Dr. Kristina Vargo, Chair
Dr. Kristina Vargo is an Associate Professor of Special Education at Sam Houston State University. Dr. Vargo is also a Board Certified Behavior Analyst-Doctoral (BCBA-D) and a Licensed Behavior Analyst in the state of Texas. She earned her M.S. in Behavior Analysis and Therapy, and her Ph.D. in Rehabilitation, both from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. Dr. Vargo teaches courses within the Low Incidence Disabilities and Autism graduate program and the undergraduate minor in applied behavior analysis. Her research interests focus on the application of behavior analysis in educational settings, and she has published articles in journals including the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and the Journal of Behavioral Education.
Dr. Casey Creghan, Vice-Chair
Dr. Casey Creghan currently serves as a faculty member in the College of Education at Sam Houston State University. Dr. Creghan earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Texas State University and his doctorate in Educational Leadership is from Lamar University. Dr. Creghan has spent 24 years in Texas public schools serving in a variety of roles. Those roles include biology teacher, counselor, athletic director, principal, and as dean of students. Dr. Creghan joined SHSU as clinical professor nine years ago prior to moving into a tenure-track position, and now holds the rank of associate professor. Currently Dr. Creghan teaches Professional Roles and Responsibilities in the secondary education program and Educational Research in the graduate program. Dr. Creghan has authored numerous journal articles and has been awarded several state and national grants including 2 grants from the Library of Congress. This is Dr. Creghan's second year to serve on the board of the Charter School.
Dr. Baburhan Uzum, Member
Dr. Baburhan Uzum received his BA and MA degrees in English Language Teaching from Middle East Technical University in Turkey. He completed his doctoral degree in Second Language Studies at Michigan State University in 2013. Dr. Uzum taught English as a Second/Foreign language courses at various levels for more than 15 years and has been teaching multicultural education and second language acquisition courses to teacher candidates at Sam Houston State University's Bilingual/ESL program since 2013. Dr. Uzum's research interests include sheltered instruction of English language learners, discourse analysis, teacher intercultural competence, virtual intercultural exchange, second language teacher education, and interdisciplinary approaches to teaching and learning. Dr. Uzum has served at various capacities in the national organization of Teachers of English to the Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and is currently on the editorial board of various language teaching and learning journals. Dr. Uzum's current line of research investigates innovative ways to prepare teacher candidates to teach in linguistically and culturally diverse settings.
Mrs. Susie Kamman, Member
Mrs. Susie Kamman is a retired teacher who is currently volunteering as a mentor for pre-service teachers during their field experience semester. She graduated from Sam Houston State University with a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education with a Minor in English. She is certified in Elementary Self-Contained, Grades 1-8, Elementary English, Grades 1-8, and Second Language Supplemental, Grades 1-8. Mrs. Kamman taught in the Conroe Independent School District for 39 years and also taught 4 years at a Private Academy. During those years, she has been a mentor for many SHSU and Texas A&M student teachers. She has also been an ESL mentor for the Conroe Independent School District on several occasions. She had the privilege to pilot the Response to Intervention and Gifted and Talented Pilot programs for her school district. She is a Positive Discipline developer and presenter for classroom teachers. Mrs. Kamman helped to develop and present the SHSU Mentor Orientation Workshop to several school districts in the state of Texas.
Dr. Emma Bullock, Member
Emma Bullock, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education at Sam Houston State University. She was an elementary and middle school principal for five years and taught middle and high school mathematics for ten years prior to earning her doctorate. At SHSU she teaches undergraduate pre-service teacher mathematics content courses and graduate mathematics courses. She researches the design of, and teachers' use of, contextualized guided notes to increase mathematics vocabulary understanding, digital math games, and other visual mathematics representations and studies the intersection between student mathematics achievement and school leadership, modelling schools as complex adaptive systems (CAS). Recently, Dr. Bullock was the recipient of an Engaged Learning Fellowship (2021-2022), a 2020 Keys of Excellence Award from the SHSU Orange Key Ambassadors, the MMIRA/MAXQDA 2018 Award for Outstanding Dissertation Research, and the 2018 SERA Bruce Thompson Outstanding Paper Award and is an associate editor for School Science and Mathematics published by the School Science and Mathematics Association (SSMA). Furthermore, in the last two years, Dr. Bullock has been awarded an ORSP Strategic Support Grant, two COSET Undergraduate Research Awards, an SHSU Teaching Innovation Grant, two Mini-Assessment Grants, an Interdisciplinary Collaboration Grant, and a STEM Teaching Enhancement Grant. Dr. Bullock also serves as the Mathematics MA Coordinator for SHSU and enjoys mentoring and working with both undergraduate and graduate students in all aspects of her research, teaching, and service.