Meet the Team
The Workshop functions, and can only function, with the mutualistic engagement between EMU-based collaborators and our community partners. The Workshop seeks to to support and strengthen engagement between the community and the university, serving partners’ needs, maximizing the power of available intellectual and material resources, and providing real-world opportunities for students and faculty to develop their capacities and address community need.
Christopher Robbins
Professor of Teacher Education
Christopher's primary interests include critical theory, cultural studies, and sociology of education with a focus on power and inequality. His earlier and most sustained work considered the ways that processes of criminalization and militarization not only altered the democratic purposes of schooling, but also participated in broader transformations in institutional arrangements relative to racism and racial order. In recent years, he has looked at changes in higher education funding, considering the ways that the push for educational attainment introduces new dynamics to both social class and racial politics. From time to time, Robbins writes in intellectual history. He is currently working on a co-authored book project wherein he is looking at the politics and ethics of mass death (biological, social, and civic) and its implications for democracy, with an eye toward the role of schooling and the place of public pedagogy in opposing the increasing normalization of mass death in the U.S. He is the founding collaborator for The Workshop for Community+Collaboration at Eastern Michigan University's College of Education.
Hannah Bollin
Doctoral Fellow of Teacher Education
Hannah received her BA in English from Concord University and her MA in Women's and Gender Studies with an emphasis in Educational Leadership here at EMU. Hannah is a Ph.D. student and Doctoral Fellow in the Educational Studies program while also serving as the Site Coordinator in the Project BIG Mentoring Program. Her research focuses on Queer thought in after school spaces, critical mentorship, and equity-based thinking through through the deconstruction of social norms and binaries in schools. Being a first generation high school graduate from rural Appalachia, Hannah’s research is very personal to her and her passion for education stems from the many educators, mentors, and community members who mentored her along the way. When Hannah isn’t working on her to-do list between work and school, she can usually be found binge-watching reality television with her spouse and three cats.
Wendy Burke
Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and Department Head of Teacher Education
Dr. Wendy Burke is a Professor of Curriculum and Instruction and has been serving as the Department Head for the Department of Teacher Education at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan since 2018. Dr. Burke continues to partner with a variety of organizations, districts, and community groups in support of advancing meaningful, engaged student and teacher learning. Such partnerships have included a 21 st Century Learning Community granted-funded afterschool program, the Institute for Responsive Mathematics, the Hope Street Education Group, and the Committee for Children. She was a co-founder of the Adaptive Leadership Network that supported the leadership development for over 200 educators in local districts. She served on the Executive Board of Learning Forward Michigan, a statewide professional organization committed to standards-driven professional learning from 2013-2023. She is a co-founder of the Michigan Alliance for Social Emotional Learning, a statewide partnership among faculty, district leaders, educators, and community partners. Dr. Burke has also served as the program chair for AERA’s SIG School, University, and School Collaborative Research for two separate terms in 2012-2015 and more recently in 2017-2020. Currently, she is on the steering committee to create a Place and Community Based teacher preparation which situates teacher learning and development in communities of practice within urban districts. She is also a co-leader of a new project to improve university mathematics instruction aiming to recruit, graduate, and retain a more diverse group of highly effective mathematics educators for middle and high schools. Her mantra, “All things are possible through collaborative partnerships!”
Audrey Farrugia
Associate Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorder
Dr. Audrey Farrugia obtained all three of her degrees from Eastern Michigan University
(Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education, Honors College ‘06, Master of Arts in Speech-
Language Pathology ’09, and Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Studies: Urban Education ‘16).
She is currently the Interim Faculty Program Director for Communication Sciences and
Disorders and the College of Education’s RAIJE (Representing Antiracism, Inclusivity, Justice,
and Equity) committee chair. Her research interests focus on social justice in speech-language
pathology, the scholarship of teaching and learning, and early intervention. She identifies as
having an invisible disability and is an active member of the community with her partner, Jeff,
and four children, Theodore, Nora, Isaac, and Elliott. When she is not at work you can find
Audrey with her family, reading, yogaing, or playing/coaching volleyball.
Jacqueline LaRose
Professor of Education and Faculty Director of Educator Preparation Field Experiences
Dr. Jackie LaRose has been a member of the EMU faculty since 2007. She is a Reading professor in the Teacher Education Department, and is also the College of Education Faculty Director of Educator Preparation Field Experiences. (Phew!) She teaches at undergraduate and graduate levels and beyond! As faculty director, she is heavily involved in building and nurturing our partnerships with local schools. Because she can’t imagine a school year when she isn’t spending time in P-12 schools, she is currently teaching PRCT 325, the practicum course for students pursuing a teaching endorsement in grades 3-6. In this course, she spends a full day each week with her students working in an elementary school. Many years ago, Jackie taught fourth and fifth grade, so she is very happy to walk through those elementary school hallways, breathing in that incredible scent of construction paper and crayons and french toast sticks. She loves talking with students about what they’re currently reading, and regularly exchanges recommendations for great books, sometimes even exchanging the books themselves.
Jackie is devoted to helping adult educators, too. In her role as faculty director, she facilitates professional learning opportunities for university supervisors of student teachers, EMU mentor/cooperating teachers in the field, and EMU faculty working in teacher preparation. This doesn’t (usually) involve construction paper and crayons and french toast sticks, but Jackie is also fond of large chart paper and smelly markers and Little Debbie snack cakes!
Betsy Stoelt
Mental Health Educational Specialist, Bright Futures
Betsy Stoelt works as a mental health educational specialist at Eastern Michigan University’s 21st Century program serving professionals, K-12 youth and community partners in three school districts. Betsy is also a psychotherapist serving Washtenaw county and a part-time lecturer in the social work department at EMU. Betsy graduated with her Master's Degree in Social Work from Eastern Michigan University in 2014 after being a childhood educator for ten years in a Montessori learning environment. She obtained her PhD in Educational Studies from EMU with a focus on Urban Education with her qualitative research study implementing Reflective Supervision with educators. Betsy professionally supports and engages learners in professional development surrounding social, emotional learning for adult learners and trauma-informed practice for local school districts and community organizations. Betsy has been working has been working with children and families in southeast Michigan since 2003 as an educator, para professional, behavioral therapist and clinical social worker. Personally she loves to crochet and spend her days outside walking and connecting with her family and friends.
Roderick L. Wallace
Principal at River Rouge High School, Program Director of EMU Upward Bound, Co-Founder of The Amplify Project
Dr. Roderick L. Wallace is a teacher and school leader with a myriad of experience in the operation, administration, and cultural development of urban schools. Wallace is the Principal at River Rouge High School, where he utilizes culturally-relevant practices and a keen sense of career and college readiness to prepare students for postsecondary education. Wallace recently served as the Program Director for EMU Upward Bound, advocating for equitable postsecondary navigation for low-income, first-generation students and leveraging community resources to support current college students. Wallace completed his PHD from EMU and was a King-Chavez-Parks Future Fellow at Eastern Michigan University, studying urban education, Hip Hop as pedagogy, and the use of music technology to enrich STEM content and academic resilience. An accomplished music producer and audio engineer, Wallace has released five solo albums, produced or mixed on dozens of other projects, and coordinates educational programming for Grove Studios in Ypsilanti, MI. Wallace recently served as an executive producer for the critically acclaimed Formula 734 hip-hop documentary for men of color in conjunction with Washtenaw County My Brother's Keeper, and co-founded The Amplify Project, a 501c(3) nonprofit organization that supplies the musical ecosystem of southeastern Michigan.