Linda Conway, teaching supervisor for Penn State Altoona's teacher certification program in elementary education, has been a part-time supervisor for our education program since 2005 and has helped create a reputation for quality supervision in the local schools that partner with Penn State Altoona. Linda comes to Penn State Altoona after teaching grades 3 through 6 in the Altoona Area School District for 35 years. She earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary education at St. Francis College and fulfilled the requirements to become a master’s-level teacher at Penn State.

Karen Eppley is an assistant professor of education at Penn State Altoona. She earned a reading specialists certificate, a master's degree, and a PhD with an emphasis in language and literacy from Penn State. Her research is about the situated nature of learning and literacies, specifically in rural contexts. These inquiries are framed by concerns with diversity and equity. She teaches courses in language and literacy within the Arts & Literacy Block and draws closely on her elementary classroom teaching experience to help support preservice teachers’ thinking about the connection of theory and practice.

Select Publications:

Eppley, K. (2012). My roots dip deep: Literacy practices as a mirror for traditional, modern, and postmodern ruralities. In M. Corbett & W. Green. (Eds.), Rural Education and literacies research: Transnational issue and perspectives. New York: Palgrave.

Eppley, K. (2011). Reading Mastery as pedagogy of erasure. The Journal of Research in Rural Education, 26(13), 1-5.

Eppley, K. (2011). Teaching rural place: Pre-service language and literacy teachers consider place-conscious literacy. Pedagogies: An International Journal, 6(2), 87-103.

Eppley, K. & Shannon, P. (2011). "Did you like living in a trailer? Why or why not?": Discourse and the third space in a rural pen pal exchange. Teaching and Teacher Education, 27, 289-297.

Eppley, K. (2010). Picturing rural America: An analysis of the representation of contemporary rural America in picture books for children. The Rural Educator, 32(1), 1-15.

Carrie Freie is Assistant Professor of Education at Penn State Altoona. She earned her PhD in Social Foundations of Education at University at Buffalo, The State University of New York in 2005. Her research uses qualitative methodology to study student identity in high school and college settings, focusing on social class, race and gender.

Selected Publications:

Freie, C. (2007). Class Construction: White Working-Class Student Identity in the New Millennium. Lanham MD: Lexington Books.

Freie, C. (2010). Considering Gendered Careers: The Influence of Resilient Mothers and Sisters upon White Working-Class Young Women. Ethnography and Education 5(3): 229-243.

Freie, C. (2012). Breaking the Bank: Stories of Financial, Cultural and Academic Struggle from
First-Generation College Students. In Dangerous Counterstories in the Corporate Academy: Narrating for Understanding, Solidarity, Resistance, and Community in the Age of Neoliberalism. Eds. Emily Daniels and Bradley Porfilio. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Courses: EDTHP 115 Education in American Society
EDTHP 416 & SOC 416 Sociology of Education
EDTHP 297 Multicultural Perspectives: Families, Communities and Education
EDTHP 497 Media, Popular Culture and Education

Dr. Barbara Hong holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University in Cross-Categorical Studies with a special focus on Mild/Moderate Disabilities and Psycho-Educational Assessment. She has also earned three Master degrees in Policy & Administration, Instructional Practices, and Learning Disabilities from Columbia University. She holds certifications in Special Education, Principalship, and District Administration & Supervision. Dr. Hong has over 25 years of experience working with people with disabilities (e.g., in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Myanmar, Taiwan, Qatar, Cypress, Turkey, Guatemala, Sweden, Tunisia, Somalia, Ireland, Tonga, Samoa, Hawaii, New York, Texas and Pennsylvania). Her work has appeared in journals such as Teaching Exceptional Children, Texas Reading Report, Preventing School Failure, National Council of Professors in Educational Administration, Journal of College Student Retention, Journal of College Student Development, and International Journal of Learning. Her publications and training materials have been translated into Spanish for the indigenous teachers in Central America as well as in Lithuanian and Arabic. Her research has been focused on college students with disabilities and the impact faculty have on helping students develop self-regulation. Dr. Hong is very active in the community and has been invited to sit on several committees such as the Local Interagency Coordinating Council which coordinates early intervention services for children and families with special needs in three counties and the Smart Start Parenting & Literacy Committee which supports parents of young children in promoting literary awareness. She has also been invited to sit on the Centre County Cooperative Extension Family Living Program Development Committee to represent multicultural families community in advising the county Family Living Educator about programs that meet the needs of the community. Dr. Hong has recently been awarded the Senior Fulbright Scholarship to Qatar and the Fulbright Inter-Country Lecturer to Cyprus. She has also been invited to be the first Honorable Visiting Scholar at the Taipei Municipal University of Education. Most recently, she received the prestigious Teacher of Honor award by the International Education Honor Society, Kappa Delta Pi.

Ms. Nagle has been an Adjunct Instructor at Penn State Altoona since 2002. She has taught the courses of Introduction to Psychology, Positive Psychology & Well-being, Introduction to Developmental, Gender Psychology, and Abnormal Psychology, as well as Educational Psychology. Ms. Nagle has also served as an internship supervisor for student interns in the Psychology department since 2009. Ms. Nagle has a Pennsylvania Instructional II Teaching Certificate, with 7 years teaching experience at the elementary and middle school levels prior to her higher education experience. She has been teaching at the college level since 1995. She is the Advisor of the Psychology Club here at Penn State Altoona and she is the Associate Advisor and member of the Kappa Delta Pi International Honor Society in Education. Ms. Nagle was awarded the Penn State Altoona Outstanding Part-time Lecturer Award for the 2006-2007 academic year, and more recently, was selected by Alpha Lambda Delta National Honor Society for the Penn State Altoona Unsung Hero Award 2009-2010.

Kristen Pearson, Coordinator of Student Field
Placements, holds a bachelor's degree in Elementary Education/ECE from Penn State and a master's degree from Towson University
in Human Resource Development-Educational
Leadership with a school principal certification. She taught
Kindergarten, First and Second grades in St. Mary's County, MD, and
has also served as a Preschool Director/classroom teacher before coming to Penn State in 2009.

Kristen also teaches Educational Psychology 14 and ECE 479 at Penn State Altoona.

Helen Rentz, instructor in Curriculum and Instruction, serves as the University’s Supervisor of Student Teachers. A thirty-four year veteran teacher, she earned her Master’s Degree in Developmental and Remedial Reading from Penn State as well as a Reading Specialist Certificate along with additional credits in C&I. In 1995, she was the recipient of the Altoona Area School District CARE Award for her commitment to excellence in teaching.