Kristie Smith, Vice Chair (2024-2026)

Kennesaw State University, GA

Kristie W. Smith, Ph.D. (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of English language arts education in the Department of Secondary and Middle Grades Education at Kennesaw State University. A former middle level teacher, Kristie is passionate about mentoring and coaching new middle grades teachers to enter the profession with knowledge, responsive practice, and professional agency in a complex sociopolitical climate. Kristie’s research interests include curricular and linguistic justice, racial justice in the educational context, and critical teacher preparation for the middle level classroom. An engaged member of the MLER SIG, Kristie has served the MLER SIG as a council member, as the SIG secretary, and as both a member and chair of the MLER SIG mentorship initiative. Through her pedagogical practice, collegial collaborations, professional service, and academic scholarship, Kristie strives to advance advocacy for equitable educational spaces that grapple critically with real world issues, while honoring the multiple and unique social and cognitive identities of young adolescents. 

Toni M. Williams, Secretary (2024-2026)

University of South Carolina

University of South Carolina Dr. Williams is an associate professor in the Department Teacher Education. Her research and scholarship build on social justice, equity, culturally sustaining pedagogies in middle level teacher education. The goal is to re-center educational spaces for middle school students and the consequent impact it has on students’ learning.  She is committed to engaging and supporting pre-service middle level teacher candidates as they transition to novice middle school educators. Dr. Williams has published in a wide range of journals including Research in Middle Level Education, Western Journal of Black Studies, Journal of Negro Education and Urban Education. She is currently the editor of the Middle Grades Research Journal.

Kristina Nicole Falbe, Treasurer  (2024-2026)

Illinois State University

Dr. Kristina Falbe is an Associate Professor of middle level education at Illinois State University. She works with middle level teacher candidates, and practicing teachers on courses with topics like young adolescent development, middle school philosophy, middle school best practices,  special education in the middle school, and educational technology.  Kristina has a vast research agenda with research pursuits around academic achievement and middle school philosophy, the Schools to Watch program, self-study methodology in middle level teacher education, middle level teacher education and social justice,  and lesson study as an alternative field placement for middle level teacher candidates. She is currently the advisor for the ISU Collegiate Middle Level Association (CMLA)  chapter, and the co-director of the Horizon Schools to Watch program for the state of Illinois. Kristina has received the Illinois State College of Ed. Service Award and the Illinois State Service Initiative Award for her outstanding commitment to service to the university and the field of education. She also has been recognized as RSO advisor of the year for her work with CMLA.   Kristina has enjoyed working with the SIG for a number of years as a Council Member, Editor of The Chronicle newsletter, and as treasurer. Kristina is currently the president elect of NAPOMLE (National Association of Professors of Middle Level Education). 

Gayle Andrews, Executive Advisor (2025-2028)

Gayle Andrews is Professor of Middle Grades Education and former Department Chair in the Department of Educational Theory and Practice at the University of Georgia. Her research focuses on equity-oriented teacher education that advances justice in middle grades education, with the goal of developing educators' capacities as critical change agents. She is a former member of the AMLE board of trustees and past president of the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform. She is the recipient of AMLE’s highest award, the John H. Lounsbury Award for Distinguished Service. She served as Professor-in-Residence in a local middle school for 7 years. At the University of Georgia, she has received several awards for teaching, including the Richard B. Russell Award for Undergraduate Teaching, the Center for Teaching and Learning Senior Teaching Fellowship, and the Lilly Teaching Fellowship.

Kathleen Brinegar, Past Chair (2024-2026)

University of Vermont

Kathleen M. Brinegar is senior lecturer at the University of Vermont where she serves as the program coordinator of the middle level teacher education and the curriculum and instructor masters programs. She is co-editor of Middle School Journal, the current chair of the Middle Level Education Research Special Interest Group (MLER SIG), and a member of AMLE’s Research Advisory Council and Equity Constituency Committee. Her research focused on equity and culturally sustaining pedagogies in middle level education and teacher education more broadly is published in venues such as Teaching & Teacher Education, Middle Grades Review, Research in Middle Level Education Online, and Middle Grades Research Journal. She is a co-editor of Equity and Cultural Responsiveness in the Middle Grades, a handbook in The Handbook of Research in Middle Level Education series.

Brooke Eisenbach (2024-2026)

Lesley University

Brooke B. Eienbach is an Associate Professor of Middle and Secondary Education at Lesley University. She is co-editor of Fostering Mental Health Literacy Through Adolescent Literature. Her research interests are in virtual middle grades education and enhancing adolescents’ mental health literacy through young adult literature. Prior to entering higher education, Dr. Eisenbach taught 7th and 8th grade English Language Arts. She still enjoys spending time in the classroom serving as a substitute teacher at her local middle school.

Rachel Ranschaert, (2024-2026)

University of North Texas

Dr. Rachel Ranschaert is an Assistant Professor of Literacy Education at the University of North Texas. Her work explores how the preparation of middle grades teachers and literacy teachers intersects with sociopolitical discourses, news media, community contexts, and school partnerships. She earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Notre Dame and began her career as an English Language Arts teacher in Arizona and Texas. She then went on to the University of Georgia where she earned her Ph.D. in Educational Theory and Practice and her certificate in Interdisciplinary Qualitative Research. Dr. Ranschaert has also done work related to writing pedagogies, teaching residencies, and qualitative methodologies. Her work has been presented at numerous national and international conferences and published in the Journal of Teacher Education, Educational Studies, and Middle School Journal, among others.

