About the Leadership Group

Adam Howard

Conference Chair and Editor of JCT
ahoward (at) jctonline.org
Adam’s Website

Adam earned his doctorate at the University of Cincinnati, masters at Harvard Graduate School of Education, and bachelor’s degree at Berea College. He is currently an Associate Professor of Education at Colby College. For the past five years, he also has held a position on the national faculty of Lesley University Graduate School of Education. Before his current position at Colby, he taught at Antioch College for seven years, where he held the positions of Director of Teacher Education, Associate Professor of Education, and Associate Dean of Faculty. He also taught at Hanover College for three years. Prior to teaching at the college level, he taught high school English and history and directed a non-profit organization designed to provide academic support to disadvantaged middle school students while encouraging high school and college students to consider a teaching career path. Adam has published numerous articles and papers on social class issues in education, privilege, service-learning, and curriculum theory. He is co-editor of Handbook of Research on Cooperative Education and Internships and author of Learning Privilege: Lessons of Power and Identity in Affluent Schooling. He is currently working on a book with Rubén Gaztambide-Fernández, tentatively titled Educating Elites: Class Privilege and Educational Advantage in the United States.

Greg Dimitriadis

Conference Leadership Member and Associate Editor of JCT
gdimitriadis (at) jctonline.org
Greg’s Website

Greg is Professor in the Educational Leadership and Policy Department at University of Buffalo, State University of New York. His work has appeared in numerous books as well as journals including Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Anthropology and Education Quarterly, Journal of Sociology of Education, Cultural Studies / Critical Methodologies, Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, Educational Theory, Popular Music, Qualitative Inquiry, Teachers College Record, and Theory and Research in Social Education. He is the author of Performing Identity/Performing Culture: Hip Hop as Text, Pedagogy, and Lived Practice (Peter Lang), Friendship, Cliques, and Gangs: Young Black Men Coming of Age in Urban America (Teachers College Press), and Studying Urban Youth Culture (Peter Lang). He is co-author of Reading and Teaching the Postcolonial: From Baldwin to Basquiat and Beyond (Teachers College Press), On Qualitative Inquiry (Teachers College Press), and Theory for Education (Routledge). He is co-editor of Promises to Keep: Cultural Studies, Democratic Education, and Public Life (Routledge), Learning to Labor in New Times (Routledge), Race, Identity, and Representation in Education (Second Edition) (Routledge), and Ideology, Curriculum, and the New Sociology of Education (Routledge). He edits the book series Critical Youth Studies, published by Routledge. He is also a member of the SUNY Press editorial board, where he is now serving his second three-year term. Greg is current president of Musicians United for Superior Education, Inc. (MUSE, Inc.). A non-profit organization, MUSE, Inc. provides performance-based arts instruction for hundreds of children in community centers and schools throughout Buffalo. In addition, he is a former member of the Board of Trustees of the Elmwood Village Charter School, new charter school that emphasizes small class size, arts integration, and social responsibility.

Roland Mitchell

Conference Leadership Member
rmitchell (at) jctonline.org
Roland’s Website

Roland Mitchell is Assistant Professor of Higher Education and Women’s and Gender Studies at Louisiana State University. He received his Ph.D. from The University of Alabama in Educational Research. Dr. Mitchell has published in numerous education journals including The Journal of Negro Education, The International Journal of Education and the Arts, Journal of Excellence in College Teaching, and The Review of Higher Education. Dr. Mitchell provides consulting services to K-12 schools, not-for-profits, and universities on multicultural issues. He is currently at work on his first book entitled Racing Higher Education: Representations and Refractions of Race in College Classrooms for Information Age Publishing.

Jennifer Milam

Conference Leadership Member
jmilam (at) jctonline.org

Jennifer Milam is Assistant Professor of Elementary/Middle Level Curriculum at the University of Akron. She received her Ph.D. from Texas A & M University in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus in Curriculum and Cultural Studies in 2008. Her research explores the intersections of race and culture in the classroom, specifically among White teachers and African American students.  She is a qualitative researcher and is particularly interested in the translation and (re)presentation of curriculum theory in/to classroom practice. Dr. Milam has published articles in Curriculum Inquiry and the Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy. Her most recent work includes a co-authored chapter in the Handbook of Public Pedagogy (Sandlin, J.A., Burdick, S.J., & Schultz, B., Eds.) and a chapter in Transforming Teacher Education: What Went Wrong with Teacher Training and How We Can Fix It (Hill-Jackson, V. and Lewis, C., Eds). Dr. Milam works in schools as a consultant and instructional coach. Most notably, Dr. Milam has been named the 2010 Outstanding Alumni – Early Career Honoree from Texas A&M University.

Lori Stone Sirtosky

Director of Communications & President of the Foundation for Curriculum Theory
lsirtosky (at) jctonline.org

Lori is a community organizer, photographer, web developer, and information technology project manager. She is excited to serve as the President of the Foundation for Curriculum Theory. After earning a Bachelors in English and completing a portion of a Masters in Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana, she worked for the National Council of Teachers of English as the staff liaison to the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC). She then switched her focus to information technology and pursued a career in computer consulting. After working for over a decade as an application developer and information technology project manager, Lori has returned to her curriculum roots. She is currently a graduate student at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis (IUPUI) working to complete her Masters in Education. She is also pursuing a teaching certificate in secondary education for English language arts.

Omar C. Haddad

Layout Editor of JCT and Secretary of the Foundation for Curriculum Theory

Omar is a registered nurse by day and mini-publishing company by night. He brings business experience to his work with JCT Online including owning and managing a restaurant, promoting concerts, and running a youth venue/community gathering place. In the 1990′s Omar was named by NUVO, the Indianapolis alternative newspaper, as the godfather of the youth underground.