About the Keynote Speaker
Dr. Carol D. Lee
Edwina S. Tarry Professor of Education
Professor of African-American Studies and Learning Sciences
Northwestern University
Carol. D. Lee has been on the faculty at Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy since 1991. She developed a theory of cultural modeling that provides a framework for the design and enactment of curriculum that draws on forms of prior knowledge that traditionally underserved students bring to classrooms. She is the author of Signifying as a Scaffold for Literary Interpretation: The Pedagogical Implications of an African-American Discourse Genre.
She was president and is completing service as past president of the American Educational Research Association this spring. An AERA member for almost 20 years, Lee was Vice President of Division G (Social Contexts of Education) and served on AERA’s Council, the Association’s governing body, and its Executive Board. She participated in the Association’s Task Force on International Exploration, which advised the President and Executive Director on the internationalization of education research-dev.
Her research-dev has been funded by the McDonnell Foundation’s Cognitive Studies in Educational Practice, by the Spencer Foundation, and by the National Center for the Study of At-Risk Children, co-sponsored by Howard University and Johns Hopkins University, and by the National Council of Teachers of English. Lee is active in the school reform movement in Chicago Public Schools and has taught in both public and private schools before assuming a university career.