Skip to Main Content
Kayla Cook
Graduate Counselor
(714) 984-0146
[email protected]
By Magazine Editorial Team Posted on 1/10/2025 - 4 minute read
Bill Selak, adjunct faculty member in Concordia’s MAEd: Learning, Design & Technology program and Director of Technology at Hillbrook School, a private K-12 institution in San Jose, is an early adopter of technology, which befits his role teaching college students and children of high-level tech employees in Silicon Valley. In Selak’s view, generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already changing society and classrooms as much as electricity did more than 100 years ago.
View Post »
Posted on 4/3/2024 - 5 minute read
Over the past decade, Tanya Tarbutton and Lori Doyle have collaborated on over 14 projects to improve online education, sharing their findings through book chapters, journal articles, and presentations. They emphasize the importance of purposeful design, faculty training, and support in creating successful online learning environments, aligning their research with Concordia's commitment to excellence in graduate programs and adult learner education.
By Magazine Editorial Team Posted on 3/11/2020 - 2 minute read
As a school psychologist in a public elementary school, and a well-loved adjunct professor at Concordia University Irvine, Dr. Antonia Brown creates atmospheres of acceptance and encouragement for others. “We become family with the students,” Brown says. “They have to trust that you’ll support them, point them in the right direction and tell them, ‘You’re doing okay. You’re going to get there.’ Students in my classes have faith and love coming toward them.”
By Magazine Editorial Team Posted on 3/6/2020 - 2 minute read
Dr. Kimberly Persiani remembers living in San Francisco in 2001 while getting her EdD in International and Multicultural Education. To help pay the bills, she landed a part-time gig teaching a UC Santa Cruz extension course — but the commute was too far. “I asked if they would let me teach the class online using an online teaching system I had heard about,” Persiani says. “They said, ‘Sure, go for it, see how it works.’”
By Magazine Editorial Team Posted on 1/20/2020 - 3 minute read
Professor Bill Selak remembers the day he set aside his normal lesson plan and invited 36 fifth-grade students to compose and record together using GarageBand on a single laptop. “They were super-engaged,” Prof. Selak says. “It was one of those moments like in the movie The Matrix where Neo starts seeing in code and realizes that he can do it..."
By Stuart Caldwell Posted on 11/4/2019 - 4 minute read
When Stuart Caldwell, the new principal at Woodworth-Monroe TK-8 in Inglewood, noticed graffiti-covered tables in a classroom, he decided not to wait for work crews which were already backed up with school improvement projects.
By Magazine Editorial Team Posted on 9/1/2019 - 5 minute read
As education shifts toward student-centered classrooms, CUI is modeling best practices for its future teachers by transforming some classrooms into highly-mobile, tech-enabled learning spaces.
Posted on 1/11/2017 - 3 minute read
Although she earned her bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies at Concordia University Irvine, it wasn’t until she was working on her teaching credential that Erika Lopez’s aspirations really began to bloom. She began the program to earn her Multiple Subject teaching credential, while working as a special education paraprofessional for La Habra City School District. Soon, Lopez recognized, “I fell in love with special ed and knew this is where my heart was. I felt so passionate about the field of special education.”
Posted on 11/25/2016 - 3 minute read
Recently, one of Concordia's own was recognized by the second largest school district in the nation--Los Angeles Unified School District--for her achievements as a teacher at an elementary school in the Watts section of Los Angeles. A graduate of the School of Education's Master's program at Concordia University Irvine, Natalie Elliott of Huntington Beach knew since third grade that she wanted to be a teacher.
Posted on 7/1/2015 - 3 minute read
Nnenna Okpara, MAEd ’14, EdD '18 grew up in Nigeria with her grandfather, one of the premiers of the country. At age 12, she came to the U.S. and found her passion in special education.