Mary Beth Schaefer (2024-2026)

St. John’s University

Mary Beth Schaefer is Associate Professor of Adolescent Education in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction at St. John’s University in Queens, New York. Her passion is the middle grades, and she has been an active MLER SIG member since 2010. Her recent work inside of the SIG includes helping to draft a new version of the Research Agenda. Schaefer was a middle grades English teacher for five years in New York City and five years in Plano, Texas and currently teaches graduate-level courses focused on middle grades teaching and learning. She recently published in Research in Middle Level Education, The Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, English Teaching: Practice & Critique, and Middle Grades Review. Other recent outlets include Urban Education, Middle School Journal and a chapter in The Oxford Handbook of Young Adult Literature (forthcoming).  Her research interests center on young adolescent literacies; middle grade students’ college and career readiness; and martial arts literacies. She was a recent co-guest editor for The Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (Nov/Dec 2022) and co-edited a book on parent-child research (2020).

Amy Walker (2024-2026)

Kent State University

Amy Walker is an assistant professor of middle level education and literacy at Kent State University, where she teaches in the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral programs. Her research examines preservice teachers’ culturally responsive and antiracist teaching practices, as well as how space, art, and power intersect as literacy practices across learning spaces, including public protests and juvenile detention centers. Recently, she developed a summer interdisciplinary STEAM program for refugee middle grades students led by preservice teachers. She is the recipient of the 2024 Kent State University Outstanding Research Early Career Award. A former middle school teacher, she advocates for middle level education across local, state, and national contexts.

W. Keith Burgess (2025-2027)
Northridge Middle School, Charlotte, NC

Dr. W. Keith Burgess serves as a middle grades science teacher and Chair of the Science Department at Northridge Middle School in Charlotte, NC. He holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on Urban Education from UNC-Charlotte. Throughout his career, Keith has been recognized with various teaching awards, including the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award for Science and Mathematics Teachers (CAST) and the CMS Southeast Learning Community Teacher of the Year for 2024. In May 2023, he also received the Arts & Science Council "CATO Excellence in Teaching Award." As a faculty member of the Kenan Fellowship for Teacher Leadership, Keith provides professional development for K-12 teachers across North Carolina on effective instructional strategies. He has presented at national conferences and co-authored multiple peer reviewed publications relevant to middle grades education.

Sarah Pennington (2025-2027)

Montana State University

Sarah E. Pennington, Ph.D. (she/her/hers) is an associate professor in the education department at Montana State University. After working as a middle grades English language arts teacher, Sarah left the public school classroom to earn her doctorate degree in Curriculum & Instruction with emphases in literacy and educational psychology. Her research currently focuses on the perceptions of community groups, including school staff, students, and parents/caregivers, on how effectively their school meets the needs of young adolescents. In her role as a teacher educator, Sarah also focuses on supporting preservice teachers engagement in reflective practice and implementation of best practices. 

Stephanie Reid (2025-2027)
University of Cincinnati 

Stephanie Reid is an Assistant Professor at the University of Cincinnati. She currently teaches literacy courses in the middle level licensure and M.Ed. programs. She is a first-generation college attendee from England, who studied English Literature at the University of Cambridge and secondary English education at the University of Oxford. Before pursuing her doctoral degree in Learning, Literacies, and Technologies at Arizona State University, Stephanie was a long-time middle school teacher. For three years, she taught students in grades 6-12 Language Arts in a large secondary school in England. After emigrating to the US in 2004, she taught middle schoolers Language Arts and/or Reading for 12 years in Wisconsin. Stephanie’s research interests include examining multimodal approaches to pedagogy and analyzing how students interpret and compose multimodal texts. Stephanie’s classroom research often takes place in middle schools, and her most recent classroom study explored how middle level students authored pandemic personal narratives and offered their perspectives on life and learning during these difficult times. Stephanie has published her scholarship across various venues, including Middle School Journal, Voices from the Middle, Written Communication, the Journal of Language and Literacy, and Language Arts  

Ashlee P. Highfill, Graduate Student Representative (2024-2026)

University of South Florida

Ashlee Highfill is a currently practicing middle school teacher in Hillsborough County where she is the Subject Area Leader for the Social Studies department. She received her Bachelor's degree in Social Science Curriculum and Instruction from the University of South Florida in 2011. She continued her studies at the University of South Florida to obtain her Master's degree in Secondary Social Science Curriculum and Instruction in 2013. She is currently pursuing her doctorate in Teacher Education with a focus on Middle School and the Adolescent Learner. As a middle school teacher, she has taught a wide range of subjects such as reading, yearbook, video production, world history, civics and U.S. history as well as managing the student assistant's elective at her school. She has spent her time as an educator working in Title 1 schools with diverse student populations and is passionate about working with adolescents.