Professional Development Academies in Education

Professional Development Programs in Information Studies

UCLA’s School of Education & Information Studies is home to two departments. Each is a leader in their field, helping to pioneer what's next in the Education and Information worlds.

UCLA Ed&IS faculty are at the forefront of their fields, addressing issues of equality, access and social justice in the fields of education and information. Their scholarship has an international reputation for excellence and commitment to addressing the most critical issues facing our society.

An ecosystem of K-12 teaching schools where UCLA partners to develop, study, share, and advance innovative best practices.

The work at UCLA Ed&IS is guided by the principles of individual responsibility and social justice, an ethic of caring, and commitment to the communities we serve. Learn more about our mission and values, our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in our faculty and students, our history and more.

Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion are defining features of UCLA Ed&IS and we embrace them as a source of strength.

Department of Education 2023 Information Sessions

Department of Information Studies Programs

Department of Information Studies 2023 Information Sessions

Learn more about the undergraduate and graduate academic programs we offer, when program information sessions are being offered and how to apply.

Student directory

Urban Schooling

Ph.D. Student Directory Submission Request

Abbie Cohen is a Ph.D. student in the Urban Schooling division at UCLA’s School of Education & Information Studies. Abbie’s research interests explore the complex and interwoven relationships between philanthropy, education nonprofits, and urban schools. She aims to interrogate the role of race, power, and access in the ever-changing relationship between these three disparate, but overlapping, institutions.

Teaching and Research Interests
Public education, Education non-profits, Philanthropy, Race, Power, Access

Ed.M Education Policy & Management, Harvard Graduate School of Education 

Graduate Summer Research Mentorship, UCLA Graduate Division

Olga and Gordon Smith Award, UCLA, Urban Schooling Department 

Daniel A. Buckley Scholarship, Harvard University   

Frederick Melvin Ellis Award, Tufts University  

Fulbright Scholar, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana

Cohen, A. (2018). Jailing our Minds. In D. Watson, J. Hagopian, & W. Au (Eds.) Teaching for Black Lives, (pp. 230-236). 
Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Rethinking Schools. ISBN: 9780942961041

Research Center
UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools 
UCLA Pritzker Center

Abbie Cohen

Brande Otis is a 5th year Ph.D student in Urban Schooling. She currently holds her MA and Ed.S in School Psychology and Educational Psychology.  Currently, she examines the role of place and family in the lives that Black youth imagine for themselves. She asks questions about the dreams of Black youth, and the role of schools (both historically and currently) in shaping, deferring, and/or affirming those dreams. Her dissertation is a qualitative study that utilizes narrative inquiry in order to humanize and uplift the narratives of Black youth in Los Angeles. She intends for her work to be used to design more expansive schooling, and to inform community-based education curricula and programs. She is also working with a 10th grade English teacher in a classroom in Los Angeles, where she supports students in thinking about and mapping Black futurity.

Teaching - Writing Pedagogies, Black Literacies

Research - Black freedom dreaming, qualitative methodologies, Black literacies

M.A. School Psychology, Chapman University

Ed.S. Educational Psychology, Chapman University

Brande M Otis (She/Hers)

Expected Graduation Year
2023 | Ph.D. in Urban Schooling

Brianna Harvey is a PhD student at UCLA in the school of Education and Information Studies, Urban Schooling Division. She has a Master of Social Work from USC and has worked to support historically marginalized communities for over 10 years. Brianna is a Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellow whose research interrogates the relationship between schools and child “welfare”, specifically exploring the impact on the educational experiences of Black foster youth in K-12.

Stanford University, The Walkout Lab for Youth Justice

B.S. in Sociology, University of La Verne

Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship 2020

https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/cjrl/article/view/8745

Brianna Harvey (she/hers)

Twitter | robertschristine2003@gmail.com | (559) 737-1768

Christine Roberts is a doctoral student in the School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, and serves as a research assistant for DREME’s Preschool Through Elementary School Coherence project. Christine’s research interests focus on designing supports for mathematics learning and teaching through educator collaboration and a systems approach. Prior to entering graduate school, Christine served as a classroom teacher, instructional coach, and mathematics staff development and curriculum specialist, supporting districts and school sites by working with teacher teams to examine classroom practices and tasks to support the development of children’s mathematical thinking.

