Educational Leadership and Policy Studies

Bio: Dr. Leverette is co-coordinating and teaching as part of UTA’s Principal Certification Online and M.Ed. Accelerated Online programs. In her 24 years as a K-12 educator, she has served as a teacher in elementary and secondary levels, designed science curriculum, pioneered robotics and STEM programming, designed and coordinated district Academic UIL programming, designed online Gifted and Talented programming and supported underserved student populations. She was recently recognized as Arlington ISD’s Teacher of the Year for her commitment to serving students, educators, and stakeholders. Outside of education, she leads and serves non-profit organizations benefitting DFW communities.

Bio: Dr. Catherine Robert is an Assistant Professor in the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Department and Co-Director of the Center for Educational Research, Policy, and Practice. She received her B.A. and M.B.A. from the University of Houston, her M.Ed. from Schreiner University, and her Ed.D. from The University of Texas at San Antonio. She specializes in human resource topics including employee misconduct, employee turnover, and policy implementation. Prior to completing doctoral work, Dr. Robert served as a teacher, analyst, and administrator at campus, district, and regional levels, most recently as executive director of human resources in a school district. 

Bio: Dr. Ericka Roland is an assistant professor in the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Department at The University of Texas at Arlington. Her research examines the process of social justice/criticality development in postsecondary education institutions. Dr. Roland has three interconnected lines of inquiry: (1) Program development and practices, (2) Leadership development, and (3) Personal and collective development around equity and social justice. She centers the pursuit of equity in all of her projects with a commitment to research and practice that cultivates transformative possibilities. Dr. Roland uses critical & Black feminist theoretical and qualitative methodologies approaches in her research inquiries. Prior to entering academia, she worked as a student affairs professional in residential life and Greek life.

Bio: Dr. Maria Trache is a professor in the College of Education, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies since August 2011, following 14 years as Statistical Consultant and Research Manager at the University of British Columbia and over 15 years as a faculty at the University of Bucharest. She brings over 30 years of combined teaching and research experience from both science and social sciences to UTA. As an educational researcher, Dr. Trache focuses on equity issues in higher education and the labor market by examining the effects of structural differences at the intersection of gender, race, social class, immigrant status, disability. Her research is informed by theoretical frameworks from sociology, economics of education, and life course research. She has expertise in advanced quantitative methods, survey methods and analysis of large-scale survey data. Dr. Trache is author/co-author of about 45 publications in peer-reviewed journals, edited books, working paper series. She currently serves as a member on the Sociology/Demography Insight Grants Selection Committee for the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).

Bio: Dr. Yi Leaf Zhang is an Associate Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Texas at Arlington. Zhang has developed a strong interest in studying college access and success, especially in the community college context. Her research focuses on community colleges as a gateway to STEM education, transfer students’ educational pathways, and international education in four-year and two-year institutions. Zhang is currently an editorial board member of the Community College Journal of Research and Practice (CCJRP) and an associate editor of the Journal of International Students (JIS).