinator and Graduate Advisor for the Bilingual Bicultural Education Program. Her published research focuses on biliteracy development, the sociocultural contexts of language and literacy development in multilingual settings, and bilingual education teacher preparation.
Dr. Minda Morren Lopez - Curriculum and Instruction

Email: ml46@txstate.edu

Phone: 512-245-3096

Research Interests: Bilingual Education, Language Ideologies, Biliteracy Development, Language Acquisition, Literacy, Critical Literacy/Pedagogy, Multimodalities.

Bio: Minda Morren López, PhD, is Associate Professor of Literacy in the College of Education at Texas State University.She also serves as the Curriculum and Instruction Department Associate Chair.

Dr. López teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in reading, writing, English as a Second Language, biliteracy, and language acquisition. She has worked with Study Abroad courses in South Africa and Panama and now leads an interdisciplinary Study Abroad course focused on International Human Rights, Social Justice, Education, and Social Work to the Dominican Republic.

Minda began her career in education as a bilingual teacher at Crockett Elementary in the Houston Independent School District. She went on to pilot the TWI/Dual Language program at Helms Elementary and worked in Spring Branch ISD as a bilingual teacher. After finishing her M.Ed. in Second Language Acquisition at the University of Houston, Minda taught at the Escola Pan Americana da Bahia, an international school in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil. She taught ESL at Rice University and worked as an ESL/Bilingual Specialist at the Education Service Center, Region 20. In 2008, Minda completed her Ph.D. in Culture, Literacy, and Language from the University of Texas, San Antonio. Her award winning dissertation examined language ideologies and biliteracy practices in Two-Way Immersion schools in Texas. She continues mixed-methods research on topics such as equity, ideologies, literacies, language acquisition, multicultural/multilingual education, and teacher development and has over a dozen publications on these topics. Recently, Minda has been working with reading specialists who work with diverse students in literacy development and intervention and with teachers who use the Literacy Through Photography curriculum in their work.
Dr. Paul D. Mencke - Curriculum and Instruction

Dr. Missy Fraser - Health and Human Performance

Email: missyfraser@txstate.edu

Phone: 512-245-4373

Research Interests: Sport-related concussion, Head impact biomechanics, Mood, emotion, affect alterations related to sport participation and concussion, Emergency Care of orthopaedic injuries.

Bio: Dr. Fraser is an Assistant Professor in Athletic Training at Texas State University. She completed her doctoral work in the Human Movement Science Curricula at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2016. While at UNC she studied under Dr. Kevin Guskiewicz, who is a world-renowned concussion researcher and author of the Balance Error Scoring System (BESS). Dr Fraser also was able to train with the team neuropsychologists to improve her application skills and clinical understanding of a plethora of neuropsychological tests. Prior to attending UNC-CH she was the assistant athletic trainer and undergraduate athletic training education director at Texas A&M University-Kingsville for nine years. She has experience working with youth, high school, collegiate, and current and retired professional athletes in clinical and research settings. Dr Fraser’s research interests include emergency care in athletic settings and the associations between sport-related repeated subconcussive and concussive head impacts, neuropsychology, and head impact biomechanics.
Ms. Megan Brooke Haynes - Health and Human Performance
Dr. Rod A. Harter - Health and Human Performance
Dr. Lindsay Kipp - Health and Human Performance
Dr. Ting Liu - Health and Human Performance
Dr. Mary Odum - Health and Human Performance
Dr. Justin Rigby - Health and Human Performance
Dr. David Wiley - Health and Human Performance

Email: http://davidwiley@txstate.edu

Phone: 512-245-2946

Research Interests: Sexual health, teen pregnancy prevention, sex education in school settings.

Bio: Dr. David Wiley, Professor of Health Education at Texas State University is a lifelong health educator who has focused his professional life on addressing health issues of adolescents.
Dr. Wiley has authored or co-authored over 35 peer-reviewed articles and has presented keynote addresses and workshops across the United States and internationally on the role of schools in creating healthy children and healthy communities. He is also the founder of the Texas Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.
The Texas Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance (TAHPERD) recognized Dr. Wiley in 1996 as the Outstanding College Health Educator in Texas for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance, presented the Distinguished Service Award by the American School Health Association (ASHA) in 1999, and in 2002 was awarded the Martha Licata Service Award by the Texas School Health Association (TSHA). In 2005 he received the John P. McGovern Award from the Texas School Health Association.
Dr. Wiley is the Past-President of ASHA and TSHA and is a former He is also a former school board member for the Hays Consolidated I.S.D. in Kyle, Texas.

Dr. Laura Rodriguez Amaya - LBJ Institute for STEM Education and Research

Email: lc16@txstate.edu

Phone: 512-245-7802

Research interests: Food security, geospatial applications in social justice research, place of geography in STEM education, gender equity in education, and Latin America.

Bio: Dr. Laura Rodriguez Amaya serves as research faculty at the LBJ Institute for STEM Education and Research. In addition she is the Co-I and Assistant Site Director of the NASA Future Aerospace-engineers and Mathematicians Academy project. She has worked in several research projects and publications with undergraduate and graduate students. Her research interests include applications of geospatial technologies in issues of social justice, women in science with a focus on access and equity, and Latin America. She earned her Ph.D. in Environmental Geography in 2014 from Texas State University.