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Topic: Education

Deborah Horan

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I began my journey as an educator in Denver Public Schools (DPS), as a Spanish-English bilingual elementary teacher. To better advocate for language minority families, I pursued a doctorate at a social justice-focused institution, Boston College, with an emphasis within Teacher Education on Language, Literacy & Culture. While in Boston, I collaborated with educators in Boston Public Schools around literacy for multilingual students.

My previous experiences include collaborating as a literacy specialist on the Ithuba Writing Project, as funded by USAID. This collaboration with the South African Department of Education focused on creating national public school “readers” (text materials), authored and illustrated by Bantu-speaking teachers and artists. English versions of these culturally relevant materials are available within three DPS Newcomer schools, as facilitated through a donation from the Ithuba Writing Project to support Denver’s African refugee population.

Elizabeth Hinde

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Elizabeth Hinde is Professor and Founding Dean of the School of Education at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Prior to coming to MSU Denver, she was Director of the Division of Teacher Preparation at Arizona State University’s Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, one of the largest teacher preparation programs in the country. Along with her work in teacher education, she specializes in social studies education. She is the author of over 50 publications concerning social studies education, curriculum issues, and teacher preparation.

Dr. Hinde was a featured speaker at the Educational Research Center Conference in Dubai, UAE in April, 2013, and is a 2013 graduate of Harvard Institute of Higher Education’s Management Development Program. Dr. Hinde has been recognized nationally for her work in curriculum development and integration and has conducted numerous presentations at the state, national, and international levels. She was a member of the National Geographic Assessment Committee of the 21st Century Roadmap for Geographic Education Project and was research director of the Arizona Geographic Alliance’s GeoLiteracy and GeoLiteracy for English Language Learners programs. She was also a member of the curriculum development team of the Sandra Day O’Connor Our Courts: 21st Century Civics project, now iCivics.org. In addition, in 2005 Dr. Hinde received the National Council for Geographic Education’s (NCGE) Distinguished Teaching Award and is the 2010 recipient of the Geography Excellence in Media Award by the NCGE. She is on the Board of the Directors of the National Council for the Social Studies, is past-president of the Arizona Council for the Social Studies, a Teacher Consultant with the Arizona Geographic Alliance, sits on the editorial boards of a number of journals, and is active in numerous state and national professional organizations.

Stacey Hervey

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Stacey Hervey, MSSc, is an associate professor in the Criminal Justice and Criminology Department at Metropolitan State University of Denver. She specializes in school safety, extremism, hate crimes/group violence and issues affecting juveniles.

Hervey has worked in Victim Services and spent a short time as a patrol officer before deciding to teach full time. She is a mayoral appointee to the City of Denver Crime Prevention and Control Commission and in 2009 received the FBI Director Leadership Award for her contributions to the community. Hervey has also received the Mile High Teacher Award and Distinguished Teacher Award. She is a member of the Rocky Mountain Association of Identification and has worked with Homeland Security and the Attorney General’s office to develop training resources for parents on internet safety and has presented throughout the United States.

In addition to teaching undergraduate and graduate courses for Metropolitan State University of Denver, Hervey also teaches courses for University of Colorado at Colorado Springs with her primary role being a high school teacher for Denver Public Schools. She is most proud of her work advocating for marginalized communities and introducing law enforcement careers to underrepresented populations.

Hervey received a master of social science in Criminal Justice from University of Colorado Denver and bachelor of arts in Sociology and Deviance from University of Colorado Boulder. She also holds a Law Enforcement Certificate from Arapahoe Community College and a Teaching Certificate from Metropolitan State University of Denver.

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.

Lisa Kindleberger Hagan

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Research focus on pedogogy within higher education, constructivism, and children’s risk taking.

Krista Griffin

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Krista Griffin, Ed.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Elementary Education and Literacy at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

She has been teaching in Colorado for the past twenty years. Griffin worked as director of a nonprofit childcare center where she worked with the youngest children and their teachers. As a primary and multi-age classroom teacher, she taught elementary aged children and worked with their parents in low-income schools. And now, as an assistant professor at MSU Denver, Griffin teaches pre-service teachers at both the graduate and undergraduate level. She serves on national committees for the International Literacy Association and helped develop the Elementary Education major at MSU Denver.

