Summer WEST Faculty [Summer WEST Workshops & Events]

Core Faculty Members

CO-FACILITATOR, INSTRUCTOR
Joe Brooks—has worked with students at every level, from the elementary grades through graduate level education. Joe is the founder and director of CWI and also serves as publisher for Community Works Journal. He is a veteran professional development leader and facilitator, having provided consulting support for a wide spectrum of K-16 schools, public and private, along with regional and national initiatives. He has worked with educators from around the world and directed graduate level institutes for many years. He is also a former middle school teacher who taught and mentored students in Vermont for twelve years, initiating and nurturing a nationally recognized K-12 service-learning and community partnership program. Among his longer term curriculum projects Joe developed and guided a student published community newspaper that introduced middle grade students to state of the art publishing methods. That project subsequently served local residents for more than fifteen years. email

CO-FACILITATOR, INSTRUCTOR
Cynthia Hughes—is a veteran educator with more than thirty years in the field. Her experience includes serving as a public school classroom teacher and reading specialist in Vermont, where she is currently a Library Media Specialist for the Springfield School District. Cynthia has also worked extensively over the years as an environmental educator, and music teacher. Her work with children has always hadat its heart a hands-on approach to fostering a sense of place and connection to the natural world. She has designed both classroom and library curricula that integrates service-learning and nature studies with literacy standards. As a faculty member with the educational nonprofit Community Works Institute (CWI), Cynthia has facilitated numerous professional development events, and designed and led a series of weeklong service-learning institutes for elementary students. Cynthia was a member of the original team of educators who developed CWI's Connecting Service-Learning to the Curriculum. She also enjoys composing and performing music..


Guest Faculty Members

Rick Cota—Is CWI's Consultant for Sustainability. He serves as both the Sustainability Director and Nutrition Services Director for Claremont Unified School District (CUSD)  in California where he has initiated highly innovative changes which are catching the attention of school districts nationwide. He brings a diversified professional experience to his work, both in business and education. Rick has forged crucial partnerships with local sustainability groups, Cal Poly Pomona University, and Scripps College. With his partners, Rick has worked collaboratively to set the standard for healthy and sustainable food practices. CUSD now has organic working school gardens throughout the district and is one of the only “Styrofoam Free” school districts in California. The organic school gardens are also part of a K-12 service-learning partnership involving students and community members. As one result, CUSD has eliminated over 65% of all processed foods in their meal program and  “Meatless Mondays” and “Fresh Food Fridays, comprised of locally grown, made-from-scratch meals prepared fresh daily for students. In the process, CUSD has increased food related revenues over 30% in the past two years. Rick has proven that you can be healthy, sustainable and be fiscally sound. He formerly served an audit manager with the largest CPA firm in California, specializing in auditing and consulting for school districts, community college districts, and other non-profit entities as well as having a strong background in the restaurant industry. Rick lives in Southern California with his wife and their three children, being often found on the softball diamond or soccer fields with his daughters.

Joseph Rasmussen—is the Campus Sustainability Coordinator for Loyola Marymount University (LMU) with over fifteen years of experience implementing environmental sustainability initiatives on college campuses, in government agencies, and for environmental consulting companies. Joseph's responsibilites at LMU includes analyzing and reporting current sustainability data, environmental stewardship and green initiatives. He is also developing and implementing programs, initiatives and resources to promote campus awareness and visibility of sustainability issues. He also collaborates on sustainability issues with the community, and with sustainability leaders at other institutions. He earned his B.S. degree in Natural Resources from Humboldt State University and holds a M.A. degree in Philosophy from California State University, Long Beach (CUSLB). Joseph is currently finishing his Ed.D. at CSULB in Educational Leadership with a research focus on sustainability in higher education. LMU is notable for having implemented the first university-wide recycling program in the country in 1990. By 1995, the University was recycling 50 percent of its generated solid waste and was the first campus in California to recycle 100 percent of its green waste. In 2003, LMU completed installation of a roof-top solar electric system which was, at that time, the largest at any university in the world. read more about LMU's green initiatives

Iyaunna Towery-Ajiduah—Iyaunna has been an educator for well over a decade, teaching elementary to high school students, and adults, in Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). Iyaunna's work has taken her well beyond the classroom; coordinating nutritional workshops, facilitating parent literacy and math workshops, and providing after-school tutoring. She is a veteran professional development leader, sharing demonstration lessons, offering workshops on various teaching strategies, mentoring and coaching both veteran and student teachers. Iyaunna has also contributed to the decision making process with LAUSD schools by serving as the Chairperson of the School Site Council, Lead Teacher on the Leadership Team, and President of the PTO. In focusing on service-learning as teaching strategy, Iyaunna has always strived to increase academic achievement and improve student behavior while engaging students in both curriculum content and service within their community. Her current work focuses on engaging Los Angeles County students in service-learning based curriculum and projects. Iyaunna is also the founder and director of Empowering Services Through Partnerships (ESP), a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit whose mission is to improve the quality of education of all students in Los Angeles County.

