MAED Faculty

Assistant Dean / Senior Director of the Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Leadership Program

Dr. Kellie Albrecht is the Assistant Dean for the School of Education, Senior Director of the Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in Leadership program, and a Professor of Education. She is responsible for Ed.D. program operations, program development and improvement, faculty training, curriculum development and assessment, and advising doctoral students with their dissertation research. Dr. Albrecht served as the Chair of the Educational Effectiveness Committee (EEC), a member of the Academic Council and Institutional Review Board (IRB).

Prior to teaching in higher education, Dr. Albrecht was an elementary school educator having taught in grades 1, 4, 5, and 6. Dr. Albrecht's experience teaching in urban schools sparked her passion for educating in diverse settings. Her experience working with culturally diverse and underrepresented children led to an interest in English language development and differentiated instructional practices. Additionally, Dr. Albrecht is the mother of four children, her oldest being identical twin boys. Dr. Albrecht's doctoral dissertation was an interpretive phenomenological analysis focused on identifying twins as a cultural group, which investigated individual needs for educating twins. The dissertation is titled, Beyond Bonded Voices: A Qualitative Study with Adult Monozygotic (Identical) Twins.

Dr. Albrecht's experience in higher education includes MAED program development and improvement, faculty training and professional development, advising graduate and postgraduate qualitative research projects, teaching undergraduate, graduate, and multiple and single subject credential courses, supervising student teachers in the field, assessing teaching performance assessments (TPAs), and facilitating TPA student workshops.

Areas of Expertise

• Qualitative Research Methodologies: Action Research, Grounded Theory, Interpretive
• Phenomenological Analysis, Case Study
• Twins’ Research
• Differentiated Instructional Practices
• English Language Development
• Classroom Management
• Curriculum Design, Assessment, and Evaluation
• Distance Learning: Online Asynchronous & Synchronous, Blended/Hybrid
• Program/Course Development, Design, and Improvement
• Technological Pedagogy

Program Director for School Counseling

Biography

Heather Churney serves as Program Director for School Counseling in the School of Education. She began her career as a school counselor in Lutheran Education in 2010 and has continued her career in Secondary School Counseling in Arizona where she and her family reside. She has had the opportunity to build two high school counseling programs from the ground up, which gave her a unique experience in program development. Her experience is mostly in 9-12 grade in the areas of personal/social development, academic, college/career guidance and crisis management. The Lord has given her a passion for working with teens and she loves to mentor the next generation of school counselors. She has served as an Adjunct Faculty with Concordia University since 2019, has served as a Subject Matter Expert, served as a fieldwork/practicum supervisor and assisted in course writing. Heather enjoys spending time with her husband Robert, and two children, Collin and Hailee. She is active in her church, Risen Savior Lutheran, and has a heart for women's ministry. 

Assistant Professor, Online MAEd

Assistant Professor of Education
Director of Induction

Assistant Professor, Director of the Educational Technology Program

Assistant Professor of Special Education Credentials

Biography

Sara Morgan is a graduate of Chapman University, where she earned a B.A. in Communications. After graduation, she continued on to receive two teaching credentials (Multiple Subject and Education Specialist) and a Master's Degree in Special Education. She taught, as a resource teacher, for Lutheran Special Education Ministries, a special day class teacher, for the Westminster School District, and served as a Teacher on Special Assignment (TOSA) and Program Specialist, for the Garden Grove Unified School District.

Sara is pursuing advanced education in Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) and continuously strives to sharpen her teaching practices to model universally designed learning experiences.

Education

• B.A.: 1999, Chapman University, Communications: Speech Communications
• MAED.: 2003, Chapman University, Special Education

Teaching

• Introduction to teaching Diverse Populations
• Typical and Atypical Development of Diverse Populations
• Advanced Curriculum Methods for Teaching Special Populations
• Coping with Stress and Violence in Today's Diverse Classroom

Dean, School of Education

Professor of Science Education; Co-Director of Undergraduate Teacher Credential Programs; Director of MEd

Biography

Dr. Michael Schulteis has been a full-time faculty member in the School of Education since 2003 specializing in science and math education, teaching instructional methods, classroom management and research methods courses, and supervising graduate research projects. His educational research has focused on evolution education in parochial schools.

