Department of Middle, Secondary & K-12 Education (MDSK)

Lan Kolano is Professor and Chair of the Department of Middle, Secondary and K-12 Education. She completed her Ph.D. at UNC-Chapel Hill and has been on UNC Charlotte’s faculty since 2004. Her research focuses on the language and identity development of immigrant learners and the development of critical multicultural efficacy of teachers. Kolano completed an […]

Joan Lachance is an Associate Professor of Education and serves as the program director of the undergraduate and graduate Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) programs at UNC Charlotte. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses focused on second language acquisition and authentic assessment with English learners. She also works closely with teacher candidates during […]

Adrienne Lee is an Administrative Support Associate in the Department of Middle, Secondary, and K-12 Education, where she serves as a primary support to faculty, students, and the department.

Chance W. Lewis is the Carol Grotnes Belk Distinguished Professor of Urban Education and former Provost Faculty Fellow for Diversity, Inclusion and Access at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Additionally, he is the Executive Director of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte’s Urban Education Collaborative which is publishing a new generation of research on […]

Regina McCurdy is an Assistant Professor of Science Education in the Department of Middle, Secondary, and K-12 Education at UNC Charlotte. She received her bachelor’s degree in biology from Florida State University before attending Asbury Theological Seminary for her master’s in intercultural studies. University of Central Florida then became her academic home, where she completed […]

Adam Myers is a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Middle, Secondary, and K-12 Education. He has served as a faculty member since 2016. He earned his Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction in 2013 from Gardner-Webb University. As the department advisor in MDSK, he assists candidates in determining and maintaining an academic plan for […]

Premkumar Pugalenthi completed his Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction in Mathematics Education (2019) from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and has both a bachelors (2009) and masters degree (2012) in mechanical engineering. His dissertation, Integration of Engineering in a Middle Grade Mathematics Classroom: A Conceptual Framework for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) […]

Shauna Rodgers is an Administrative Support Associate in the Department of Middle, Secondary, and K-12 Education, where she serves as a primary support to faculty, students, and the department. Rodgers is originally from Dayton, Ohio and graduated from Ohio University with a degree in Communications. She is actively engaged in the community as a volunteer […]

Spencer Salas is Professor of Education in the Department of Middle, Secondary, and K-12 Education at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte where he leads the Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction Urban Literacies/TESL sub-concentration. An award-winning District of Columbia Public School ESL teacher (1994-2001), he has been a Fulbright Fellow to Romania (1998), Guatemala […]

Elonda Steele is the Business Services Coordinator (BSC) for the Department of Middle, Secondary, and K-12 Education. She has over 15 years of experience and has been a part of the Cato College of Education since 2015. Elonda completed her Master of Arts in Information Technology Management/ Business & Organizational Security at Webster University in […]