The School of Education Welcomes Two New Faculty Members
The School of Education at Mount St. Joseph University has an extremely impressive and committed faculty and staff. The School of Education continues to grow enrollment and program offerings despite the national crisis of teacher shortages that many states are facing. The growth of the Education Department is a true representation of the individuals who continuously drive and support the Education programs at MSJ. To maintain this growth and to better facilitate the students, the School of Education has added two new faculty members!
Dr. Jane Ashby
Jane's Biography:
Jane Ashby, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Reading Science Program, located in the School of Education at Mount St. Joseph University. In this position, she helps graduate students understand reading research and its impact on reading instruction. In her previous position as Professor of Psychology at Central Michigan University, she studied the cognitive processes that underlie silent reading by monitoring participants’ eye movements as they read sentences. Jane has published several research papers and book chapters in addition to co-authoring the Psychology of Reading with Keith Rayner.
Dr. Ashby holds advanced degrees in reading education (Ed.M., Harvard) and Psychology (M.S., Ph.D., University of Massachusetts). Early in her career, she taught urban young adults who were struggling readers, tutored children with reading difficulties, and performed reading assessments at Boston Children’s Hospital. More recently, she engaged teachers in Ohio and Vermont in long-term professional learning. Jane’s mission is to provide a bridge between research knowledge and practice knowledge, integrating these two areas to support teachers’ ability to understand and teach their struggling readers.
Larissa Phillips
Larissa's Biography:
Larissa Phillips is joining the faculty and staff at Mount St. Joseph University after working in public education for 18 years. Larissa graduated with her Bachelor’s Degree in Special Education from Mount St. Joseph in 2004, and then again with her Master’s Degree and Reading Endorsement in Reading Science in 2012. She has served on the Project Ready Advisory Committee as well as the School of Education Advisory Committee since 2015. Larissa has taught a variety of courses in the school of education as an adjunct and also supports other instructors with coursework as a practicum supervisor. Prior to joining the Center for Reading Science team, Larissa has worked in public education in the K-12 setting. The first ten as an Intervention Specialist and then as a Reading Specialist supporting students struggling to learn to read. Larissa is Orton-Gillingham trained and enjoys sharing teaching tips and tricks with her colleagues as they adapt the instructional approach for small and whole group settings. Larissa has spent her entire career working alongside general educators and administration on implementing the MTSS process in a large elementary building, designing high quality tier 1 instruction for the classroom, and collaborating with staff on new instructional resources and methods. Larissa is a doctoral candidate in Cohort 2 of the Reading Science Doctoral Program. Larissa is passionate about meeting students where they are, collecting and using assessment data efficiently, and closing the achievement gap for all students.