Her research areas of interest include motivation and engagement in literacy and research with younger children. She is the author of “Listening to the Voices of Boys: Exploring the Motivation of Primary Boys to Engage in Reading,” which was published in 2016.

Griffin received her doctorate in educational studies with a reading cognate and a master’s in reading from University of Northern Colorado.

Lawrence Glatz

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Lawrence Glatz, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Modern Languages at Metropolitan State University of Denver. He teaches elementary German, intermediate German, German civilization and German phonetics – theory and practice.

Glatz has been teaching at MSU Denver for nearly 25 years. Previously, he taught German language at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania State University. Glatz also volunteered as a German-language instructor at the Waldsee German Language Immersion Camp in Bemidji, Minnesota, for two summers. Glatz has been awarded the Excellence in Academic Advising Award, the Award for Outstanding Service to Students and the Bright Ideas/Best Practices Award during his time at MSU Denver.

Glatz has published over 10 academic works independently and across many topics, including “Teacher Training Involving Technology” and “The Curious Rebels of Heinrich Böll: Witnesses, Felons and Nonconformists.” He has given presentations at the Annual Conference of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages and the Annual Conference of the Society for the Interdisciplinary Study of Social Imagery. Glatz also teaches workshops for other educators. His current research focuses on the writings of Nobel Prize for Literature laureate Heinrich Böll.

Glatz received his doctorate and master’s in German literature from Pennsylvania State University in 1995 and 1988, respectively, and a bachelor’s with honors in German from the University of Pennsylvania in 1984. During his master’s program, Glatz studied in Munich, Hamburg and Berlin.

Debbie Gilliard

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Debbie Gilliard, Ph.D., is chair and professor in the Department of Management at Metropolitan State University of Denver.

Gilliard has served as department chair since 2008 and is involved in many school and university committees. She is a faculty advisor for the International Business program, spearheaded the development of the global business programs at MSU Denver and serves on the MSU Denver Strategic Planning Task Force. Gilliard received the College of Business, Dean’s Special Award “Unsung Hero Scholarly Activity.” She is active in the community serving as representative to the Aurora Chamber of Commerce, participates in the Aurora Business and Professional Women’s Organization and is on the Board of the Western Decision Sciences Institute.

Gilliard has presented her scholarly work at regional and national conferences. Her case studies have been published in strategic management textbooks and used in the strategic management course at MSU Denver. She conducts research on strategic management and international business.

Gilliard received her doctorate in management from Arizona State University, a master’s in management from University of Colorado, Denver and a bachelor’s in management from University of Northern Colorado.

Bethany Fleck Dillen

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Bethany Fleck Dillen is a professor at Metropolitan State University of Denver teaching courses in human development and psychology. Her teaching experience includes Introduction to Psychology, Developmental Educational Psychology, Statistics, Research Methods, Child Development, Developmental Research Methods, and Cognitive Growth and Development. In her courses, Fleck Dillen is committed to an active, learner-centered approach to teaching.

Her research centers on cognitive and social development in classroom contexts. Two distinct areas of work focus on issues in early childhood education and university classrooms. Both lines of research draw on developmental theory with the overall goal of enhancing the learning environment for students of all levels. Recently, she has been working on linking Documentation, an ECE teaching approach, with maternal reminiscing style. In the classroom, her research as of late focuses on the effects of service learning, flipped classrooms and integrating Social Media into teaching.

Fleck Dillen is also the director of regional conference programming for the Society for the Teaching of Psychology.

Ingrid Carter

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Ingrid Carter, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Elementary Education and Literacy in the School of Education at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Her research interests include preservice elementary education, teacher preparation in mathematics and science, equality and diversity in science education as well as argumentation in elementary science through writing.

In addition, she is the graduate programs coordinator for the School of Education at MSU Denver. In 2019, Carter was the third winner of the Faculty Senate Teaching Excellence Award and the winner of the 2019 Colorado Association of Science Teachers Award for Excellence in Teaching College Science.

Carter taught primary school grades in a Spanish/English bilingual classroom for four years in Richmond, CA. She also worked as an assistant professor at the University of Louisville for three years. Carter received her Ph.D. in science education from Indian University, Bloomington.

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