Susan Trostle Brand is a Professor of Early Childhood Education, Literacy, and Social Justice at the University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island. A former elementary school teacher and reading specialist, Dr. Brand earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education and English at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, her Master of Arts in Reading and Reading Specialist certification at West Virginia University, and her Doctor of Education degree and Administration and Play Therapy certifications from the Pennsylvania State University. Dr. Brand is the author or editor of four textbooks and the author of over 50 articles and book chapters. She has presented at numerous regional, national, and international sites including conferences and workshops in Costa Rica, Beijing, Lima, Western Kenya, and Oxford, England. In 2010 Dr. Brand received a University of Rhode Island Multicultural Center Diversity Award for her service and leadership to the campus. Dr. Brand recently served on the Executive Board of Kappa Delta Pi International Education Honor Society as Vice-President and President-Elect, and in 2017 Dr. Brand was the recipient of the Society’s Eleanor Roosevelt Lifetime Achievement Award. She has served as counselor of Kappa Delta Pi at the University of Rhode Island for the past 27 years. Dr. Brand also serves as the URI campus AmeriCorps JumpStart advisor. A strong advocate for social justice in schools and communities, Dr. Brand has served at her university as an AAUP Steward, on the President’s Commission for the Status of Women, and on the President’s Commission for LGBTQ. Dr. Brand resides in Exeter, Rhode Island.
Lori E. Ciccomascolo is a professor in the School of Education and Associate Vice President of Student Affairs and Student Success at the University of Rhode Island. She served as the former dean of URI’s Alan Shawn Feinstein College of Education and Professional Studies where she played a key role in the creation and transition of and strategic planning for the college, creating a more interconnected approach to curriculum, diversity, global partnerships, and research. Using her faculty and administrative experience, Dr. Ciccomascolo currently works on student success initiatives between the Divisions of Student Affairs and Academic Affairs and is one of the coordinators of URI's “Rhody First” First Generation Student program that includes students majoring in Education. Dr. Ciccomascolo collaborates with fellow School of Education faculty on research in the areas of health and education and best practices in diversity, leadership, and mentoring. A strong advocate for social justice, Dr. Ciccomascolo received the 2015 URI Multicultural Administrative Diversity Award given to an administrator for cultivating and sustaining a campus that embraces and respects diversity. In addition to her research and teaching, Dr. Ciccomascolo is a member of the URI team partnering with the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities’ Transformation Cluster Initiative in sharing and analyzing data across other land-grant institutions to help eliminate the achievement gap and increase degree persistence and completion.