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Topic: Disabilities/Special Needs

Charlie Buckley

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Charlie Buckley, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the School of Education at Metropolitan State University of Denver.  Her areas of expertise include inclusive education, supporting students with disabilities including those with significant support needs and autism, and those using alternative and augmentative communication. Buckley focuses on advancing inclusive education practices in public schools and higher education.   
 
Beyond teaching, Buckley co-created the Social Communication and Engagement Triad for the Colorado Department of Education.   Additionally, she co-authored and submitted an article titled, “Using a Social Model to Guide Individualized Education Program Development and Change Educational Paradigms to Be Critically Inclusive,” published in the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Journal and is available in the National Library of Medicine online database. 

While at MSU Denver, Buckley led the establishment of the Autism Significant Support Needs Certificate Program at the School of Education. She played a significant role in creating the inclusion strand within the Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction program. She holds a certificate of clinical competence in Speech-Language Pathology from Colorado State University. 

Buckley earned her Ph.D. in Special Education from the University of Northern Colorado and her Master’s of Science in Communication Disorders from Colorado State University.  

Kathryn Young

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Kathryn Young, Ph.D., is a professor in Secondary Education at Metropolitan State University of Denver and served as a faculty fellow with the Office of Institutional Diversity at the University for a number of years. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in French Education from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, a Masters of Arts in Teaching in Special Education with a concentration in Emotional and Behavioral Disorders from North Carolina Central University and a Ph.D. in Educational Policy from University of California, Berkeley.

Young has worked as an educator for 25 years and in higher education for the past 14 years. Before becoming a professor she taught French for a year, then English, Math and Science in the Peace Corps, then went on to be a special educator specializing in working with students with Emotional and Behavioral Disabilities. Her research interests include disability studies in education, inclusive education, cultural competence, diversity in higher education, and (Hierarchical) microaggressions in Education and in the workplace. She is an Intercultural Developmental Inventory (IDI) qualified administrator. Young has more than 20 published papers, numerous presentations across her research interests, and a new co-authored book titled Fix Your Climate: A Practical Guide to Reducing Microaggressions, Microbullying, and Bullying in the Academic Workplace.

Elmer Harris

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Elmer Harris, Ed.D., is a Wilton Flemon Postdoctoral and assistant professor of Early Childhood Education in the School of Education at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Prior to becoming a full-time university instructor, Elmer served in a number of public school positions. This included early intervention paraeducator, special education (autism), fifth-grade general education and district behavior interventionist.

His main research areas are in diverse teacher recruitment/retention and school-family partnerships. Additionally, he is a 22-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force and was one of six educators throughout the nation selected to serve as U.S. Department of Education Teaching Ambassador Fellows during the 2017-2018 school year. Harris has also served on the associate board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Denver. He was an inaugural participate in their mentor 2.0 program in 2015, which matched every incoming freshman from Sheridan High School with community members for personal, academic and vocational support throughout their high school career.

Harris earned his doctorate and master’s degree from the University of Colorado, with focuses on educational equality and special education. His teaching philosophy as a public school educator and university instructor is based on building and maintain a sense of community within learning environments, and using those relationships as a foundation for experiences that are individualized, relevant and highly engaging.

Rebecca Canges

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Rebecca Canges is an associate professor with the School of Education at Metropolitan State University of Denver. She began her career in education as a one-on-one behavioral interventionist for children with autism. After earning her Education Specialist Teaching Credential, she became a special education middle school teacher in the Long Beach Unified School District (LBUSD) in Southern California. During her time as a teacher she was nominated for the Disney American Teacher Award and was the first recipient of the LBUSD District Employee of the month. While working on her Masters in Special Education, Canges focused on research in the area of effective teaching practices for English Language Learners (ELLs).

She worked for many years as the research assistant for Jana Echevarria, Ph.D., and examined the effectiveness of the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol Model (SIOP Model) in supporting the educational needs of ELLs in the content area. Later, while working as a full time lecturer in the Special Education Credential program at California State University, Long Beach. Canges earned her doctorate from the University of Southern California in Educational Leadership with an emphasis in teaching in multicultural societies. Her doctoral work focused on methods that general education teachers can implement to support the social success of students with disabilities included in their classroom. Canges has taught at MSU Denver for the past seven years. She was the recipient of the 2016 Teaching Excellence Award from the MSU faculty senate and currently serves as the department chair for Special Education, Early Childhood and Culturally & Linguistically Diverse Education.

Lisa Altemueller

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Lisa Altemuller, Ed.D., is the associate dean for the School of Education at Metropolitan State University of Denver. She previously served as the chair for the Elementary Education and Literacy Department for eight years and returned to full-time teaching in special education in the fall of 2016. Her courses at MSU Denver focus on assessment in special education, differentiation of instruction and collaboration, instructional planning, reading disabilities and foundations of elementary education.

Prior to teaching at MSU Denver, Altemuller worked as a licensed special education teacher and a licensed elementary education teacher. The majority of her early teaching experience occurred in elementary school with a high percentage of native Spanish speaking students. It was there that she became interested in learning about the special education process and how to identify learning disabilities in students. She also co-wrote two grants targeting literacy for incarcerated youth and co-wrote and received a grant designed to pay the tuition of students during their student teaching semester. Altemuller’s current research areas include teacher candidate professional behaviors, hybrid and flipped classroom instruction and parent involvement in education.

Altemuller received her Ed.D. in special education from the University of Northern Colorado in 2001, a master’s degree in special education from Appalachian University in 1996 and a bachelor’s in elementary education with a concentration in Spanish from the University of North Carolina in 1993.

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