Our Team
Taryn T.C. Brown
Dr. Brown is an Assistant Professor in the Teachers, Schools, and Society program and the Program Coordinator for the Schools, Society and Policy Specialization in Education Sciences at the University of Florida. Her program of research has three major foci: the intersection of gender, race, and class in the lives of Black women and girls in and out of school settings; amplifying Black women and girls’ voices in prevention science; and the role parents, schools, and communities play in Black girls’ socialization, literacies, and identity construction. With research at the nexus of Black girlhood Studies and Black feminist thought, her work leverages various theoretical foundations (e.g., Black feminist theory, ecological systems theory; Black girl literacies; and Black girl cartography) and critical qualitative methodologies (e.g. youth participatory action research; photovoice; and photo elicitation). As a scholar-practitioner, her scholarship aims to amplify equity-centered pedagogies in teaching and learning. She is the founder of the Black Girlhood Collaborative, a collective space for research, teaching, and learning in Black girlhood.
Chonika Coleman-King
Sophia De La Cruz is a 2023 Student Leader Intern at Akwaaba Freedom School from Lakeland, Florida, where she grew up in a family of several teachers. Her mom is a teacher who recently founded a bilingual Montessori school, “Mi Escuela Montessori” in Polk County, and her dad is an entrepreneur, successful business-owner and immigrant from the Dominican Republic. Her parents cultivated her passions for civil rights and educational equity, and she is currently pursuing a career in public service and legal advocacy, through which she hopes to combine her passions for education and foreign policy to internationalize and improve the quality of education in the U.S. and internationally. Sophia has worked with Akwaaba Freedom School since fall of 2021, and has helped earned $5,000 in grants for AFS research and enrichment trips through the Bob Graham Center for Public Service and Brown Center for Leadership and Service at UF. She has over 7 years of experience with mentorship and tutoring, as well as experience teaching English as a Language Assistant—or an English teacher—at UF’s English Language Institute, and leading regular workshops and trips at Pace Center for Girls of Alachua. She is excited to serve as an SLI during the summer to mentor and learn from 2023 scholars, and share her love for reading, language and global education.
Maya Israel
Maya Israel, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Educational Technology and Computer Science Education in the School of Teaching and Learning at the University of Florida. She is the Director of both CSEveryone: The Kenneth C. Griffin CS for All Education initiative and the Creative Technology Research Lab. Dr. Israel’s research focuses on K-12 computer science teacher education and strategies for supporting students with disabilities and other struggling learners’ meaningful engagement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) with emphases on computational thinking, computer science education, and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). She is currently PI on two NSF projects focused on pedagogical approaches that support all students in successfully accessing computing instruction. Her work is interdisciplinary and involves collaboration with researchers, teachers, and other school leaders.
Leela Kumaran
Dr. Leela Kumaran is a Research Coordinator with the School of Teaching and Learning. She has managed state and federally funded projects across different schools totaling over $25 million in the 14 years that she has worked with the College of Education. Dr. Kumaran’s doctoral degree in Biology is from India and she also holds a Masters’ degree in Educational Administration from the University of Hawaii. Her prior experiences as faculty and administrator in other institutions in the USA and abroad, and the wide variety of administrative roles that she has served in the College of Education, UF bring an informed and unique perspective to planning the activities of the Center.