Faculty

Lesley Bogad

Dr. Lesley Bogad teaches undergraduate and graduates courses in foundations of education and research methods at Rhode Island College. As a part of the TESL programs, she teaches FNED 547: Introduction to Classroom Research to help guide practicing and aspiring teachers to become more reflective practitioners in the field. Lesley received her B.A. from Barnard College at Columbia University, and her Master's and Ph.D. in Cultural Foundations of Education at Syracuse University. Her research examines issues of social justice as they relate to schooling and public life in the US. In 2005, she served as a NECIT Fellow sponsored by the New England Center on Inclusive Teaching. In 2007, she received a Leadership Award from the Rhode Island College Unity Center recognizing her advocacy work in multicultural affairs, and her service to underrepresented groups on the RIC campus. Dr. Bogad is currently an Associate Professor of Educational Studies and Women's Studies.

Nancy Carnevale

Nancy Carnevale regularly teaches the Language Acquisition and Learning course (TESL 539) as well as the Curriculum Development and Language Assessment in ESL course (TESL 551) in the M.Ed. in TESL Program. She is a fifth grade ESL teacher in Central Falls, RI. She has been teaching for thirty five years and has achieved National Board Certification in English as a New Language. She holds a masters degree in Multicultural Urban Education and is a consultant for the Center for Applied Linguistics, working on professional development courses for mainstream and ESL teachers. She is a regular presenter at ESL conferences and conducts professional development on topics such as The English Language Learner in the Mainstream Classroom, Integrating Technology into the ESL Classroom and other topics of interest to professionals in the field. She also traveled to Brazil on a Fulbright Scholarship where she taught English to high school students.

Mustafa Ozcan

Dr. Ozcan, a native of Turkey, began his professional life as an elementary school teacher and taught bilingual students for four years. He continued his education, became certified for secondary school teaching and completed his Master's degree in Social Foundations of Education at the University of Ankara, College of Educational Sciences in 1981. Dr. Ozcan worked as a high school teacher and administrator, and also as an assistant superintendent in different parts of Turkey. He came to the United States in the spring of 1988 and completed his Ph.D. degree in the Sociology of Education at the University of Iowa in 1993. Before finishing his Ph.D. began to teach courses in multicultural education at the University of Iowa and became a full time instructor at Clarke College in Iowa in 1992, where he taught for nine years. In 2001, he came to Rhode Island College. His research focuses on the impact of culture and socioeconomic status on learning and teaching. His teaching strategies reflect the social constructivist approach in education.

Since 1992, he has taught FNED 502, Social Issues in Education to students in the M.Ed. in TESL and other graduate programs. He also teaches Cultural Foundations of Education, Educational Research, Measurement and Assessment, Multicultural Education (under various titles). From 2002-2004, he ran the workshop, Service Learning Projects in K-12 Classes for Rhode Island teachers. Since 2005, he has offered a Cultural Competency workshop for teachers from Providence, Central Falls, Pawtucket, Woonsocket, and Newport school districts. His latest article, The Education We Need: Democratic, Diversified, and Experiential was published in 2006 in Issues in Teaching and Learning.

J. Andrés Ramírez

J. Andrés Ramírez is Assistant Professor in the Educational Studies Department and Coordinator of the Intensive English as a Second Language Program for Adults at Rhode Island College. He also oversees the Bilingual Endorsement and Modern Language Teacher Education Coursework. Dr. Ramírez has taught ESL/EFL and graduate and undergraduate teacher education courses in adult education and higher education institutions both in his native Colombia and the United States. He holds a B.A in Spanish and English from Universidad de Antioquia, and a MA in Teaching English as a Second Language from West Chester University. He graduated from the Language, Literacy, and Culture Doctoral Program at UMass-Amherst, Massachusetts. His scholarly interests and expertise are in the development of academic literacy for language minority students through methodologies associated with dual-language education, English as a Second Language, Genre-based pedagogy and Critical Literacy.

Rachel Toncelli

Rachel Toncelli currentlly teaches the applied linguistics course in the M.Ed. in TESL Program. She has taught ESL/EFL in the United States and abroad and she is fluent in Italian. In addition to her work in the Educational Studies Department at Rhode Island College, Rachel also teaches Italian in the Department of Modern Languages. Rachel has a masters degree in Anthropology from the Università degli studi di Firenze in Florence, Italy and an M.Ed. in TESL from Rhode Island College.