Higher Education
Faculty
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Cecil Abrahams, Ph.D.
Visiting University Professor
315-443-0279
ceabraha@syr.edu
Ph.D. University of Alberta, 1977
Cecil Abrahams is a visiting professor who teaches in the School of Education's Cultural Foundations program and in the English department in The College of Arts and Sciences. A native of South Africa, Abrahams served as Rector and Vice Chancellor of the University of the Western Cape, South Africa from 1995-2000. He also was Provost and Vice President, Academic at Acadia University in Canada. Abrahams was a vocal opponent of the apartheid system and spent a long period in exile in Canada, where he was active in marshaling international opposition to the South African Apartheid system. Abrahams holds an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree from the State University of New York, Albany and Doctor Honoris Causa degree from the Université de la Réunion, Réunion, France.
Curriculum vitae
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Kalena Cortes, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
315-443-5270
kcortes@syr.edu
Ph.D. U.C. Berkeley
Kalena E. Cortes received her Ph.D. from the Economics Department at U.C. Berkeley. Her research interests lie in the intersection of the economics of education, labor economics, and economic demography, with an emphasis on the economic wellbeing of immigrants in the U.S. She is also examining returns to education, and school peer effects. She has been awarded several research fellowships: (1) a one-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Population Studies Center at the University of Pennsylvania, granted under theNational Institute on Aging (NIA); (2) received funding from the Foundation for Child Development Program for her project “Immigrants, Parenting, and Infant/Toddler Wellbeing” (Co-Investigator); and (3) most recently received the Ruth L. Kirschstein National Service Award Individual Fellowship, granted under the National Institutes of Health(NIH), for her project “Immigrant Health and Socioeconomic Status in the U.S.” For the past three years Dr. Cortes has been a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Office of Population Research at Princeton University. Her current research and publications include: “Are Refugees Different from Economic Immigrants?: Some Empirical Evidence on the Heterogeneity of Immigrant Groups in the United States,” published in the Review of Economics and Statistics; “The Effects of Age at Arrival and Enclave Schools on the Academic Performance of Immigrant Children,” published in the Economics of Education Review; “College Selectivity and the Texas Top 10 Percent Law: How Constrained Are the Options?,” (with Marta Tienda & Sunny Niu) published in the Economics of Education Review; “Substance Use During Pregnancy: an Examination of Risk and Protective Factors by Race-Ethnicity and Immigrant Status,” (with Krista M. Perreira) published in the American Journal of Public Health;“College Attendance and the Texas Top 10 Percent Law: Permanent Contagion or Transitory Promise?” (with Marta Tienda & Sunny Niu), Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs Policy Brief, November 2003; “College Quality and the Texas Top 10 Percent Plan: Implications for Minority Students,” Princeton University, mimeo.
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Timothy Eatman Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
315-443-4763
tkeatman@syr.edu
Timothy K. Eatman, Assistant Professor of Higher Education and Director for Research - Imagining America (IA) holds the Ph. D. in Higher Education Policy from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He joined the Syracuse University community in the fall of 2007 after a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Michigan in the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education.
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Catherine Engstrom, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Department Chair
315-443-4763
cmengstr@syr.edu
Ph.D. University of Maryland, 1991
Cathy McHugh Engstrom currently is an associate professor in Higher Education at
Recently, she and her colleague Vincent Tinto have co-directed a multiyear study, funded by the Lumina Foundation for Education and Hewlett Foundation, to study the impact of learning communities and collaborative learning strategies on unprepared students in urban community and state colleges. This study seeks to provide evidence to a national audience about innovative programs that “work” and reshape current policy debates about curricular and other programs important in promoting the success of under-prepared students in higher education. Interwoven in her research work are issues of representation, diversity, power and authority, collaboration, and learning including her work on student-academic affairs partnerships, innovative pedagogies to promote student learning, particularly for the emerging and changing student populations (e.g. service- learning, learning communities), and experiences of women student affairs administrators.
Cathy has also taken her commitments to professional association work seriously. Over the past 5 year, she was Chair of the Commission of Professional Preparation (ACPA), member of the editorial board for the Journal of College Student Development, and Chair, Research Division for NASPA. In the upcoming year, she is a member of the 2007 Joint ACPA-NASPA Meeting Program Committee and Director of ACPA’s Core Council on Generation and Dissemination of Knowledge.
Curriculum vitae
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Dawn Johnson, Ph.D.
Instructor
315-443-3130
drjohn02@syr.edu
Ph.D. University of Maryland
Dawn Johnson’s research interests include the experiences of women of color in math, science and engineering programs, and the impact of social justice education courses on attitudes toward diversity. Her work experience includes multicultural affairs, admissions and recruitment, and academic advising. She has a B.A. degree in anthropology from Bowdoin College, a M.Ed. degree in student personnel administration from Springfield College, and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Maryland. She will join the School of Education faculty in January.
Curriculum vitae
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Vincent Tinto, Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor of Education
315-443-4763
vtinto@syr.edu
Ph.D. University of Chicago, 1971
Vincent Tinto, Distinguished Professor of Education, studies social inequality in higher education and the character and causes of student attrition in colleges and universities. He has some 50 publications, including books, research reports, and journal articles, to his credit and has lectured across the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Australia. From 1990 to 1996 he was associate director of the National Center for Teaching, Learning, and Assessment.
Curriculum vitae
Emeriti
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Joan Burstyn, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
315-443-7612
jburstyn@syr.edu
Ph.D. University of London, 1968
Professor Burstyn's scholarly interests range from gender, race, and class in the history of education to the influence of new information technologies, and to conflict resolution in educational settings. A noted educational historian and a past president of the History of Education Society, she is president of the American Educational Studies Association. She is also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (Teaching Division). Burstyn has held administrative positions at Carnegie Mellon University, Rutgers University, and Syracuse University where she is the former dean of the School of Education.
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John Centra
Professor Emeritus
315-443-7612
jacentra@syr.edu
Dr. Centra received his Ph.D. in Counseling and Psychology from