Lori Camparo is a Professor in the Psychology Department at Whittier College where she has enjoyed teaching and collaborating closely with undergraduate students on research for 15 years. Her broadest teaching goal is to stir students into productive, effective, and enduring activity related to bettering the circumstances and well-being of children and youth. Her research focuses primarily on child forensic interviewing, and she has co-authored numerous articles and book chapters and presented research nationally and internationally with her students. Following her passion for child advocacy and policy change, Lori is a long-standing member of the Executive Board for The Society for Child and Family Policy and Practice


David Sarabia—has worked for over a decade in higher education, managing experiential learning and community engagement initiatives, and teaching composition. He has directed a student-leadership service-learning program for Health and Human Services majors at CSU-Los Angeles for the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial, Center for Human Rights, and is the former Whittier College, Assistant Director for Community Outreach, where he oversaw co-curricular community engagement programs and assisted faculty in managing service learning and community-based research projects. Currently, David manages prevention and cessation school-based projects for the Los Angeles County, Tobacco Control and Prevention Program, and is a consultant for Whittier College’s, Center for Engagement with Communities. David is formally trained as an instructor of literature and composition, and is a life-long resident of the City of Whittier.


Matthew Leader—is a high school biology teacher at the project based charter school, High Tech High North County near San Diego. After implementing service-learning projects, he see's "no better practice to encourage student engagement as well as to serve the surrounding community in a meaningful way." Before teaching Matt traveled and volunteered in community development projects in Central and South America. He also worked in physical sciences and microbiology labs at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Matt began his formal teaching career teaching middle school math and science. He has been teaching biology at High Tech High for the past six years. Some highlights of his service-learning projects have dealt with community works curriculum that includes land restoration and preservation in North County San Diego and the development of student mentorships in Mexico and Vietnam. He received a Bachelor of Science at the University of California at San Diego in General Biology and Teaching Credentials at San Diego State University. Matt is also an Americorps alumni and recently completed a Masters in Education in Teacher Leadership, with a focus on service-learning at the HTH Graduate School of Education. In addition to teaching, he enjoys surfing, scuba diving, carpentry, spending time with his wife and exploring science by getting back to nature.


Kathleen S. Ralph, Ph.D.—is Chair and Associate Professor of Education at Whittier College. Kathleen also has teaching experience at both the elementary and secondary levels in Washington, Arizona, and California. Her curricular focus in the graduate teacher credential program is literacy development and research-based pedagogy. At the undergraduate level, she contributes to the liberal education program by co-teaching interdisciplinary courses with children’s literature. Her research interests include the use of children’s literature to explore issues related to diversity, and global sustainability; and pedagogical practices for community engagement.




Paula M. Sheridan, Ph.D., L.C.S.W.—has more than 25 years of teaching social work education in colleges and universities, building on 10 years of clinical social work practice experience in mental health and child care organizations. She has been an educator in higher ed classrooms in China, Lithuania, Switzerland, and Denmark. Paula is active in the Council on Social Work Education, focusing on the accreditation of quality social work programs in the US. She has also developed community partnerships between social work classes and rehabilitation centers for people who are homeless. She has advanced degrees in social work and religious education and is currently an Associate Professor and Social Work Program Director at Whittier College in Whittier, CA.

Christine Hill—is the Assistant Director for Internship & Community Engagement at Whittier College. With years of experience working in higher education, Christine currently coordinates internships and service-learning opportunities on-campus, working directly with faculty and students to develop meaningful experiences. Whittier College is located just south of Los Angeles and was recently named to the President's Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll with distinction by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). In addition, Whittier has received a special classification awarded earlier this year from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement for Teaching for its high level of community involvement.Christine is a graduate of Whittier College, a private 4-year liberal arts college, with approximately 1500 undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds. The City of Whittier is home to approximately 87,100 people, of which over 20 percent of Whittier residents have no high school diploma and approximately 14 percent have a 4-year degree. Whittier College is the second largest employer in the City of Whittier.

Additional guest faculty biographies will be added. Please check back on a regular basis.