Catalyst Fellows

Vikki Costa CATALYST Director: Victoria Costa, Professor of Secondary Education and Director of Science Education, is Principal Investigator of Collaborating for Excellence in Middle School Science (CEMSS) and directs the Fullerton Mathematics and Science Teacher (MAST) Project and the CSU Math and Science Teacher Initiative (MSTI) Toolkit, both part of the CSU Math and Science Teacher Initiative to recruit, support, and retain secondary science and mathematics teachers. Dr. Costa brings extensive expertise in state and national science and math education reform efforts. She represents California State University Fullerton on The Leadership Collaborative of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) Science and Mathematics Teacher Initiative; and consults for Intel Education, The JASON Project, a subsidiary of the National Geographic Society, and NASA Education.
Marty Bonsangue CATALYST Fellow: Marty Bonsangue, Professor of Mathematics, has taught mathematics at the middle school, high school, community college, and university levels. He has helped develop the mathematics program to support mathematics education for elementary and secondary teachers. Dr. Bonsangue is PI on the MSP project ExCEL, which focuses on strengthening mathematics teaching and learning in middle school mathematics. He is also Co-PI on the NSF STEP Project, TEST-UP, aimed at strengthening STEM success for minority and transfer students.
Mark Ellis CATALYST Fellow: Mark W. Ellis, Associate Professor and Chair of Secondary Education, earned his Ph.D. in Education from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in 2005. He is a National Board Certified Teacher in Early Adolescence Mathematics. Mark's professional work focuses on supporting teachers in creating opportunities for all students -- particularly those from groups historically underserved by traditional practices of schooling -- to learn important mathematics concepts and skills. He was the editor of the 2008 National Council of Teachers of Mathematics book, Mathematics for All: Responding to Diversity, Grades 6-8.
Cynthia Gautreau CATALYST Fellow: Cynthia Gautreau, Assistant Professor of Elementary and Bilingual Education, has over 14 years of teaching experience at various levels including elementary, middle school, technology consulting in higher education, and graduate instruction at Cal Poly Pomona and Claremont Graduate University. Dr. Gautreau's research areas focus on technology, mathematics education and motivation research; she investigates the use of technology in the teaching and learning process.
Barbara Gonzalez CATALYST Fellow: Barbara Gonzalez, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, conducts chemical education research on the link between cognitive skills such as visualization and proportional reasoning and conceptual understanding of chemical phenomena. Dr. Gonzalez was Co-PI on Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education (FIPSE) and NSF CCLI grants that involved a Web-delivered visualization tool. She is currently assessment coordinator for a CSUF HHMI grant. Dr. Gonzalez received a 2002 NSF CAREER Award, Exploring Representations of Structure: The Impact of Visualization on Conceptual Understanding in Chemistry.
Maria Grant CATALYST Fellow: Maria Grant, Associate Professor of Secondary Education and Single Subject Credential Program Coordinator, works with both pre-service and veteran teachers. Her work includes research and publications in the area of literacy integration into content areas, with a central focus on science education. In addition to university activities, Dr. Grant's experience includes over 20 years of teaching in high school physics, oceanography, coordinated science, and earth science classrooms. She has acted as a leader in curriculum development and professional development at both the school and district levels and has recently co-authored Reading and Writing in Science: Tools to Develop Disciplinary Literacy (Corwin Press).
Bill Hoese CATALYST Fellow: Bill Hoese is Associate Professor of Biological Science. He earned his Ph.D. from Duke University, and his research interests include Biology education, student learning, animal communication, and functional morphology. He is also Director of the Southern California Ecosystems Research Program, a National Science Foundation funded program.
Jeff Knott CATALYST Fellow: Jeff Knott, Associate Professor of Geology, earned B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in geology. Dr. Knott's current interests are in student learning and effective teaching in introductory geology courses. He is presently working with a group of researchers at various institutions across the country to determine the effectiveness of personal response units in large classrooms. He worked as a geologist for private development, CALTRANS and UNOCAL prior to coming to CSUF.
Michael Loverude CATALYST Fellow: Michael Loverude, Associate Professor of Physics, taught high school general science for two years before earning his M.S. and Ph.D. in Physics with an emphasis on Physics Education Research. Dr. Loverude is a co-PI for two Course Curriculum and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) Collaborative Projects, to develop laboratory curriculum for introductory algebra and conduct research on, and curriculum development for, upper-division courses in thermal physics. He collaborates with chemistry colleagues on the investigation of student understanding and common representations of particulate models of matter.
Ruth Yopp Edwards CATALYST Fellow: Ruth Yopp-Edwards, Professor of Elementary and Bilingual Education, teaches credential and graduate courses and works closely with beginning and experienced teachers in the field through her involvement in various projects. She serves as PI on a BTSA Induction Program and co-directs the Teacher Recruitment Project, which is dedicated to increasing the number of qualified mathematics and science teachers at all levels. Dr. Yopp writes and conducts research on topics of classroom teaching, including the use of informational books in literacy and content-area instruction. She taught fifth and sixth grades for ten years prior to joining the faculty at CSU Fullerton.
Monica Azimioara CATALYST Research Assistant: Monica Azimioara is a graduate of the CSU Fullerton MAT-S (Master of Arts in Teaching Science) program and holds a Ph.D. from the Science and Mathematics Education Centre at Curtin University in Perth, WA. She is a lecturer in the MAT-S program and a public school teacher of science and mathematics. Monica's experience includes 16 years teaching English language learners and gifted and talented students at the middle school level, as well as at-risk students at an alternative high school.