Faculty

Dr. Renee Moran (vita)

Dr. Renee Moran is an Associate Professor of Reading Education. She teaches undergraduate courses in literacy for pre-service teachers as well as graduate students pursuing master's degrees in Elementary Education and Reading Education. She received her PhD in Teacher Education with a concentration in Literacy from the University of Tennessee. Prior, she taught for a decade in the public schools of California and North Carolina in grades Kindergarten, first, and fifth. Her research interests include the integration of science, literacy, and computation, the impact of policy on teacher decision making, and the internationalization of pre-service teacher courses. Dr. Moran currently serves on the Policy and Legislative Committee for the Literacy Research Association and as an editor of The Literacy Association Journal of Tennessee. To date. she has published 11 book chapters and 23 refereed journal articles at the state and national level in journals such as Language Arts, Educational Studies, and the Journal of Early Childhood Literacy. Additionally, Dr. Moran co-edited the book Innovative Strategies for Science Literacy Integration in Classroom Environments. She has presented 73 times at the local, state, regional, national, and international level at organizations such as the International Literacy Association, the Literacy Research Association, and the National Council of Teachers of English. She also has been co-principal investigator on both local, state, and federal grants primarily focusing on the integration of science, literacy, and computational thinking.

Dr. Stacey Fisher (vita)

Dr. Stacey J. Fisher lives in Sevierville, TN and is an associate professor at East Tennessee State University on the Sevierville branch campus, ETSU Online, and is on the Graduate Faculty. Dr. Fisher teaches on-ground and online Literacy courses, is cohort student advisor, and Co-Coordinator for ETSU at Sevierville for the K-5 Elementary Education program. She completed her Ph.D. of Exceptional Learning in Literacy at Tennessee Technological University and spent nine years in public schools. Her research interests focus on family literacy and financial literacy for rural, first generation college students and non-traditional students. She serves as the Chair/President of the Literacy Association of Tennessee and is a grant and scholarship proposal Reviewer for Kappa Delta Pi and a Session proposal Reviewer for several conferences, such as Kappa Delta Pi and International Literacy Association. She also works with the Tennessee Literacy Journal.

Dr. Shuling Yang

Dr. Shuling Yang received her doctoral degree in the Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her coursework, research, and teaching have focused on the language and literacy development for young children. She teaches in the areas of early literacy and elementary reading. She conducted research on book reading and digital book reading with multilingual families. Currently she is working with preservice teachers on their interactive reading aloud with students.

Dr. Natalia Ward

Dr. Natalia Ward is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the East Tennessee State University. Her focus is on preparing teachers to work with multilingual students and to effectively teach literacy. Previously, she taught English as a Second Language and English as a Foreign Language in the United States and Russia. Her research interests include equitable literacy education and assessment for multilingual learners, online synchronous and asynchronous teaching and learning, and education policy enactment in local contexts.

Dr. Jody LaShay Wood (vita)

Dr. Jody LeShay Wood currently serves at East Tennessee State University as an Assistant Professor. She works with pre-service, K-5 teachers in literacy courses and coordinates the middle grades program. Her research interests include rural education, science and literacy integration, and literacy studies.