This fall, UConn’s Neag School of Education welcomes three new faculty members, with a fourth joining in January at the start of the spring semester. Sakeena Everett has joined the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, while Latoya Haynes-Thoby has been hired by the Department of Educational Psychology. Alyssa Hadley Dunn and Sandra Quiñones are the newest members of the Department of Teacher Education and both are taking on director roles within the department.
Please join the Neag School in welcoming its new faculty to UConn Nation:
Sakeena Everett, Assistant Professor of Curriculum and Instruction
Sakeena Everett was appointed assistant professor of curriculum and instruction in the Neag School. She is a native New Yorker (Brooklyn), avid literacy advocate, and expert in urban education, teacher education, and literacy education. Her work centers on the intersectionalities of race, gender, socioeconomic class, and justice as a praxis in education. Furthermore, Everett has taught elementary and secondary students, prepared prospective teachers, and provided professional development for in-service educators across multiple school districts in the U.S.
Her research and teaching focus on the literacy development of Black male students in elementary and secondary schools, literacy teacher preparation, culturally sustaining pedagogies, and transformative, humanizing, and decolonizing research methods in education. Recently, her research agenda has expanded to investigate and support grief among educators, with a special emphasis on supporting grieving Black women K-12 educators and university faculty. Her research is nationally recognized by the American Educational Research Association (AERA), the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), and the Spencer Foundation.
Latoya Haynes-Thoby, Assistant Professor of Counseling
Latoya Haynes-Thoby has been appointed an assistant professor of counseling. She came to the Neag School from the University of Florida’s College of Education, where she served as an assistant professor. Haynes-Thoby’s work explores the benefits of trauma prevention and trauma-responsive counseling that is culturally relevant and promotes resilience. As such, her research focuses on individual and community healing from trauma.
Haynes-Thoby’s current research foci are in trauma and resilience and counselor development. Her research on trauma and resilience focuses on factors that contribute to resilience, access to care, and trauma’s impact on human development, including spiritual development. Haynes-Thoby’s research on counselor development includes trauma-informed care in counselor training, cultural competence, and trauma-informed supervision.
Her research agenda is brought forth through applied research methods, including exploring culturally specific factors that contribute to resilience and the operationalization of trauma-informed counseling that promotes success. Haynes-Thoby approaches her work with a trauma-informed lens and through perspectives rooted in Black-feminist and intersectional frameworks. Her research aims are to broaden what we understand about human resilience, especially related to marginalized communities. Other related research interests include community resilience, career development, access, and accessibility, especially in counselor training, supervision, and preparation.
Sandra Quiñones, Director of University-School Partnerships and Associate Clinical Professor
Joining the Neag School as the director of university-school partnerships and associate clinical professor, Sandra Quiñones most recently served as an associate professor and program director at Duquesne University. As a faculty member of the Department of Instruction and Leadership in Education (DILE), Quiñones taught undergraduate and graduate teacher education courses in the Leading Teacher program. She has eight years of teaching experience in public and private schools in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Rochester, New York.
Her research focuses on teachers’ experiences and perspectives around ser bien educada/o and being well educated from Chicana/Latina feminist and critical biculturalism theoretical frameworks. In addition, her scholarly interests include critical literacy development, qualitative research methodology, Latino education, and family-community engagement in education. Most recently, Quiñones has engaged with the Self-Study of Teaching Practices (S-STEP) methodology to better understand and improve her practice as a teacher educator and program director.
In her new role, she will be cultivating mutually beneficial partnerships with Connecticut schools as part of UConn’s Integrated Bachelor’s/Master’s (IB/M) Teacher Preparation Program.
Alyssa Hadley Dunn, Director of Teacher Education and Associate Professor
To fill the director of teacher education position, the Neag School will welcome Alyssa Hadley Dunn starting in January from Michigan State’s College of Education.
Dunn’s research centers on urban teacher education and support and the sociocultural and political contexts of urban schools, with a focus on issues of race, justice, and equity. She approaches her work with the understanding that education can represent spaces for creating a more liberatory world and that quality research critically examines the way that schools operate in just or unjust ways. Previous strands of research include teachers’ pedagogy in the wake of the 2016 presidential election; teacher morale and pedagogy; the connection between teachers’ experiences and neoliberal reforms; racial equity and teacher preparation; and teachers’ public resignation letters.
A committed public scholar, Dunn’s work has been featured on The Huffington Post, CNN, and National Public Radio, as well on education blogs and podcasts. In addition to publishing in journals such as the American Educational Research Journal, Teachers College Record, Journal of Teacher Education, Urban Education, and Teaching and Teacher Education, Dunn recently published “Teaching on Days After: Educating for Equity in the Wake of Injustice” (Teachers College Press, 2021). She is the author of “Teachers Without Borders? The Hidden Consequences of International Teachers in U.S. Schools” (Teachers College Press, 2013); “Urban Teaching in America: Theory, Research, and Practice in K-12 Schools” (Sage Publishers, 2011); and is also senior associate editor of the journal Multicultural Perspectives.
To learn more about the Neag School of Education, visit education.uconn.edu. Follow the Neag School on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
