Lehigh’s College of Education Welcomes New Faculty Cohort for the 2022–2023 Year

The new hires will bring a fresh new perspective to the counseling psychology, school psychology, and teaching, learning and technology programs.

Bethlehem, Penn. (Aug. 30, 2022)—The College of Education (COE) at Lehigh University has announced that seven new faculty members are joining the COE this year in the areas of counseling psychology, school psychology, and the teaching, learning and technology program. In addition, former Lehigh president John D. Simon will return to teach a series of innovative courses on higher education.

"I am very excited to welcome these newest faculty to Lehigh’s COE,” said William Gaudelli, dean of the College of Education. “As a community of scholars, these intelligent, engaging and diverse faculty will bring new lines of research to expand our commitment to serving communities, near and far. They will support and grow our ongoing efforts to produce relevant research, educate new professionals, and serve our community as we strive towards a better society grounded in equitable opportunity,” Dean Gaudelli added. 

"If there’s one thing these new faculty members have in common, it is a dedication to inclusiveness in all its many forms,” said Christopher Liang, chair of the Department of Education and Human Services. “Whether their research involves instructional technology and design, culturally competent student care, trauma-based counseling or community-based support structures, I know they will bring tremendous value to COE and the greater community,” Professor Liang added.

In addition to the new faculty below, the College of Education is also proud to welcome back John D. Simon, the 14th president of Lehigh University who stepped down in June 2021 and returns to the COE after a year’s sabbatical. This year, he will focus on teaching three courses in the Educational Leadership program focusing on the current challenges facing higher education; the courses are open both to current students as well as the general public. (You can read more about the new courses here.)

About the New COE Faculty

Cheré D. Hunter, teaching assistant professor and director of the Community Voices Clinic in South Bethlehem, is a counseling psychologist who specializes in serving individuals exhibiting high-risk behaviors; supporting children and adolescents in the foster system; providing crisis and risk management; and working with racial and ethnic minorities. Assistant Professor Hunter has worked in a variety of settings including hospitals (both inpatient and outpatient), community-based agencies, schools, and provided in-home, mental-health crisis care. She has a special interest in supervision and training and has extensive experience supervising both graduate and doctoral students. Professor Hunter’s clinical and scholarly interests include the impact of trauma on children and adolescents, culturally competent care and supervision, and the impact of colorism on individuals and families.

She is joined by Terrina Price Brooks, teaching assistant professor of counseling psychology. A licensed psychologist with extensive experience providing individual and group therapy, crisis intervention services, clinical supervision and diversity training, Assistant Professor Brooks trained as a generalist in counseling psychology with a focus on multiculturalism and intersectionality. She has experience teaching graduate psychology courses and experience as a practicum/internship coordinator. Her clinical and scholarly interests include cultural humility in psychotherapy, young-adult mental health, clinical supervision and training, and the intersection of spirituality and psychology. After graduating summa cum laude from Howard University with a B.S. in psychology, she earned both her M.Ed. in counseling and human services and Ph.D. in counseling psychology from Lehigh University. Prior to coming to Lehigh, she was an assistant professor of clinical and counseling psychology in Chestnut Hill College’s master’s program and a staff psychologist at Drexel University.

Vanesa Mora Ringle, assistant professor of counseling psychology, is a bilingual, interdisciplinary mental-health services researcher and clinical psychologist. The primary aim of her research program is to contribute to the mitigation of health disparities by increasing access to high-quality, evidence-based, culturally responsive behavioral health care. She investigates strategies—especially community-based ones—to improve behavioral health services training, better understand client consumer factors, and shape behavioral health care policy. Assistant Professor Ringle earned her Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Miami, and recently completed a predoctoral internship at Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. Prior to that, she graduated summa cum laude from Temple University with a B.A. in psychology and later earned a master’s in psychology from the University of Miami.

Lia Sandilos has also joined COE as assistant professor of school psychology. Her research focuses on identifying ways to make schools and classrooms more welcoming and supportive environments for students and teachers. More specifically, her scholarship examines (a) the importance of quality teacher-child interactions and relationships for the educational outcomes of diverse learners and (b) methods for better understanding and supporting teachers’ own professional well-being. She earned a B.A. in psychology from Pennsylvania State University, as well as an M.Ed. and Ph.D. in school psychology, also from Penn State. She also holds certification as a nationally certified school psychologist (NCSP). Prior to joining us at COE, she was an assistant professor of school psychology at Temple University’s College of Education and Human Development; in addition, she conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education and at Temple’s Department of Communication Sciences Disorders. 

We are also delighted to welcome three new assistant professors to the teaching, learning and technology (TLT) program, which prepares professional educators, technologists and instructional designers through a research-based, collaborative and equitable approach.

Shan Li is a jointly appointed faculty member for Lehigh’s College of Health and the College of Education and Human Service. Assistant Professor Li is a learning scientist and educational technologist researching learning and teaching in both formal and informal settings related to the health professions. His overarching research goal is to understand and enhance health professions education by designing intelligent learning and training applications, and examining processes related to students’ learning, behavior and other attributes. He also employs state-of-art computational techniques—such as eye tracking, facial expressions and human-computer interactions—to reveal performance differences among learners. He received his Ph.D. in educational psychology from McGill University and a B.S. in educational technology from Beijing Normal University.

Zilong Pan, assistant professor of teaching, learning and technology, has spent his academic career researching emerging educational technologies and innovative methodological approaches in educational practices and studies in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics) disciplines. The innovative methodological approaches include learning analytics incorporating pedagogical approaches, data-informed decision making, and problem-based and game-based learning. As an educator and researcher, his goal is to enhance the adaptive features of the learning environment so that different learners’ needs and preferences can be successfully met; in doing so, he employs a wide array of emerging technology such as augmented reality, virtual reality, and adaptive learning systems. Assistant Professor Pan earned a B.A. in Chinese language and literacy from Hunan First Normal University in China and an M.A. in middle school education (with a focus in science and social studies) from the University of Georgia. He later obtained an M.Ed. in quantitative research methods in the University of Texas–Austin and a Ph.D. in learning technologies, also at UT.

Juan Zheng, assistant professor of teaching, learning and technology, has a background in both educational technology and educational psychology. She conducts interdisciplinary research with the long-term vision of designing technology-rich learning environments for diverse learners regardless of their ethnics, location and learning style. Her research touches upon the themes of technology-rich learning environments design, self-regulated learning, academic emotions, learning analytics and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education. Her research subjects range from K–12 and undergraduate students to professional teachers. She uses think-aloud, self-report, computer trace data, facial expressions and physiological sensors to measure students’ cognitive, metacognitive and emotional processes. She has expertise in advanced statistics, data mining, qualitative analysis, mixed method, and multi-modal approaches. Assistant Professor Zheng earned her B.S. in educational technology from Hubei University and her M.S. in educational technology from Beijing Normal University, and recently completed a Ph.D. in learning sciences at McGill University in Montreal.

For More Information

For more information about the faculty members listed above, or if you have other questions about the Graduate College of Education at Lehigh University, please contact Emily VanNostrand, associate director of marketing and communications, at emv421@lehigh.edu or 610.758.3564.

About Lehigh University

Lehigh University is a top-50 research institution with an entrepreneurial mindset and academic engagement. Lehigh prioritizes international engagement in research, instruction and service. Every year Lehigh sends students on educational exchanges abroad and welcomes hundreds of international students to campus. We prioritize international projects and are eager to deepen our relationships around the globe.

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