Research

Projects

Advancing and Expanding Ethnic Studies in the California State University (CSU), Project Manager (1.5 million for CSU team effort generously supported by the Mellon Foundation).

Advisory Committe, Native North American Hall. The Field Museum, Chicago, Il. 2018-2022 and 2022- present.

The Demography of African Slavery in Native America.  2020 - present.

Unsettling Anthropological Museum Exhibits: International and National Prospects for Paradigm Shifts in Native American Community Collaboration. 2018-present.

Studying African-Native American Contact in U.S. History: Challenges and Best Practices. 2006-present.

IndiVisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas : Current Smithsonian Traveling Banner Exhibit. 2009- 2016.

IndiVisible Exhibit Curatorial Advisory Team. National Museum of the American Indian. Smithsonian. Washington, DC. 2007-2016.

Understandings of Afro-Native Selves and Self-Determination (e.g., Garifuna and Muskogee Creek Association). Fieldwork in Southern California, 2008. Funded by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian and National Museum of African American History and Culture and conducted for the creation of the Smithsonian’s traveling banner exhibit “Indivisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas”, this was a comparative study of how race, racism, and racial admixture affects individual and collective understandings of self in people of blended cultural and/or racial African and Native American ancestry.

Intracultural Variation and Choctaw Understandings of Self. Dissertation fieldwork in Southeastern Oklahoma and Northeastern Texas, 2000-2002. Comparative study of how race and racial admixture affect individual and collective Choctaw understandings of self.

Resisting Racial Identities: Black Choctaw Lived Experiences. Pre-Dissertation Research in Southeastern Oklahoma and Northeastern Texas, 1998-2000. Investigated the lived experiences of Choctaws of African American admixture through person-centered life history interviews.

Understanding Intra-racial and Intra-cultural Variation: Urban Black Choctaws. M.A. research in the San Francisco Bay Area, CA 1995-1997. Examined the lived experiences of Choctaws of African American admixture and how they cope with inconsistencies between what they represent to themselves and others.

Captions Study (2006-present)

Relevant Links and Resources

Accommodating Difference and Disabilities. An Introductory Packet by the UCLA Center for Mental Health in Schools.

Addressing Barriers to Learning: Closing the Gap in Policy and Practice. A Summit Report by the UCLA Center for Mental Health in Schools.

Building The Legacy of IDEAD 2004. (Video Clips)

Individuals With Disabilities Improvement Act of 2004.

Least Intervention Needed: Towards Appropriate Inclusion of Students with Special Needs: An Introductory Packet by the UCLA Center for Mental Health in Schools.

National Institute for Literacy. “Learning Disabilities Fact”.

National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research.

Revisiting Learning Problems and Learning Disabilities. A Center Newsletter by the UCLA Center for Mental Health in Schools.

Surfing For Closed Captions Materials

Tool Kit on Teaching and Assessing Student With Disabilities

Using Federal Education Legislation in Moving Towards a Comprehensive, Multifaceted, and Integrated Approach to Addressing Barriers to Learning. An information resource by the UCLA Center for Mental Health in Schools.

A Sample of Relevant Publications

Howard Adelamn and Linda Taylor, The Implementation Guide to Student Supports in the Classroom and Schoolwide: New Directions for Addressing Barriers to Learning (Corwin Press, 2005). 

William Neil Bender, Differentiating Instruction for Student With Learning Disabilities: Best Teaching Practices for General and Special Educators (Corwin Press, 2008).

Frank G. Bowe, Universal Design in Education: Teaching Non-Traditional Students (Bergen and Garvey, 2000).

Council for Exceptional Children, Universal Design in Learning (Prentice Hall, 2005).

Stacey Pellechia Dean, Lesson Plan Book for the Diverse Classroom: Planning for Accessibility Through Universal Design For Learning (Dude Publishing/ National Professional Resources, 2007).

David H. Rose and Anne Meyer, Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (Association for Supervison & Curriculum Development, 2002). 

Grants

… And Captions for All: A Case Study of the Enabling Components of Subtitles. This  (Accessible Instructional Media) AIM – currently housed on the MERLOT website (see http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=547234) and funded by EnAct Sonoma, Merlot, and the Department of Education - demonstrates how closed captions are beneficial to all students, not just those who are hearing impaired. In addition to depicting the effective use of captions in the classroom, research was conducted on the impact of using captions with my students over the last two years. IRB Approved (Total Budget $3000.00).

… And Captions for All: The Relevance of Universal Design in Learning in All Higher Education Classrooms. This on-going study – fund by an EnAct Faculty Learning Community Grant - examines the use of captions as an effective tool for reducing barriers to learning in college classroom among officially and un-officially diagnosed student populations. 2006-present. IRB Approved (Total Budget $3000.00).