Program Manager, California Education Partners

Mathematics Staff Development & Curriculum Specialist, Tulare County Office of Education

Mathematics Teacher, Dinuba Unified School District

Elementary School Teacher, Tulare City School District

California Mathematics Council President (2020-2021)

California Mathematics Council Central Section Secretary (2015-2017)

MA in Education, California State University Fresno, 2003-2005

BA in Liberal Studies, San Diego State University, 1998-2001

Christine Dawn Roberts (she/her/hers)

cicelyrbingener@gmail.com | (310) 428-9245

B.A. Elementary Education, Howard University

Cicely R. Bingener (she/her/hers)

LinkedIn | Twitter | mackcandoo3@gmail.com | 

Gene McAdoo is a first-year doctoral student in Urban Schooling division at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. His research interests are positioned at the intersection of Black Studies and Education and are primarily concerned with exploring how Black students work to overcome educational obstacles related to antiblackness to thrive academically. The central goal of his research agenda is to develop an understanding of how antiblackness manifests in schools in order to develop solutions that will improve the holistic educational experiences and lifelong trajectories of Black students.

As a Ronald E. McNair Scholar, he wrote his senior thesis on Black students’ experiences of antiblackness in Los Angeles County public schools in addition to how Black students engaged in educational fugitivity to resist and challenge antiblackness in their schooling experiences. Professionally, he has worked for the UCLA VIP Scholars, serving as a mentor for Black students throughout Los Angeles County and working to provide them with academic and social support in such a way as to enhance their holistic wellbeing and competitive eligibility in the college admissions process.

Titles and Positions
Graduate Student Researcher

Teaching and Research Interests
Antiblackness, black education, school segregation, critical race theory, sociology of education, college access

Education
B.A. in African American Studies, University of California, Los Angeles, 2021

Awards, Honors, and Scholarships
UCLA Ronald E. McNair Scholar ($12,000), 2019-2021

McAdoo, G. (2021). Disdained: An Examination of Anti-blackness and Administrative Inaction at UCLA. https://issuu.com/uclanommo/docs/nommo-gene_research_

Research Center
UCLA Black Male Institute
UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools

Gene McAdoo (he/him/his)

JC Lugo is a Ph.D. student in the Urban Schooling division at UCLA where his work examines the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality in schools by focusing on how male students navigate and disrupt heteronormative schooling contexts and disrupt deficit narratives about male students of color. He is a former high school teacher and basketball coach, and has also worked in student affairs coordinating the Male Success Alliance at CSUDH.

M.A. Education: Curriculum & Instruction, California State University, Dominguez Hills

B.A. English Literature, Hope International University

Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship, 2021

Project MALES Graduate Scholars Program, 2021

CSU Chancellor's Doctoral Incentive Program, 2019

Distinguished Young Alumni Award, Hope International University, 2018

JC Lugo (he/him/his)

LinkedIn | Twitter | ward@gseis.ucla.edu | (310) 738-6875

Teaching and Research Interests
Cognitively Guided Instruction

Janene Ward (she/her/hers)

LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram | julietarico@g.ucla.edu

Julieta Rico is a Ph.D. student in the Urban Schooling Division at UCLA. Rico's background of teaching English language arts to seventh graders in Harlingen, Texas, propelled her research interests of bilingual education, funding, tracking, and English learner student success in the context of the Rio Grande Valley.

Titles and Positions
TEP Field Supervisor

The University of Texas at Austin, M.Ed – Educational Policy & Planning, 2021

The University of Texas at Austin, B.A – English Literature, 2017

Julieta Rico (she/ella)

Julio Angel Alicea is an urban sociologist interested in how racial-spatial politics are articulated, contested, modified, and disseminated in urban communities. Prior to joining UCLA, Julio worked as a public high school social studies teacher and adjunct professor of community development.

Titles and Positions
Teaching Associate and Doctoral Researcher at UCLA

Ph.D. Education (Urban Schooling), University of California, Los Angeles, 2018-Present

M.P.P. Public Policy, University of California, Los Angeles, 2020-Present

M.A.T. Social Studies, Brown University, 2014

B.A. Sociology & Anthropology, Swarthmore College, 2013

Shirley Hune Inter-Racial Studies Award ($3,500), UCLA Institute for American Cultures, 2021

Eugene V. Cota-Robles Fellowship ($100,000), UCLA Graduate Division, 2018-2022

Graduate Dean’s Scholar Award ($14,500), UCLA Graduate Division, 2018-2020

Hannah A. Leedom Fellowship ($5,000), Swarthmore College, 2013

WW-RBF Fellowship for Aspiring Teachers of Color ($30,000), 2012

Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship ($3,500), 2011-2013

Noguera, P.A. & Alicea, J.A. (2021). The Role of Education in Reducing Racial Inequality: Possibilities for Change In Milner, H. R., & Lomotey, K. Handbook of urban education (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Routledge.

Alicea, J.A. (2021). Teaching in the Hood About the Hood: A Case Study of Teachers in South Central Los Angeles, Urban Education 1-31.

