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Cary Roseth is a nationally recognized scholar in educational psychology with 10 years of progressive administrative experience at Michigan State University (MSU). Most recently, he served as chairperson of the Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education Department, one of the largest departments in MSU’s College of Education with 40 tenure-stream faculty, 65 fixed-term faculty and academic staff, 10 support staff, and five program areas supporting 16 different degrees, 100 doctoral students, 400 master’s students and 100 undergraduate students in special education teacher education.

His research interests involve the social psychology of education, focusing specifically on how the presence of others—especially peers—affects academic achievement, motivation, and social behaviors. He has authored more than 60 research articles and book chapters and has been funded by multiple grants from the National Institute of Health (NIH). He was associate editor of his field’s flagship, the Journal of Educational Psychology, and has served in multiple national leadership roles in the American Education Research Association (Chair, Secretary), and the American Psychological Association (e.g., Program Co-Chair).

He has also received numerous awards for his research and teaching, including the Outstanding Contributions to Theory and Research award from AERA’s Special Interest Group for Cooperative Learning, and the Teacher-Scholar Award from Michigan State University. Before earning his PhD from the University of Minnesota in 2006, he also worked for nine years as a high school Spanish teacher, administrator, and coach at an independent boarding school.

Jennifer Esposito Norris is department chair of Educational Policy Studies and a distinguished university professor of Research, Measurement, and Statistics at Georgia State University. She has facilitated initiatives dedicated to student, staff, and faculty success and development. Her research takes an intersectional approach to qualitative research, centering race and gender. Underlying her scholarly work and leadership is the belief that we can use critical theories as tools to interrogate social life and solve problems related to the material consequences of oppression and privilege.

She is the author of two award winning books and over 60 articles and book chapters. Most recently, her book Introduction to Intersectional Qualitative Research (co-authored with Dr. Venus Evans-Winters) was published by Sage in 2021 and won the 2022 Most Promising New Textbook Award from the Textbook & Academic Authors Association. Her research has been published in journals like Qualitative Inquiry, International Journal of Qualitative Research in Education, International Review of Qualitative Research, Urban Education, and Urban Review.

At her current institution, Esposito Norris was the 2019 recipient of the George M. Sparks award which recognizes Georgia State’s unsung heroes—faculty, staff, and students, who, like Dr. Sparks, are willing to go the extra mile with good humor and perseverance. She also was one of the inaugural recipients of GSU’s Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion award in 2021. She is the 2024 recipient of the American Educational Research Association’s Distinguished Contributions to Gender Equity in Education Research award.

Esposito Norris earned her PhD in cultural foundations of education with a concentration in qualitative methods from Syracuse University. There, she also earned an advanced certificate in women’s and gender studies. She has a master’s from Elms College and a BA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Amanda Haertling Thein is associate provost for graduate and professional education and dean of the Graduate College at the University of Iowa. She previously served as associate dean for faculty and academic affairs in the College of Education at the University of Iowa and is professor of Literacy, Culture, and Language Education. Before coming to the University of Iowa, she was a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh and a high school English teacher in Littleton, Colorado. She earned her PhD in English education from the University of Minnesota and holds additional degrees from the University of Denver (MA, Curriculum & Instruction), and the ²ÊÃñ±¦µä (BA, English; BS, Journalism).

As associate dean in the University of Iowa’s College of Education, Thein oversaw faculty, graduate programs, academic affairs, and international programs. Prior to her role as associate dean, she held leadership positions as program coordinator for English education at the University of Pittsburgh, and as program coordinator for Language, Literacy, and Culture at the University of Iowa. She has directed 15 dissertations and served on more than 30 additional dissertation committees.

Thein’s research focuses on social justice and equity in high school English language arts instruction and teacher education. She studies social and emotional aspects of high school students’ literary responses; critical approaches to multicultural literature instruction; and the intersection of critical youth studies and young adult literature. She has published nearly 40 journal articles, book chapters, and books. Her scholarship has been supported by grants from the National Council of Teachers of English, the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust, and the Iowa Women’s Foundation. Thein has also served as co-editor of an international journal, English Teaching: Practice & Critique and as president of the Iowa Academy of Education.