The University of Missouri College of Education is pleased to welcome new faculty members in the Fall 2018 semester.

Department of Educational, School & Counseling Psychology

Shannon McClain earned her Ph.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. She was most recently an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Towson University. Her research interests include examining psychological and environmental factors impacting the educational experiences, academic achievement, and mental health of racial-ethnic minority students, with a particular expertise in African American psychology.

Sarah Owens earned her Ph.D. in School Psychology from the University of Missouri. She is the Associate Director of the Boone County Schools Mental Health Coalition partnership with local school districts. Her research interests include supporting teacher implementation of evidence-based practices, effective adoption and translation of interventions to schools, measurement and support for fidelity of implementation, and prevention of mental health concerns.

Department of Learning, Teaching & Curriculum

Robert Petrone earned his Ph.D. in Literacy Education from Michigan State University. He was most recently an Associate Professor and Director of English Education at Montana State University. Unified by a commitment to equity, his work focuses understanding the literacy lives of youth, particularly those from marginalized communities, and his two current projects involve working with Indigenous youth in an alternative school setting and developing a community literacy center with youth in a village in Uganda.

School of Information Science & Learning Technologies

Jason K. Alston earned his Ph.D. in library science from the University of South Carolina and most recently worked as an information literacy librarian at Coastal Carolina University near Myrtle Beach. His research interests include diversity in libraries, library fellowship programs, cultural heritage and the role of emotion in information verification.

Danielle Oprean earned her Ph.D. in human-environmental sciences from the University of Missouri. She was a joint-appointment post-doctoral research scholar for the Stuckeman Center of Design Computing in Architecture and Chorophronesis in Geography at Penn State University. Her areas of expertise include virtual reality and game development, evaluation of user experience with immersive technology, and investigating spatial learning through technology mediation.

Department of Special Education

Casey Clay earned his Ph.D. from Utah State University. He was most recently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Psychology at Mizzou. He will also be the Director of Applied Behavior Intervention Services at the Thompson Center for Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders. His research interests include reduction of severe problem behavior, functional analysis, choice arrangements for assessing preference, and parent and caregiver virtual reality training.

Lisa Goran earned her Ph.D. in Special Education from the University of Missouri and was most recently the Education Department Chair at Truman State University. Her professional work focuses on teacher preparation and her research focuses on teacher preparation and the language-literacy connections for students with disabilities.