Noguera, P.A., & Alicea, JA (2020). Structural racism and the urban geography of education. Phi Delta Kappan. 102(3):51-56

Research Center
Center for the Transformation of Schools

Julio Angel Alicea

LinkedIn | marylouiseleger@gmail.com | (914) 584-7041

Mary-Louise Leger is a doctoral student in UCLA’s Urban Schooling division. Her current research interests center on the transformation of urban school districts, leadership for school improvement, and the intersection of policy and practice improvement.  To this end, she studies and advocates for systems change towards more expansive definitions of school and student success.

Graduate Student Researcher, Center for the Transformation of Schools

Graduate Teaching and Learning Assistant, UCLA IT

Senior Consultant (Data and Assessment), UCLA Career Center

Teaching and Research Interests
School improvement, educational leadership, education policy

Ph.D. in Urban Schooling from the University of California, Los Angeles (Expected 2024)

M.S.Ed in Education Policy from the University of Pennsylvania (2019)							           

M.A.T specializing in Humanities Instruction from the Charles Sposato Graduate School of Education (2017)						    

B.A. in International Development from McGill University (2015)								       

Certificate in Educational Improvement and Innovation from the University of Michigan (2021)

Recipient of The Gordon & Olga Smith Scholarship, University of California, Los Angeles (2019-2023)

Recipient of Summer Research Grant, University of California, Los Angeles (2020)  				  

Recipient of the MRM term Scholarship, University of Pennsylvania (2018)			           	           

Graduated with distinction and first-class honors, McGill University  				                 (2015)

Mary-Louise Leger (she/her/hers)

Expected Graduation Year
2025, Ph.D. in Urban Schooling

Sonya Brooks is a first-year Ph.D. student in Urban Schooling division at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. Her research interests lie at the intersections of Education Policy, and Education that center the empowerment of Black girls by highlighting the health and well-being of Black girls and its impact on their educational trajectories. Her research agenda is to illuminate storytelling from Black mothers and othermothers to their Black daughters that have curated space for them to take agency over their own state of well-being and self-care. Sonya’s ultimate goal with her research is to simultaneously dismantle the challenges Black girls experience in healthcare and academia and empower them to create seats at their own tables when the seats at other tables have been filled.

Professionally, Sonya has worked by teaching and counseling students and creating equitable access for disabled employees for over a decade in the Oakland Bay Area.

B.A., Maj: History & African-American Studies, Min: Education, UCLA

Black Feminism Initiative Fellowship, UCLA Center for the Study of Women

UCLA Fiat Lux Research Fellowship, UCLA Urban Schooling

2021 Commencement Speaker, Brown University

Eric White Community Service Award, UCLA Community Programs Office

Renaissance Award, UCLA Center for the Study of Women

Sonya Brooks (she/her/hers)

LinkedIn | slangeles@g.ucla.edu |  (408) 691-8304

Sophia L. Ángeles is a doctoral candidate in the School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research examines how immigration and language policies and practices shape the educational trajectories of high school immigrant youth.

Teaching and Research Interests
Immigrant youth, English learners, Latinx youth, college-and-career readiness, school counseling

M.S./Ed.S. in Counseling (emphasis on K-12 school counseling)

B.A. in Psychology with minors in Latino Studies and Education

2021 Haynes Lindley Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship

2020 Center for Studies of International Migration Graduate Research Grant

2019 Graduate Summer Mentorship Fellowship

2018 Graduate Summer Mentorship Fellowship

Ángeles, S. L. (Accepted). Undergraduates mediating kids’ college knowledge. InterActions: UCLA Journal of Education and Information Studies. https://escholarship.org/uc/gseis_interactions

Ángeles, S. L. (2021). Exploring high school newcomer youths’ futures: Academic and career aspirations. Journal of Urban Teaching, Learning, and Research. https://doi.org/10.51830/jultr.12

Franco, J., Ángeles, S. L., Minkoff, A., & Orellana, M. F. (2019). Language Manifestos: Preparing Pre-service 	Teachers to Work in Linguistically Diverse Contexts. California Council on Teacher Education CCNews, 30(3), 25-27. https://ccte.org/wp-content/pdfs-newsletters/ccnews-2019-fall.pdf

Advisor
Marjorie Orellana
Cecilia Rios-Aguilar

Sophia Angeles (she/her/hers)

Tomoko M. Nakajima (she/her/hers)

Wei Wei is a first-year doctoral student from the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. She has a great passion for supporting underrepresented students from different social-cultural backgrounds. Wei is interested in designing culturally inclusive learning environments leveraging innovative technologies to support students' STEAM learning in and outside of school.

Teaching and Research Interests
Culturally inclusive design; educational technologies; STEAM education; Maker education

Education
Master of Science in Education from the University of Pennsylvania