Dr. Schulteis is currently a mentor for the American Meteorological Society Datastreme program. He also conducts seminars and makes presentations to educators across the United States and from Korea, Japan, China, South Africa, and Australia on such topics as instructional methods and evolution education. Prior to arriving at Concordia University, Dr. Schulteis taught multiple subjects at the junior high and senior high school levels.

Education

• Sc.Ed.D., Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia
• M.A.Ed., Curriculum and Instruction, Concordia University, Irvine
• B.A., Biology: Pre-Med, Concordia University, Irvine

Areas of Expertise

• Curriculum
• Instructional Strategies
• Common Core Standards
• School Climate
• Assessment of Programs and Student Learning
• Quantitative Methods
• Statistics
• Qualitative Methods

Co-Director of Undergraduate Teacher Education Programs
Director Preliminary Teacher Credential Programs

Dr. Stanton teaches EDU 101, the first class all Liberal Studies majors will take; serves as an advisor to Liberal Studies majors; and interviews students for admission into the SOE Credential program.

Dr. Rebecca Stanton has been teaching in the School of Education at CUI since 2005, specializing in secondary teaching methods, classroom management, and differentiated instruction. Beyond her teaching duties, she supervises student teachers and guides students as they write their Masters capstone projects. As a university supervisor of student teachers and as a parent volunteer, she has spent innumerable hours in K-12 classrooms. Her sons' special needs have inspired her interest in how the brain learns and how to set up positive, inclusive learning environments. She presents on various teaching strategies at local, regional, and national conferences.

Prior to coming to Concordia University, Dr. Stanton taught German at the university and junior college levels. She also taught German and beginning drama for 9 years at the high school level, and math and science for one year at the junior high school level. She enjoyed taking students on educational trips to Europe and New York City.

Education

• EdD, Instructional Leadership, Argosy University, Orange County
• MA, German Literature, University of California, Irvine
• Teaching Credential, Single Subject (German, Literature), Concordia University Irvine
• BA, German major, Russian minor, University of Arizona

Areas of Expertise

• Teaching methods, including Differentiated Instruction and foreign language methods
• Mentoring new teachers
• Classroom Management
• Creative learning spaces and activities

Senior Director, MAED School Counseling

Biography

Dr. Jill Swisher serves as Program Director for School Counseling in the School of Education. She has served in the M.A.Ed department for 15 years, most recently as director of advising and previously assistant director of M.A.Ed programs. Prior experience includes marketing operations for several nonprofit organizations. Jill offers additional expertise in educational telework, with doctoral research on the importance of organizational support in remote worker satisfaction and performance. She enjoys volunteering at her church and children's school, as well as on various local committees.

Dean, School of Education

Biography

Professor Heather Vezner first came to Concordia in 2009 as the Field Experience Coordinator and TPA Assistant Coordinator. From 2011-2015 she served as Director of Student Teaching and has most recently become Director of Preliminary Teacher Credential Programs.

Prior to coming to Concordia, Professor Vezner was an early childhood educator and administrator, an elementary teacher, and a parent educator for a grant-funded early education program. Professor Vezner has presented at numerous conferences on topics such as literacy development, creative dramatics, music and movement, and early childhood curriculum.

Education

• California Multiple Subject Clear Teaching Credential, 2009
• Illinois Early Childhood Teaching Credential, 2007
• M.A. - Early Childhood Education, Concordia University, Chicago, 1996
• B.A. - Elementary Education, Concordia University, Chicago, 1993
• Illinois Elementary Education Teaching Credential, 1993

Professor of Education